Flower Photos: What the Heck Are These Things ?

They Look Like Xmas Decorations

 

For more than a few months, I've been meaning to identify these flowers.

So far, they don't seem to want to cooperate.

So, I just shot a bunch of them and will let someone else tell me.

They are bright red flowers hanging from some evergreen-looking stems.

 A few years ago, I couldn't tell you those white flowers were lilies but, I know now.

Here's a closer look for you to get a sense of scale.

The red rascals were growing along the road going up to Mt. Tachuu on Ie Jima, Okinawa.

Dodging traffic, I went up and down the road shooting from different angles.

When the wind and rain started coming after me, I left.

Pentax cameras and lenses are made for this kind of stuff, not me.

Does anyone know what those plants could be ?

I'm tired of fooling with them.

Give me an ID and you can have any or, all of those photos !

UPDATE: Best friend in the Land Down Under gave me the ID

Russelia equisetiformis

Firecracker Plant

 

Off Island and Off Road with Map It Okinawa Dude

Ten Selected Photos

These photos were taken on March 28, 2013.

Our mission was to go to another island and talk to the folks in a village office.

Deciding to travel light, I just grabbed two Pentax cameras and lenses.  No backpack or, shoes.

Knowing I'd be riding with Map It Okinawa Dude, I left the office lights on.

That's because we get back after dark, sometimes.

Things went well at the village office.

Then, we decided to go explore another island.

Bingo!  Map It Dude found a mysterious trail through the jungle.

Not exactly flip-flop friendly, I took my time and shot lots of photos.

The place was unbelievably quiet. 

No wind, no birds chirping, no blown highlights from the afternoon sun.

 It was so quiet, you could hear yourself breathing.

Rocks, ferns, trees and plenty of jungle vegetation were there for the shooting.

The only sound to be heard was the mirror slap from the camera.

 Imagine a place without any motor vehicles, fast food joints or people yapping on cell phones.

If you soundproofed your house, it couldn't be as quiet as this jungle.

Something tells me, this is a sacred place.  It was eerily quiet.

It made me wonder.  How many people could survive in a place like this, nowadays ?

No convenience stores, no TV or internet connections, there's nothing there, but nature.

 Returning to the road and civilization, I saw the sun peeking through along the trail.

So, I went back looking for Map It Dude.

He's in one of these photos.  Did you see him up there ?

1st Visit to Shimashii-Ozato Castle: An Unplanned Photo Essay

Don't ask how these things happen because I haven't got an answer.

The plan for today was to go shoot a bird from Africa but, he never showed.

Next, we went down the east coast of Okinawa to see if this old gal, who decorates her yard for the

Tanabata Festival, had started hanging her stars and streamers yet.

Nothing was hanging in the trees.  And, nobody was home.

So, Doc Graff looks up in the hills and points at some tower.

He thinks Ozato Castle may be somewhere, up there.

Son of a gun if he wasn't right.

Neither one of us had ever been to this castle before, because it's so hard to find.

And, I could kick myself for leaving all my short lenses behind.

Big Bertha, the Sigma 50-500mm, isn't the kind of lens I would usually use for castles.

The way to stop having these unplanned photo essays would be to take all my camera stuff

with me when I go out shooting.  I want to go back and do this castle right.

Guaranteed, if I leave Big Bertha home when I go back to Ozato

THAT CRAZY AFRICAN BIRD WILL SHOW UP !

Visit my website for today's Feature Photo

Chasing Butterflies at a Festival in Japan: A Photo Essay

On a hillside at a festival in Ogimi Okinawa, Japan last Wednesday this butterfly distracted me.  I'm easily distracted, I guess.  Wildlife photography, to me, is way more interesting than festival photography.

Give me a choice between shooting butterflies or a gaggle of photographers congregating around some sacred site to snap shots of a village elder performing an ancient ritual and the butterflies win everytime. 

It aint like I was getting paid to do this photo shoot.  So, I skipped the rituals part !

Not that I'm sacrilegious, or anything like that, I had photos of the same priestess, whatever they call her, from last year's Unjami Matsuri.  I figure, if I do a magazine article on the festival, the gal probably won't be too offended if she comes out looking a year younger. This butterfly was driving me nuts.

It was the big white spots on the outside of the wings that I hadn't seen on any butterfly like this before.

This character didn't like Auto Focus.  I had to go fully Manual and focus on the hibiscus flower.

Remember me saying something about packing everything because the lens you need will be the one you left at home ?

Well, my 500mm lens was in my backpack, in a car, about 2 miles away.  Dammit.

The Pentax 18-250mm would get the job done.  I wanted to know the name of this butterfly.

So, I captured as many shots of it as I could using Burst Mode on my camera.

This black, white and red butterfly with big white spots on the sides of its wings was a new one to me.

New to me, so I thought.  Until I researched it in THE JAPANESE BUTTERFLY GALLERY and discovered it's a Red Helen (Papilio helenus).

 As long as I was all set up and focused on that hibiscus I figured I might as well keep shooting whatever butterflies landed there.

Along came this character which I knew was some sort of Swallowtail.

Well, facrynoutloud, I had shot photos of the Red Helen before but this was the first time I ran across a Common Mormon (Papilio polytes).

So, I guess chasing butterflies instead of shooting some ritual at a festival in Japan wasn't such a sacrilegious thing to do after all !

Photography Tips: Checklist for Overnight at a Festival

Packing up the camera gear for overnight at a festival is not something I do very often but when I do it's serious business.  This photo is a shot taken just before unpacking from my last excursion.

In no particular order here is what I'm preparing to stuff in the trunk of the car for this week's festival shoot:

CAMERAS: All I can muster, clean  lenses, batteries fully charged with SD cards formatted.

CLEANING KIT: Lens solvent, brush, air bulb, lens cloth and lens tissues.

SPARE BATTERIES AND CHARGERS FOR EACH CAMERA.

LENSES: Every lens available. The lens you leave behind will be the one you wish you had.

TRIPODS:  Sometimes it's nice to be able to set up and use more than one tripod.  Make sure the quick releases are with you before packing away the tripods.

SHUTTER RELEASE CABLES: A camera's timer is pretty much useless for festival shooting.

SD  CARDS: As many as you can get your hands on.  Again, make sure they are formatted.

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE: Download cameras so you're ready for day two.

LAPTOP WITH EDITING PROGRAM: This gives you a chance to review photos off camera.

EXTENSION CORD, ELECTRICAL OUTLET ADAPTORS, MULTIPORT SURGE PROTECTOR: Use to power laptop, hard drive and recharge batteries.

BACKPACK, CAMERA HOLSTERS, LENS CASES, AND COVERS.

COMFORTABLE HIKING SHOES AND A TOWEL WIPE YOUR BROW.


A change of clothes, health and comfort items, food and drink, prayer beads, insect repellent, sunscreen and all that jazz is up to you. This is just my photography tips for an overnight festival in Okinawa, Japan, not a packing list for THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY.

Photography Tip: Going Wide-Angle

Landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes and sunsets lend themselves to the use of wide-angle lenses. As a wildlife photographer, usually I’m zooming in to reach out and touch something far away. But, there are times you want to be able to do both zoom and shoot wide angle and you want to be able to do it without stuffing a camera bag full of different size lenses. It can be done.


This photo was shot at the Dragonboat Races, an annual event in Nago Okinawa, Japan. My intent, here was to capture the crowd, sky and clouds and the three dragonboats finishing the race, all in one wide-angle shot.

A scene composed like this draws the viewer’s eye into the picture with what are called “leading lines”. The mountains in the background divide the photo roughly in half, separating the sea from sky. The position of the boats leads the eyes towards the white building, as does the angle of the crowd along the port.

Billed as the largest dragonboat event on island, I was sort of disappointed when I saw the size of the boats, as the dragonboats in the Naha races are much longer than these are. In fact, they hold a crew of 30 people.

Arriving at 7AM, 2 hours before the start, gave me plenty of time to scout out a good position for my camera and tripod. A few shots (Close ups where I used the zoom) of some dignitaries and pretty girls, with the blue skies and clouds as background, earned me an Official Staff armband and police protection, so I could shoot from anywhere I desired. There’s a lot more involved in being a travel photographer than just pointing and shooting the camera.

The lens that handled both jobs and kept me from having to switch lenses from wide-angle to zoom, for close-ups, was an 18-250mm. If you travel a lot and want one lens that does it all, it’s probably one of the best all-around lenses you can buy. You could go a whole year without ever having to swap lenses and worrying about getting dust on your sensor.

By the time the races started, over 500 white tents had been pitched at the port and 153 teams were involved, from all around the world; that explained the island’s “biggest dragonboat race”. I stayed for about half the event and had to go to the other end of the island to shoot another event.

Monday, I emailed the dignitaries and pretty girls their photos, then deleted them from my hard-drive. Who needs photos of pretty girls, anyway?

I’ve got a photo that makes you feel like you can walk right into it.

Have you got a lens that will zoom or shoot wide angle in your bag of tricks?

For a close up look at a Naha Dragonboat have a peek HERE.

That boat got me my 100th Editor's Pick at Better Photo, yesterday!

Photography Tip: Cleaning Your Camera

IT'S AS IMPORTANT AS CHECKING UP ON AND CLEANING A BABY'S BACKSIDE:

I haven’t had to watch a diaper-wearing baby in quite awhile and hope it stays that way. But, I thought this would make a great analogy. If you were going out somewhere in public with your little tyke in tow, you’d probably check out their rear end before you left the house and several times while you were away. Treat your camera the same way and you won’t be embarrassed.

THE EQUIPMENT YOU NEED

In photo #1 my trusty Pentax is filthy from a twelve hour day crawling around in pineapple fields. So, it’s shrunken down in the background. The rest of the gear is what you need for the care of your baby (camera) whether it’s a Point and Shoot or DSLR. All that equipment fits nicely in my shoulder holster camera bag you see under the pile, all but the large black bulb (turkey baster-looking thing); that’s only required when you change lenses on a DSLR. So, for any camera, here’s what you need to clean:


1. A lens brush for removing dust and the bulb forces air to blow it away. The brush is removable, allowing you to use a blast of air for drying your lens.

2. Lens Cleaning Paper is probably no different than eyeglass tissues but, I always buy mine at the camera store. You wouldn’t buy baby wipes from an auto supply shop, would you?

3. Lens Cleaning Solvent, not Windex, or any substitute is what you want to use. Camera lenses have a protective coating on them which you’ll want to last forever.



A kit, with all three items listed above costs less than US $10.00 so, there’s really no reason to be caught without one. Yet, I have people all the time asking me how to clean a camera lens and they’re surprised such equipment even exists. Makes you wonder if they are allowed to have babies, doesn’t it?


 

HOW IT'S DONE

1. Use the brush and bulb to remove dust from the lens. If you have a lens shade on, remove it and dust it off as well.


2. Your fingers contain oil that you don’t want to get on your lens. Tear a piece of lens paper from the pack by one corner, at the edge, being careful not to touch the paper anywhere else.

3. Lightly, spray the opposite end of the paper with lens cleaner. This little bottle of spray should last the average camera-shooter about a year. It doesn’t take much spray at all to clean a lens.

4. Place the moistened portion of the paper on your lens and crumple the dry portion over it. Gently swirl the paper in a circular motion being careful not to touch the lens with your fingers.

Pretend it’s a baby with diaper rash but, be gentler. Cameras cost money.

5. Next, you pull out one more lens tissue and dry, if you need to. I’ve found that I can clean and dry a small Point and Shoot with just one lens paper, if I’m careful.

6. If there’s any remaining haze on the lens after you’ve done all that, use the bulb to air-dry with a few blasts and your lens should be ready to go.


 

THE BACKSIDE OF YOUR CAMERA

A closer look at the backside of my baby shows you why I wanted to hide it from public view; it’s filthy. When I’m out shooting in the hot sun, sweat, dirt, grime, pollen and whatever else can collect on a camera get all over me and my baby. This particular day, it got so bad I couldn’t even read my light meter through the viewfinder. I composed my shots through the viewfinder but had to use the external light meter (on top of the camera) for exposure settings). I had cleaned it twice, earlier in the day, but was facing a busload of tourists coming my way at the end of a twelve hour shoot and just wanted to finish, pack up and run. So, the camera and I came home filthy. It’s easy to remedy. Here’s what you do:

1. Grab the brush and bulb and clean the dust off everything. On DSLRs you can even peel away the rubber molding around the viewfinder for better access to the glass.

2. The viewfinder glass and LCD screen aren’t as sensitive as a lens. Many LCD screens even have a plastic coating you can peel off and replace with a new one. I still use the same method, spraying the lens paper first and repeat the process as above but, it isn’t really that critical.

3. The rest of the camera body, an old toothbrush is safe to use for dust and grime removal, just make sure your lens cover is protecting the lens you’ve cleaned before grinding away dust and dirt from the body of the camera.

4. Any soft cloth and some lens cleaner should remove stubborn spots from the backside of your baby.

5. One more thing you may consider doing before sticking your cleaner-than-brand-spanking-new baby back into its cradle (Camera Bag) is this: Empty that sucker, turn it upside down, shake it and whack the underside a few times. You’ll be surprised at some of the things that find their way into your camera bag while you’re out shooting. Pine needles, sand, spiders, ants, leaves and dust have a way of sneaking up on you while you’re busy composing your masterpieces. Every once in awhile, it pays to run a vacuum cleaner hose inside a camera bag to control the population of unwanted guests.

TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR CAMERA AND IT'LL STILL BE SHOOTING TERRIFIC PHOTOS FOR YOUR REAL LIVE BABY'S COLLEGE GRADUATION CEREMONY !

If you have a question or suggestion for my Photography Tips, please don't hesitate to give me a holler over on my Facebook Page. I value reader's input.

Wildlife Photography: Tip #2

Tip #2. Be Aware of Lighting Conditions.

Probably every photographer with a digital camera, who’s been around awhile, has made the mistake of forgetting to check the ISO setting on their camera at least once. After doing a low light or night shoot, we’ve all been caught the next morning wondering why we have shutter speeds in the thousands when the light isn’t so bright outside. Then a little light comes on in our heads. We want to shoot at ISO 100 but, the night before, had set the camera to ISO 800, or higher!

Before I leave home, I check ISO settings, batteries, SD cards and lenses. I look at the sky, wherever I am and can tell you if it’s an ISO 100, 200, 400 or worse day out there, wherever I am. I also, make it a point to preset my aperture and shutter speed before stepping out the door. With wildlife, you want to be able to quick-draw your camera and shoot in a split second. Wildlife won’t pose for you; you have to be ready for them, always. A lot of my favorite wildlife shots were taken before I got to my shooting destination or after leaving it to head home.


This spider was at the edge of the jungle in the path I was taking to do some bird shooting at a beach. Photo taken with Panasonic DMC-FZ50 29AUG2007 9:23AM f/10 1/1000 ISO 100 Focal Length 89mm.