Bibliographies and conclusion.

The posting of the OCA courses and class work, On this blog, is showing in reverse order. So please scroll to the bottom of the page to view the first section of the course. Thank you.



Books That I have read that I do not often refer too. They give me inspiration. I do not take the same view of With the fast growing increase of photographers, with web sites and blogs. e nooks and the flooding book and magazine on the market today. Looking at there work as it is.  Would not truly develop my own personality in my work. And due to the volume , Un like 30 years ago. Its now harder to separate, Style.

Log book conclusion.

It seem that photography will always be with me. as for the three talents that came together back in the 70s My three dreams, scuba diver, Martial arts instructor. What brought the latter together, My foundation that I was told I could never do at school. (Photography). As much as I like using digital SLR. I still miss using medium format cameras.
After completing the last assignment.  I decided to go to work on printing my work. That I found here in Kotakinabalu Malaysia, a printing company that printed for professionals. At a very affordable price. & R about £140 for a 10x 15 /11x14 inch.

I was amazed how even my earliest work, taken on a 3.5 MP camera produced amazing 11x14 prints.  And some wild life photos that I thought would not print well, did so. from the 350d I had 8MP taken at 800 iSO, By using what I have learnt in this course, the road that I have picked up tips and other skills on the way. From researching the internet. and reading books. Watching U tube, Linking with Linkedin with many other photographers web sites round the world.
This has helped me to become a little critical to what is or not so good , I am not sure if I have built a style in my work yet.
The most loved of all, My tutor dearly pointed out. WILD LIFE photography.
Perhaps I could produce some books or do work for national geographic. That would be my ultimate dream come true.
My task now before taking the next course. Is to place my work into Libraries to sell. If they are what the world wants?

Assignment 5personal project 2 final.

Birds in the tree.

I love nature photography. Sometimes so often, we take for granted , what is there, And what may be gone tomorrow.

I will start by displaying images of some of the birds that visit this tree.
But first, the fate of the tree.
This tree bears many seeds. I was so happy when I moved into the apartments. To see a tree outside of my window. I have always wanted a tree outside of my window. My first 3 weeks , I started to photograph the birds in the tree, hoping to capture the nest. But the tree was too high. Then one day, by ignorance off the gardener, the whole tree was cut down, to a 3 foot stump. Lucky for the tree, it has good strong roots. As time went by, the tree grew again and the birds came back. Months went past. Different birds; Parent s and young, they all came to the tree to feed. One morning, I felt bad vibes in the air, a feeling that the tree was going to be no more. So I wrote a big sign, out of tough paper, wrapped it around the tree, with tape in a plastic bag. "DO NOT CUT DOWN"  But the locals may not read or understand  English, I thought. As I looked in the Palm tree, by my bedroom window. 

I noticed  a Bulbuls bird had rested on the hanging leaves. local name Parparok

Looking at the tree through the window, I saw, one of the parent birds flying from the seed tree to the palm.  I wondered why she perched there.  I took a look, WOW! there they were! Two baby chicks in a small nest.  I set up my camera fast, 400mm lens and Gorilla pod, so the camera hung from the security bars, on the window, looking right into the nest.
I eagerly got to work, stills and filming, checking what I could I shoot. On the lowest ISO and still get crisp pictures, as the parents fed and sheltered the baby birds.
On my first day of shooting, I saw this straw hat , move under the window, Oh my god I said, loudly.  As I watched the gardener move towards the seed tree, as he clears the  long grass. He looked around him.. And Hack. ! "My tree"!

I shouted so loud, Hoy !! NO! . My voice went rough, He looked at me with a discerning glare. "No he said" , No I said. . I took my camera body of the lens , covering the front, ran down the stairs  to show him the birds in the tree. He realised what’s there and apologised. “Sorry, ok ! Ok!  No chop. No Chop”.

Second day,
I noticed 3 cigarette ends in the tree, by the nest. Second evening, at dusk, I drew back the curtains. Opened the window, and watched the nesting bird. There I sat watching them  against the darkening sky.
As I did, a lit cigarette but hit the nest and rolled off the tree. Again I shout, “Don't throw out the window!”
Its so bad , people do not care what they are doing to nature, and the environment. They only think of themselves.




Now the 10-12  photographs:
These are what I picked out of 9 days shooting. From morning sun rise to night fall. 

Baby Bulbuls PIX: 3

ISo 2500 low light 500th sec F 5.6 400mm 7d Dec 6th

Hungry mouths: their weak little bodies find energy to open up wide for mother and father to feed them . Their mouths shake rapidly, flashing their big red orange mouths.

Pix: 4

ISO 3200 1/400th sec f7.1 Dec 6th

The couple, when mate. Mate for life, and work together bringing up their young. 

Pix: 5 Both male and female.

ISO 640  1/250 th sec f6.3 dec 6th 400 mm
From cold cloudy weather, and then hot sun, feeding all day long, to sleep at night in tropical storms. The Bulbuls birds never stop working.


Pix: 6 The Male with food. 

ISO 200 1/100sec F10 400 mm  TV mode dec 8th

The male again working together with the female, taking turns to watch over the nest. As they do, they clean the nest and the baby birds too.

Pix: 7

                                ISO 200 1/100sec F10 400 mm  TV mode Dec 8th 

 Sometimes the food looks so big, and it is passed from baby to baby until one of them consume the offering.

Pix 8: The female Bulbuls

ISO 200 1/100sec F5.6 400 mm  TV mode Dec 8th 

   
The babies are constantly being fed, several time to gain weight in a day. So it’s hands on and hard work for the parents. Making sure the diet is mixed, with seeds, berries and insects. Only at night they get to rest.

When it’s raining, cool winds or the when the sun shine through. The suns heat may be a threat, They will sit by or on the nest. Taking turns to find food for the chicks. At tis time of year from November to december. its the rainy season.

Night time, and in the rain, one of the parents covers the nest, and tucks their head in for the rough night a head. 

Pix: 9

ISO 200 1/100sec F5.6 400 mm  TV mode Dec 8th  With Flash 

9 days later after heavy rain and winds. The birds over each night, take on a transformation in growth. Day 2 their eyes start to open. Day 4 they look out of the nest.  Day 5, fluffy down, Day 6, The quills strengthen.  Day 7 They have feathers with day 8 spent pruning and prepping, Day 9 Parents prepping for take off.

With baby birds Anxious to get going. They have found voice and wings. With a blink of the eye . They jump from the nest or fall. Flight become there natural instinct to fly. Aided by the parent bird edging them on.

14th Dec The first baby flew in the morning. I had not noticed , As at the time I checked my e mails and made coffee. returning to the window. A shock . Only one baby bird? Not knowing where the baby had gone. Only seeing one in the nest. I looked to the ground. Knowing I should not interfere. I feared the cat that roamed near by, may had been waiting.

I went down stares to take a look in the long grass. The parent birds came to me close. I still could not see the baby. And as I turned. There with father looking over. Close to me, on the fence. was the baby bird. Looking right at me. If to say, I made it, I am ok. They then flew off to another distant tree.

The Whole day I filmed, photographing the remaining baby, I was not going to miss this flight.

Trees swaying, rain and then sun, as a gale blew up. I thought the wind would blow the baby out of the nest. An hour before dark. I almost gave up.

3 or 4 times , I thought the moment had come. But nothing.

As all this commotion,  tension  built up. As the day went on.

A thought came to me!

What if the battery or card reached its limit, just at the critical moment?

So, mid day, as the the wind settled. The baby bird sat back in the nest. Mother rested on top, fluffing feathers to keep the nest cool. Panting to cool her self. As birds do not sweat. I quickly changed the battery and card. Putting the other battery on charge.

Pix: 10

ISO 640 1/60 sec F22
Normally I like to keep a shallow depth of field.
here I wanted to get full depth of the baby ready to fly, being cooled by mother bird. 14th Dec

Then in a flash! After mother bird gave the baby its last nesting meal. Feathers shaking in excitement, Anxious to go. With a jump  off the edge of the nest. Panic, as the baby clutched to the long leaves . Wings flapping, feeling the air. Parents making a noise in encouragement. Then; The rest is History.

Now just an empty nest.

Pix:11                            

ISO 640 1/100 sec f 5   115 mm 14 Dec 

Pix: 12

This last picture. I took from the HDV Video I took. In aperture. I took a frame converter in J peg. Up loaded it to PS CS3 . enhanced re sized.

My Brief and photographers statement.

Nature photography may be one of the most loved yet challenging subjects. Yet where ever I go with my camera. Wild life is there to be captured.

I love photographing nature and events. When I am taking pictures, I hear  a  narrator in my head, as I take each picture. If I was reading a book or watching the event in real time on TV.

When the event happened as stated above. I new this was a sign to capture the events that forgo, un aware. In our everyday lives.

This is how I feel when taking the world in through my lens. Showing the world, what so many miss.

So I have captured, and still capturing what you can now share with me. The beauty of nature. In beautiful colour, and texture. Life in the wild, and what nature has to put up with. With the influence of man.

A story of survival in a concrete jungle. To what may be,  just under your own window.

My Method and work flow to capturing and editing the event.

To Bring this little story together. At fist it was not planned

An act of reaction. At first. As I said, to grab my camera, and start shooting, Then after the first day , the skills I learnt kicked in , Including some extra I picked up watching animal planet. Watch composition. Focus on eyes, watch exposure. Use a tripod when ever possible. After the fist shoot. I looked at he images. I then new what and when to prepare to take the picture. Its about getting to know your subject and habits. In time, A Pattern starts to develop. Although nature is unpredictable.

There is some method to survival. Knowing the laws of  the 3 WWWs    What Where and When!

Not knowing how long these birds were going to take to grow. Before fleeing the nest. I set out to dedicate my self to Bird Watching!

No Plans to go any where. Just to stay, and keep an eye, and capture the moment in time. Depending on the progression of growth. I would record and down load to my Lap top. the images every two days.

At the  time of Building this blog post that acts as my Learning log.

I had taken many pictures. But using the magnifier at 100% . looking to see what, and whats not sharp. Then using tools to brighten and bring out the best of the images.

Next step was to select the best images by flagging.

After that, to select 10-12 pictures. These then, to be opened up in batch, photoshop. To resize and name. Then to up load to this blog post.

Last to re size  . Making all 300 DPI Aprox A4

As each day passed, and as the blog and gallery of events came together. I went over the images again, by going back. I aded other, more exiting pictures that told the story, with more impact. Taking out that that did not look right.  Even when my tutor viewed what I had done. And commented that this was good work. I changed 3 pictures that I played with to improve the power of the images.  Selecting 12 photographs from 470 images taken over 7 days shoot.

This is a sample of my aperture's work flow.  As Proof sheets.

Proof sheets :

Step1

Sample of file including HDV seen a black.

Step 2

• After Flagging. The selected images. They were then looked through again and again . taking out any that did not fit the select 12. 

Step 3

• After choosing a number of photographs that told the story to what I wanted to portray. I then  moved the flagged images to light room :

Step 4

• I then  pick those That told the story. A sequence of events.

Step 5

•  From the  selection, I then up loaded to the page . I went back over what I had and then replaced, And re arranged again. till I was happy with the final 12.

Step 6

 Final 12. 

final Step 7

• This selection was then moved to bulk processing for re sizing in photoshop. 

• An attempt was made to manipulate two photographs , that at the time of taking, the  wind swept leaves in the way. I had removed the leaves in photoshop. I did not think they looked natural enough to ad to my gallery.

• Personal feelings on digital manipulation.

         I don't enjoy doing to allot of manipulation on photographs, Unless the image is meant to be played with deliberately.

I prefer to keep my images as true to what I see when taking the image. Other then slight adjustments in normal adjustments. Id sooner be out there with my camera, working to get it right first time. To much manipulation, I feel is cheating the viewer to what you want to express. What and how the photographer sees the world.  To me manipulation is not photography. Its digital artistry. However: for taking out small unwanted distractions. It becomes a blessing.

• Most of the processing work was done in Aperture and any extreme adjustment, In photoshop. As Listed above with the final shot taken from HDV M

• All the photo under took some sharpening , With  High and low light clipping.

• There were no technical problems , other then I anticipated when the  battery and memory card needed changing.

I have trained my self to watch for the moment and not shoot unnecessarily.

My tutor was more than happy with my second production in this assignment. This  was not expected, as I already had sent the link for the Proboscis Monkey project. I had been given till the 7th Jan 2012 to complete. At the time of writing 11 Dec 2011. I am still keeping a close watch on the birds and other creatures that visit the trees. Photographing and recording, as I go.

Since my tutor wrote his nice report. Some suggestions were given, that I have made adjustments to the above. 

Over all I am more then happy with the assignment, and the way the images came together.
Good feed back has come from others like the Malaysian group. Malaysia wild life. And Sabah photography. To whom I have shown this blog, With out making statement. I was told ,  Just the pictures tell the story.

Assignment 5 Personal Project

The Proboscis Monkey.

My personal project.

In advance , I agreed with my tutor to do wild life. I have to write a brief on each of Ten photographs.  This I started to accumulate pictures of the wild life in Borneo.
My recent journey to Brunei, sadly was a disappointment, Due to the devastating depletion of rain forrest.

This is a short story of the life of the Proboscis monkey.

Borneo is one of three largest islands in the world. Set between Australia and main land china in the south china sea.

The Island is surrounded by Indonesia and the Philippines.
I live in Sabah, The land beneath the wind. One of three countries in Borneo. The Climate is average 30c hot sun in the morning and tropical storms later in the day. Due to climate change. This is rapidly changing.  But thats another story for later reading.

There are many places in Borneo to see these amazing creatures. But Brunei is, or was one of my favourites. Due to its easy and affordable location.

For now I will tell you about one of the most strange indigenous species of monkey. Only found in Borneo.
Fig1:
Not as threatened as the Orang Utan and the Gibbon.  Nevertheless, It is severely being endangered from loss of habitat.   This was once dense mangrove  forrest. With over hangs that the proboscis monkeys used to jump .



So, shocked at the sight of this and disheartened as I am. I took my 17-40 WA as I was armed with the 400 mm. Took this shot to show the world what has been damaged. Lost for ever. 
One of the most challenging kind of photography is wild life. Not sat waiting for the shot in some camouflaged hide. You Moving in a boat. Stopping and going. Acting on spontaneous action. As you twist in the right direction. You need good balance as well as fast reactions. Its neck and back aching as well as so rewarding. 

Fig 2:

Once lush forrest full of vegetation. The Brunei river trip has been made bare. And many of the wonderful bird life has been lost.
This was cleared to make way for a road construction. I was under the assumption that the Sultan stopped deforestation.

I took this shot to show what dredging has done to the trees. Leaving little food and shelter for wild life. 

Proboscis monkeys are social creatures. Family orientated. Consisting of one mail and one main female with others close by. The male Is easily recognised. As he sits high. Proudly showing off his nose and sexual parts. The nose normally reflects other things that make him dominant. Hens the name Proboscis. Meaning nose. He  likes to keep his wives around him. Well with in sight, to protect from other young males. Known as bachelor scouts.
The young males hunt in packs, And others may be solitary.  To find young females  and new territory.
                                                       
A Large male sits proud , marking territory.
Fig 3: ISO 500 290 mm 30d 1/1000 f11

Often with wild life photography. Its hard to get the perfect shot from over hangs, branches and restricted lighting.  taken at the time with 8MP 30d 

About as large, and dominant as they get. This photograph was taken two years ago, Of and old proud male, when the area was lush in vegetation.  and at this point, as the above photo taken of the clearing. his was about 30ft wide.  Both sides of the river. These Monkeys have been seen to swim across rivers. They are good at swimming, so I have been told. Although I have never seen this. I know they try to avoid being in the water. However, when territory is at risk, or food is short. hey will find a narrow crossing to forage for better resources. Some times they miss or so its been said jump into the water. I think this is just desperation to get to the other side. As Crocodiles lay in wait, in many areas.  

Even here , not to far away, Peoples homes had already been built. having influence, brushing shoulders with them.  

Using a 70 to 200 2.6 with a 2 x converter. 

Here I managed to capture the lovely coat they have. Like a fur jacket.

There are two spices through out Borneo. They range in Colour. From Greyish brow to orange. 

Fig 4: ISO 500 400 mm 7.1 1/400 30d

Capturing the hole beauty of the handsome strange monkey, As i wanted to show the detail and texture of their coats. The hole goal in wild lief photography. Is to get the perfect shot that know one els has.  

Its good to take a private trip to see these wonderful animals, As if your quiet , you can hear the low tone grunts they make. If challenged or threatened, they will shout! A!A ! sharply.

Its rare to find Proboscis Monkeys so close.  .  They are becoming used to Humans. 

Diet. 

Its important to the proboscis Monkey to have fresh young leaves to eat. They spend much of their time, high in the trees, searching out the young leaves, that are very acidic. 

As the day heats up. They would normally go further into the forrest. Or find shade. Here,  they get a little more active , to find trees where there are more young leaves. As less trees. More time is spent looking for food. 

The rest of the photographs from here on, As the fist two FIG 1 and 2 . were taken, 18th Nov 2011         

Fig 5: ISO 250 F8   1/500 140mm 7d

 Its god to know their habits so you can knowingly predict the action. If one jumps , there will be another to follow. My aim has been for a long time , to capture one jumping with out blur. This time I took a few and some GD video. 

Reason being, they have such large bellies, is that they are full of Enzymes to digest the favourite food.  

 being, they have such large bellies, They have much more of a chemistry then us to break down those, what may even be poison to us, various young leaves.    

 During Drought, It was discovered, the  acid leaves are not the only food that proboscis monkeys eats.  They have been know to take small rodents. And also, when you turn you back. to claim the food of your plate. if you happen to live near by. Other then that. Small insects.

  Proboscis Monkey like to stay high in the trees. They only come down to drink. They are mostly found by small rivers. That are near to the coast. But this little family, has adapted to using what bushes and fallen branches they have, They jump up and down on the branch, to use there acrobatic leaps across,  whats left of their home. To get to better feeding areas.

Fig 6: ISO 1250 f 5.6 1/400 stpped down 305 MM 7d

A mother sits with her young, his give a nice touch to family bonding. 

Again , I had stopped down a bit to much . In doing so with such a high ISO, sacrificed definition for  noise. Acting fast to get this shot. Some adjusting in aperture. saved the the image. 

The female, as seen here has a much smaller nose, Although big for any monkey. And pointed. They nurse their young for some time. The females become sexually active after 5 ears. 

Sadly the reduction of the bread has pushed them into the  the  endangered  

animals. In the last 20 yeas, reductions by more then 50% And growing, As an contuse to spread and develop what we call so called progress. 

I don't like using Hi ISO but here it was dark. As the clouded stormy sky softened the light. 

Fig 7: ISO 1250 1/400 f 5.6   270mm 7d 

The family being shown the way.
As others uses precaution, with their young. Others like to trapeze .

Fig8: ISO 1250 f 5.6 1/400 7d

Captured in a set of 5 frames. In mid air. using 7D 

As the day draws to an end. The hot Borneo sun drops. The lighting becomes low and fiery golden. The Proboscis monkeys take their last drink, before night falls. 

Finding the highest, resting places in the tree tops. making photography quite hard . If your lucky. The sun will fall on them as they settle in for the night. High and away from danger. 

Shooting at this time. Takes trial and luck. As for capturing moving objects in low light. You need to predict when things happen. And be ready. You may not have your camera set right . As I was photographing back lit shots, I forgot to up the aperture as it was closed down. 

I still managed to capture this flying monkey. Freezing in action. At a high ISO. 

The sun starts to glow, as it drops behind the progress of man,  lighting up their orange coats, to a wonderful golden colour. The hole set become golden. This is when you must act fast. As there is such a small window of less then 15-20 min to capture any more photographs. 

With High ISO 1250 using 400 mm lens with only 5,6 to work with. This image still holds and speaks for its self. 

Fig 9: SO f 5.6 1/400   400mm 7d 

Capturing this was a task. lying in the bout , and the boats movement. Low light. 
Trying to steady the lens. As the subject watches my every move. 
Fig 10: ISO 125 F6.3 1/400 300 mm 7d

 Last of many , I chose this due to the expression . Like the proboscis monkey is expressing "wow"! in excitement of the perfect find. And the separation from the blurred tree in the back ground, gave depth. A kind of 3d effect that so many like 

 And the as light dropped , We left the area. As we did so, moving towards the grind of humanity.  All the Egrets, Hundreds of them, flocked to the bushy trees, by the waters edge. Perched for the night. I hope, on my next return, The Proboscis Monkey will still be there. so i can get that perfect shot. 

Statement in brief :

This is my chosen ten. That I chose from many photographs.  Not to be static in approach.  to capture the realism of their habitat.  To give a flow, and un repetitive look at the wonders of the proboscis monkeys life. In view of how they live. Showing texture , Environment. The habitat they live in.  Lighting. A little restricting with just 10 photographs. That I managed to select, by placing them into folders . flagging wheat is good and not just a monkey in a tree. In looking at each photo. My thought focused on the story to take place.  As I have written up here. As I up loaded each photograph, The story came together. As a Message to the world. If you love wild life, speak out now. Write to governments t help protect what we have left. Earth is their home too.   

Closing Conclusion:

I am still a little baffled in the way noise occurs in different lighting conditions. 

Although many of these pictures would never have been able captured on film.

The ISO in DSLRs allows freezing of motion.  In low light. still the rule of thumb in low lighting. Use the lowest shutter speed that the lens allows at full open aperture . And use the lowest ISO light will allow.  Normally the shutter speed is that one higher then the focal length of the lens. To prevent hand shake. 

As on this assignment, All elements of moving subjects , changing light and sat in a small moving boat Put all knowledge in knowing my tools to the test.  

exercise 25 Web Album

Please go to www.amphibious-photographer.com

My web site . links to blogs and Albums are all there.

Thank you. 

Exercise 24 Sharpening for print

For this exercise we are looking at sharping .

Taking  3 photographs. A Portrait. 

photo 1 as un sharpened control. 

Photo 2 sharpen to 33%      

Photo 3 sharpen  @ 75%

This shows better definition and some increase in  contrast as well.

Now to observe the prints.

Assignment 4 final Is It real.

Assignment 4. Real or fake.

Finally after several trials. Much research, going through many photographs. looking for something I can work with.
I set a file aside, filling it with pictures so I could get some inspiration from.  Looking for a subject I could put together, that looked convincing.

In the end selection, I chose a man on a bike. A Probosci's monkey in a tree.
Indigenous only to Borneo.

To do this for the combining of the two. Many layers and adjustments were taken.
Starting with Monkey: Separating the subject from the background, to separating limbs to layers, Shading, adjustment of tone and contrast, adding and resizing layers.

The only adjustment I could not find, that I have seen on TVin use is a 3D adjustment.   I would like to have turned the Monkey slightly away.
Nevertheless, with some perseverance, I managed to bring this delightful image to life.

 How was it done?

Once I manage to break up the monkey's body into layers. As shown in Fig 1  This way I can work with each part to manipulate them to perspective.

Fig:1

Then to adjust the bike image.
My first observation was to:
To correct the direction of the bike by flipping the image. Then realising the composition of the bike was leading out of the picture.
I used the Quick selection to move the bike back. Ten rebuildings the road. Then do the same to take the post. taking it away on the far right.



Next:
To take the backdrop and clean up the edges of the monkey.

Placing the monkey onto the bike. The sizing it to match. I could then see where and what I needed to take, and ad in layers.
As seen here in the screenshot. A sequence of images that brought the image together.
Once the layers were in place and adjusted. The layers were flattened.
Some clone and retouching done on the legs, and arms and the body, to make it look real. making layers of just the arms and sections of the leg. turning them and then using clone soft brush to blend.
Another Layer of the bike was added to cover any points that were taken away. When using the eraser tool, the history brush would not restore.

From there, more rebuilding of the legs. tuning, Placement.
Last of all feathering, using softer brushes and cloning, to blend the image layers together. Making fingers. The leg was the hardest and foot in the sandal.

At each stage, I saved, or (save as), renaming each set. So any adjustment that went wrong or required further adjustment may be made, and not lost.

Finally. Flatten and save to Jpeg.


The tail I did not use.

Even after this, Some floors were noticed.  So I tidied up repetitive marks.

Then to make it a front page cover for a magazine.

First to make another new canvas. Resize for the average magazine, Not known.

I chose :














Then to reduce the above image and make a border.
Imports some jungle as an outer frame,
Ad Title
Caption, reintroduce helmet layer. Toad a bit of depth.
Clean up. Ad text.
Ad frog and snake, to liven the page up. Using the same above technique.

As seen here:

Final product for publication.

I hope to publish this now with a write up on what I encountered this week in Borneo, of the poor Proboscis monkeys. Losing their habitat. From the vast deforestation making way for new roads.

Real or fake assignment 2ned attempt

A new start and new ideas.