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Taken with a 70-200mm F/4L IS USM Lens. ISO 200, 200mm, 1/400, F/10, Aperture Priority.
One great tool in capturing beautiful live actions shots is anticipation. A good knowledge of your subjects behavior can greatly help you capture amazing photos. When you learned how and when your subject will do sorts of things you can anticipate their every move.
This of course requires patience, practice and a lot of shooting, and as you progress you will to anticipate your subjects every moved.
Anticipation, combined with great choice of background will help you create amazing photos.
Taken with a 70-200mm F/4L IS USM Lens. ISO 200, 200mm, 1/400, F/10, Aperture Priority.
Taken with a 70-200mm F/4L IS USM Lens. ISO 400, 200mm, 1/200, F/4, Aperture Priority.
Photographing wildlife at the local zoo can be really fun and exciting and at the same time challenging and frustrating. Why? First off at the zoo photographers have to overcome some barriers and obstructions that limits the photographers ability to capture the subject and the scene at it’s bests. Examples of such obstructions are fences, animal tags, buildings, cages, concrete floors and the one thing I hate most, glass cages.
To capture the beauty of wildlife in the zoo, I always look for a story on every photograph I make. Let’s take for example the photo above titled Caring for the Young, it’s not just a photo of a flamingo feeding her chick, it tells a story how all living creatures cares for it’s love ones most especially their siblings. For me the photo is beautiful and also conveys an emotional attachment to the viewer.
So which one should you get, the IS or the Non IS version of the famous EF 70-200mm F/4L USM Lens, I myself was in this situation. And to complicate things more, there’s still the EF 70-300 F/4-5.6 IS USM which also offers great image quality coupled with more reach for a much lower price. Thank goodness the newer EF 70-300mm F/4-5.6L IS USM was not yet around during those times.
Canon EOS 40D with Canon EF 70-200mm F/4L IS USM Lens. ISO 500, 200mm, 1/200, F/6.3, manual exposure.
Anyway, to answer the question, which of the two 70-200mm F/4L USM lens should you pick? Is the addition of IS really justifies the high price? In my opinion, yes, the IS has more glass compare to the non IS, and because it has IS, it offers an additional four stops of shake correction. Because of this IS version is handholdable in low light just like 70-200mm F/2.8L IS. Another great feature of the IS version which is not present in the Non IS, is the weather sealing protection. Other than these mentioned features, both lenses have excellent image quality, build quality of both lenses are great, it all boils down to what you really need and to what you can afford. I went with the IS version and I’m really happy with it’s performance. Why did I choose it over the Non IS, it’s because I use it mostly handheld, and I feel that IS will really help me capture better pictures(great for coffee drinkers like me). If you will use this mostly on a tripod or a monopod I would go with the Non IS version.
I also use the Canon EF 70-200mm F/4L IS USM Lens and Canon EOS 60D for sports photography. ISO 1000, 200mm, 1/250, F/4, shutter priority.
I also got some questions why I choose the EF 70-200mm F/4L IS over the F/2.8 L IS version, the fast F/2.8 aperture is certainly nice to have, but I felt that for my needs the F/4 was enough, I also considered the price, weight and the size of the two lenses, the F/2.8 L is more expensive, bigger and heavier, I use my F/4L regularly and it’s really comfortable especially if I’m going to shoot for long periods of time. I also took into considerations the advancement in technology, newer canon camera bodies now sports a higher ISO’s that are way better compare to those camera bodies release 2 or three years ago, the F/4, combined with the 4 stop IS and high ISO, I can get the photos I needed, and for low light, I can rely on my Canon EF 85mm F/1.8, Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 and my Tamron AF 28-75mm F/2.8 SP.
Canon EF 70-200mm F/4L IS USM Lens perfect for daytime outdoor events. ISO 100, 200mm, 1/500, F/4, aperture priority.
In the event that I really need an F/2.8 on a 70-200mm range for an important work, I won’t hesitate to buy one or I can easily rent it from places like Borrowlenses.com.
Get the Canon EF 70-200mm F/4L IS USM from:
Amazon
Get the Canon EF 70-200mm F/4L USM from:
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Rain can be fun and exciting especially if you are thinking of macro photography. That’s just what I did last Thursday. It was raining all morning and the moment the rain eased down, I went outside for some snapshots. At first I was overwhelm, but when I saw the droplets of water decorating the grass I was excited and couldn’t wait to have it photograph. It was really an amazing scene. Armed with my EOS 60d, EF 85mm F/1.8, a pro optic extension tube and my 430 EX II flash, I managed to create some excellent photos of water droplets. You can view them on my gallery here and here.
I used my 430 EX II flash to light the subject off camera mounted on a , because even though it was day time, there isn’t enough ambient light to illuminate the grass, first it was really dark and cloudy, and I was shooting at between f/9 and f/11. I cannot set my aperture to wider than f/8 because it will give me a very shallow depth of field and would be really hard to focus. Thanks to the canon eos 60d’s ability to control external flash remotely using it’s built-in flash, I was able to light my subject without any hassle I didn’t use a tripod or a monopod with this photos, i brought some rubber mats with me so I can crawl down on my belly and really go down for a close-up shot.
Camera Gear:
Here it is, finally, Part II of my affordable holiday gift suggestions for photographers. Gifts for less than $50.00. Sometimes it’s kinda hard for our loved ones who are non photographer to find the suitable gifts for us, so here are some affordable suggestions. Some of these are also on my lists (^_^).
In case you missed Part 1. It’s here.
- Op/Tech 18″ SLR Rainsleeve for Digital & Film Cameras with Lenses up to 7″ Diameter, 18″ Long
– $4.19 – Protects your gear from dust and inclement weather; - Opteka SR-90 Universal 8″ X 10.5″ Snoot & Reflector for External Camera Flashes
– $12.95 – Just like the “>Honl brand, but way cheaper. – As a reflector, it can be used to bounce and scatter the light output of a flash unit, to provide a more pleasing and even exposure. As a snoot, it will concentrate the light output from the flash into a much tighter beam, producing a dramatic cinematic lighting effect.
- This one is great, very much like the Lumiquest Promax which cost 50% more. This Opteka FS-80 Universal Flash Modification System with Gold, Silver, & White Inserts
– $19.95 – Opteka FS-80 Flash System allows 80% of the light to bounce off the ceiling while 20% is redirected forward as fill light. The system includes interchangeable white, gold and silver inserts as well as a removable frosted diffusion screen.
- Manfrotto 175F1 Spring Grip Clamp with Attached Flash Shoe. – $45.95
- Tamrac TR406 ZipShot Compact Ultra-Light Instant Tripod
– $43.95 – This Clamp has a positionable miniature ball head with a plastic flash shoe attachment to allow it to clip and position a flash unit wherever it is needed without shorting out the flash. Flexible in application and suitable for every kind of surface
- 43″ 110CM Round Multi Disc Light Reflector! Portable, 5 in 1: Translucent, Silver, Gold, White, and Black! Collapsible! Perfect for Studio or any Photography Situation!
– $16.69 – This 5 in 1 collapsible reflector disc Comes with translucent, silver, gold, white, and black five most popular surfaces. Packs into a zip packet. Folds into 15″ carry pouch for easy to carry, durable and flexible steel spring frame insures easy spreading and closing. This reflector fits any standard reflector holders.
So there you go. Affordable gift ideas for your photographer love ones. Thanks.
Yeap, only $5.00. That’s assuming you have all the materials needed, like the box, the garbage bag, poster boards etc. I was looking for some cheap chinese made light tents on ebay but they still cost around $30 a set, so I said to myself, why not make one, and here’s what I came up.
List of Materials:
- Box -18 x 16 x 18. The size depends on what you’ll need it for and with what you have.
- Tracing paper or White Garbage bag. I didn’t have a tracing paper so I tried a Glad WHite Garbage bag. Diffuses great.
- Poster boards, I got a 5 pack assorted color from Walmart for $2.57 and a separate black poster board only .54 . This is the only thing that I bought for the project.
- Transparent or white packaging tape.
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Yes, it’s true. If you are serious about macro insect photography there are times that you will need a lot of patience and a lot of practice with your gear. Because insects / bugs move quite a lot, you will have a hard time getting them in focus, unless your insect subject stay still until you are done. In photographing insects here’s what I do:
- Practice a lot with my gear.
- I bring some snack and water.(^_^)
- Find the right spot.
- Wait patiently.
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Having a good and efficient workflow can greatly help speed up your work and spend more time shooting less time in front of the computer. This workflow is what I always use, since I started in Digital Photography and it works for me. Here it is:
- A day Before the shoot.
- Charge all batteries – Camera Batteries, Flash Batteries, Backup Batteries, Sansa Music Player
- Make sure all cameras are working
- Reset camera to base configuration – ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, White Ballance, you don’t want to be shooting all day with an ISO of 1600 or with your white balance set to Tungsten. Set it to your base config.
- Format all Memory Cards on Camera. I never format my CF and SD Cards on the computer.
- Make sure all lenses are clean.
- Prepare and Pack your gear bags
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Taken handheld. Flash Off Camera slightly to my left.
When I started doing macro I struggle a lot and didn’t really know what was missing , until I realized, “Light”, lots and lots of light. And after this, everything became easy, thanks to my handy Canon 430 EXII flash and my Demb Diffuser Pro. The idea is to let the flash improved the quality of light . This is especially helpful if you are photographing insects or bugs, that are hiding in trees, under the leaves or crawling on the ground. I didn’t realized this at first, I used to carry around my tripod every time I do macro, but not my flash. Now, I don’t use my tripod often when I’m doing macro, and now I have my lightstand, and my flash with me all the time when I’m doing macro. Using the Flash off Camera is a good way to light your macro subjects and this will give you great flexibility provided, you have the room and time to setup, if not using the flash on camera with the right diffuser, works just as well.
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There has been a lot of discussion about this topic and my answer, again, is of course, it depends on your budget. Close-up filters are generally cheaper compare to extension tubes and extension tubes are cheaper compare to true Macro Lenses. What’s the difference between the two?
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