Daily Marcus's 365 Challenge

Day 19: "Axel - Pastel Royal Python"

They say never work with children or animals so today I put aside those rules and decided to try and take a shot of one of my x11 snakes.. This is the youngest of our snakes Axel whos a Royal Python. I had hoped being a ball python he'd curl up nice and snug on my setup and allow me to take my shots nice and easy - needless to say he wriggled around all over the place and made it as difficult as possible for me to get the shot I wanted.. :LOL:

Fairly happy with this one although maybe I could have increased the f-stop slightly to get all of his body in focus.. :thinking:

Still this was the best of the bunch I think (y)


Axel - Pastel Royal Python by XFile2708, on Flickr
 
kennysarmy said:
Good luck with Movember, like the chess shot, personally I would have added a bit more contrast to give it a bit of punch....
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Im not actually doing Movember this year - I have done it before though (y)

Fair point about the chess shot - I think Les's point of lower down and your point of the contrast are both spot on.. its all a learning experience for me and feedback like this is invaluable so thank you (y)
 
Sorry I've not popped in for a while - particularly like the Movember set up and the chess pieces.

Your python is rather beautiful too - he looks very young.
 
Sonriendo said:
Sorry I've not popped in for a while - particularly like the Movember set up and the chess pieces.

Your python is rather beautiful too - he looks very young.
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Thanks Sarah - yes the Pastel Royal Python is only about 4mths old - thought he'd sit still a little easier than some of the older larger ones - needless to say he had other ideas :LOL:
 
The snake shot in the light box was great. Liking the spider pic, you can even see the hairs on its legs...good work!
 
Claira said:
Love the street art pic, I too like street art :)
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Yes when its done well its superb - great to have a local street artist to us here (y)

Claira said:
The snake shot in the light box was great. Liking the spider pic, you can even see the hairs on its legs...good work!
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Thanks hun - the snake shot wasn't using the lightbox as its quite a small box so he wouldn't have fit it safely - it was just using some loose black card for the base and background and then the cameras flash to stop there being shadows on the card.. (y)
 
Day 20: "Viola Cassis"

Something outdoors today - took this using the advise I've seen across the forums of not placing all shots centrally.

Fairly happy with the shot - had to crop from the original slightly as a leaf had crept partly into focus at the bottom and drew my eye frustratingly.. :LOL:


Viola Cassis by XFile2708, on Flickr
 
Nice colours, but it doesn't look as sharp as some of your other shots.
 
Sonriendo said:
Nice colours, but it doesn't look as sharp as some of your other shots.
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I'm not sure to be honest Sarah - I used my 30mm Macro Lens and shot at F5.6 to try and get a good out of focus background - maybe I should have stuck to using the kit lens for this shot..?

I'm still trying to get my head around when to use each of the x4 lenses I've got - I guess its something that'll come with experience of using them all around different scenarios (y)
 
vince31 said:
Very nice Marcus , I would like to see a bit tighter crop on the left hand side , great focal point and crisp colours
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Thanks Vince - I did wonder whether to crop the left side around the 'G' of the 'Photography' wording but didn't want to make it look to unbalanced with me specifically wanting to show the focus on the right side of the image... if that makes sense? :thinking:

:LOL:
 
OK so, you asked for critique, brace yourself :LOL:

Good exposure & nice light, a nice choice of colours too. It's a bold try on a fairly standard selective focus shot and not a bad starting point but if you are going to nail this kind of shot then you could do with a few pointers I think.

It is rather soft, f5.6 on a close up gives an amazingly shallow depth of field (its a ratio not a set depth, so the closer you get the thinner the in focus bit is) but to be honest I don't see a single bit that is truly sharp. I think it's motion blur. Outside the wind can work against you, a faster shutter speed or a pop of fill flash might have helped.

The composition is very unbalanced, it rarely works when the subject is looking out of the frame, somehow we look behind it for the point of interest and... there's nothing there :(
Next time try a couple with your subject leaning in to the middle of the frame - if it's leaning that is! - see if it works better for you.

The background is perfectly out of focus - you can still make out what's there which I really like - BUT, I can still see the door frame is not vertical, which is one of my pet peeves.

Of course all of this is subjective, please bear in mind that I am trying to help and ultimately that you are free to ignore my critique and advice. I'm not the best photographer in the world, or the worst. ;)
 
Brian_of_Bozeat said:
OK so, you asked for critique, brace yourself :LOL:

Good exposure & nice light, a nice choice of colours too. It's a bold try on a fairly standard selective focus shot and not a bad starting point but if you are going to nail this kind of shot then you could do with a few pointers I think.

It is rather soft, f5.6 on a close up gives an amazingly shallow depth of field (its a ratio not a set depth, so the closer you get the thinner the in focus bit is) but to be honest I don't see a single bit that is truly sharp. I think it's motion blur. Outside the wind can work against you, a faster shutter speed or a pop of fill flash might have helped.

The composition is very unbalanced, it rarely works when the subject is looking out of the frame, somehow we look behind it for the point of interest and... there's nothing there :(
Next time try a couple with your subject leaning in to the middle of the frame - if it's leaning that is! - see if it works better for you.

The background is perfectly out of focus - you can still make out what's there which I really like - BUT, I can still see the door frame is not vertical, which is one of my pet peeves.

Of course all of this is subjective, please bear in mind that I am trying to help and ultimately that you are free to ignore my critique and advice. I'm not the best photographer in the world, or the worst. ;)
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No offense taken at all Brian - I've only been self-teaching myself since the New Year and am looking to learn and improve all the time.

There was a breeze today whilst I was taking the picture - I did try to provide cover so's to keep things as sharp as possible with no blurring but as both yourself and Sarah have commented on the sharpness then its something I'll have to bear in mind for next time - that mental checklist of things to remember for a shot is ever growing :LOL:

Thanks for taking the time to comment matey - as I've said many a time its a big learning curve for me this year so any comments are taken positively and are appreciated (y)
 
Day 21: "Christmas Cactus"

Took everybodies comments on-board about yesterdays picture and threw myself straight back in at the deep end with another flower shot :)

I'm a lot happier with this one - had a much higher f-stop this around and used the tripod and self-timer.. let me know if you think this is an improvement (y)


African Violet by XFile2708, on Flickr
 
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Too many distracting background elements for me Marcus.
Some harsh shadows and the clipping of the petals bugs me.
Kudos to you for jumping back in at the deep end! (y) Keep at it!
 
Thanks Vince - im struggling to get my head around F-Stops with flower photography - some articles say it needs to be F18-F22 others say F5.6..

I know F5.6 will throw out the background much more but by doing that I'll also lose detail in the flower as well won't I? :thinking:

There's also confusion over lenses - again some people say macro - others say Kit Lens... is there a right and wrong answer to these questions? :LOL:
 
Marcus, You nailed that focus 100%. Just been to flickr to see the full res and even the little hairs are pin sharp. :clap:

fwiw: I think I might have gone for a square crop on this one, and others have said, clipping the ends of the petals is a bit of a put off for most people.

With that said, I still think you should consider this a big improvement. Well done.

PS. Sarah Brook is an expert on flowers, I would highly recommend having a look through her flickr stream for some inspiration.
 
Brian_of_Bozeat said:
Marcus, You nailed that focus 100%. Just been to flickr to see the full res and even the little hairs are pin sharp. :clap:

fwiw: I think I might have gone for a square crop on this one, and others have said, clipping the ends of the petals is a bit of a put off for most people.

With that said, I still think you should consider this a big improvement. Well done.

PS. Sarah Brook is an expert on flowers, I would highly recommend having a look through her flickr stream for some inspiration.
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Thats good to hear Brian - I've been reading some tutorials online and experimenting with different settings to see what works best.. as mentioned earlier i'm still struggling to suss out where its best to use my different lenses - I know it'll all come over time and with experience - so I'll keep at things and hopefully over the course of this 365 challenge I'll be able to look back and see a definate improvement with my shots as time goes on (y)
 
Sorry to let you down guys but I'm going to leave this for the time being or drop to the 52 week challenge.. Got a lot of family problems going on at the moment so haven't got the drive to pickup the camera every day for the moment and see this through.

I'll hopefully look to do the 52 week challenge through this thread so would love for you guys to remain subscribed and comment further when I post more pics (y)
 
XFile2708 said:
Sorry to let you down guys but I'm going to leave this for the time being or drop to the 52 week challenge.. Got a lot of family problems going on at the moment so haven't got the drive to pickup the camera every day for the moment and see this through. I'll hopefully look to do the 52 week challenge through this thread so would love for you guys to remain subscribed and comment further when I post more pics (y)
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Sorry to hear that mate! Hope everything sorts itself out, will of course stay subscribed.
 
XFile2708 said:
Sorry to let you down guys but I'm going to leave this for the time being or drop to the 52 week challenge.. Got a lot of family problems going on at the moment so haven't got the drive to pickup the camera every day for the moment and see this through.

I'll hopefully look to do the 52 week challenge through this thread so would love for you guys to remain subscribed and comment further when I post more pics (y)
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Gutted Marcus , really am ..............keep us posted buddy (y)
 
vince31 said:
Gutted Marcus , really am ..............keep us posted buddy (y)
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So am I matey - was really enjoying the challenge but theres a lot going on this side at the minute that means I cannot focus on this daily and do the challenge justice.. I'll definately look to continue doing something though via this thread as the interaction and comments from you guys has been spot on and something thats helped me a lot (y)
 
whipspeed said:
Sorry to hear that Marcus & sorry I've not been on here as much as I'd like. But I will keep subscribed to see how you get on & as I've said, any help with flower stuff, just drop me a line either on here, flickr or facebook.
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Thanks Sarah - I'll definately be carrying on with something and will be in touch for some tips and advise on the flowers still life (y)

kennysarmy said:
The 365 challenge is such a big committment but family matters should always come first.
Those who do finish the 365 this year deserve big kudos...
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Massive kudos to them matey - its definately a tough challenge but one I'll look to revisit later on when situations allow :)
 
Really sorry to hear this Marcus, I've been enjoying your posts.

You've got your priorities right though, hope you are able to get back to photography soon.
 
Thought I'd stop by and say hello and hope you've all been having a good christmas :)

Things have been on the up this side (touch wood) so I'm hoping to be back in the New Year maybe with the '52' challenge (y)

In the meantime I've been trying to get back into the routine of using my camera again regularly and thought I'd snap a pic of the x2 Dwarf Boas im breeding with this year - after seeing Vince's pic entitled 'Lovers' this follows a similar fashion lol


Lovers by XFile2708, on Flickr
 
Looks like a great start to your 365 really like the first image days 12, 13, 15, and 16 stood out for me, I did have to brace myself for the snake images I am a bit scared off them :exit:I have enjoyed looking through them. Keep up the good work look forward to following your progress.
 
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