Sunset shots by the dock at Egg Harbor Marina

As always, Egg harbor in Door county Wisconsin is a great place to take sunset photos. During this trip I always had my Canon G15 with me all the time. It's a nice little camera that can shoot raw, has excellent dynamic range, and pretty much has dslr features without the bulk.

It is pretty awesome to take photos during sunrise and sunsets because the colors are so dramatic that you cannot see these colors when the sun is high. At noon, sunlight is pretty harsh that it gives you very intense highlights and shadows. I personally don't like taking shots at noon.

Egg harbor marina is a very nice place to take shots during sunsets. It is one of the best places to be in when in Door County Wisconsin.

Butterflies and blooms

Fortunately this one held still.

Every summer the Chicago Botanic Garden has their butterflies and blooms event near one of their gardens. This year was no different from the previous ones. It was still awesome with their display of beautiful butterflies.

A very colorful shot.

For shots like this I have my macro setup. I fitted my Canon 5D MK2 with my 100mm macro, with my Canon MR-14 macro ring light attached. The macro ring light is perfect for keeping your aperture as narrow as you can have it. Shooting very close up, a wide aperture will greatly limit your depth of field so it is very helpful if you can close your aperture as much as you can.

Shot without flash.

I didn't bring a tripod with me. A tripod would stabilize my camera better, although it is bothersome in some cases and you should be considerate with other people walking around. Also in some places, a tripod is banned for safety issues...and this is one place where you can't bring one.

This little guy was just hanging out the whole time.

Butterflies and blooms is a yearly event that I never miss. From what we heard, the Chicago botanic garden will be relocating the event next year to a bigger area for more butterflies. I can't wait to see that.

The wide aperture is nice is you can focus properly.

It's a lazy sunday for me and my quad

Nothing beats just relaxing and flying and shooting.

I cannot get my hands off of my new quad. One sunday I just decided to go into a park and at a school campus and start shooting with my Go pro and my quad. The weather was great with little wind, which is great for flying. I just wished my quad can carry a dslr for higher resolution images but for now my Go pro does the job pretty good.

Taken near a school. 

When flying around public areas please do make sure you know the laws about flying rc aircaft where you are. Please be considerate to other people around you. Also make sure that you are not disturbing wildlife in their natural habitat. I always make sure that I keep my distance when flying around wildlife to ensure their safety and the safety of my aircraft.

At a parking lot of a college.

These images were shot as jpg files and post processed as raw files. That option gave me the ability to tone down highlights and lighten the shadows without sacrificing image quality.

I cannot wait for my next flight!

Baby's first studio photo

I love taking baby pictures. When my sister in law had her baby I cannot wait to take the first official studio photos for her baby. It was a good thing the baby was well behaved during the session.

For this session, I decided to use my Canon 6D, and my favorite portrait studio lens my Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. I know a lot of photographers prefer an 85mm for studio portraits but the lack of space makes me use the 50mm more than the 85. If it was outdoors it would've been a different story. The 50mm feels more comfortable indoors and you can frame your shots better than using something longer than that...but then again it's all personal preference.

Since I was using studio strobes, I set my shooting mode to manual so I can dial in whatever aperture and shutter I want. Studio strobes give out plenty of light so I have more wiggle room for my settings than if I was shooting without them. I set my aperture to f/3.5 and my shutter speed to 100/sec. Then adjusted the strobes for the best lighting. I used 2 strobes, one for the main light in the left side and one fill light on the right. Shot in raw and adjusted in Lightroom and Photoshop:

The shot that I loved best from the session.

Starting with aerial photography

I just got myself a higher end RC quad copter and I am having a blast with it. I'm still trying to get used to the controls and the flight modes but so far so good! It's a good thing to have experience in flying rc helicopters when starting to fly these things. They are so much easier to fly and much more stable.

So I finally attached my Go Pro camera to it and take some aerial shots. The Go Pro has excellent image quality compared to starter cameras that come with cheaper quads and that was the reason why I purchased a higher end quad, so I can at least mount a higher quality camera to it instead of just dealing with crappy image quality.

Here is one of my first shots with my new quad and my Go Pro:

I am actually loving this setup. I will post some updates when I fly more and take shots with this thing.