By Andrew Newlun
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Pic of the Day

Experimenting with macro

Recently I purchased a nice macro lens and have been playing around with various ways of achieving super macro shots. This little ant helped me test out certain ways of shooting and I just wanted to pay tribute to him by giving him a spot on the pic of the day. BTW This guy was about as big as the tip of a pin... So I was getting some pretty extreme macro

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I almost forgot

Well I got in the zone cleaning my house for 7 hours today and didn't even notice that I hadn't posted the pic of the day... And no one reminded me... Some one out there needs to keep me accountable to my promise of a photo every day. Cmon step up random reader ;)

Today we will post the group photo from the 2nd Chatturday photo walk. It was a blast and I can't wait for the next one. And if you're reading this I expect you to be at the next one. 

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Rainy Saturday Truck Shoot

Spent the morning meandering around abandoned warehouses, parking garages, and back alleys in the rain to find spots for an impromptu truck shoot. 

We made several stops to shoot in and out of the rain. Eventually the rain let up and the clouds made for some amazing shots. I have a lot of photos to edit but here is one that I processed to throw up as todays Pic of the Day. 

Enjoy :)

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Cancun Honeymoon

Spending the day with my wife so just going to throw up a quick photo from our honeymoon last summer in Cancun. This was taken at sunrise at our resort, as I was returning from a sunrise shoot on an island a couple miles down the beach. 

Seeing this shot always relaxes me and reminds me of the best vacation of my life :)

Hope you enjoy :)

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Wide Angle Bokeh Experiment

So have you ever noticed that when you see a portrait it usually has a nice creamy blurry background (this effect is known as bokeh)? Then you probably have also noticed that when you see wide angle landscape shots you don't really get that bokeh unless the shot is focused on something very close to the lens.

Background is compressed giving a feeling of separation and a nice creamy bokeh

Background is compressed giving a feeling of separation and a nice creamy bokeh

Wider angle brings much more into the photo and everything in the photo is sharp with no bokeh

Wider angle brings much more into the photo and everything in the photo is sharp with no bokeh

The reason for this is somewhat complicated. It has to do with the physics of the lenses and how longer zoom/portrait lenses compress the background and create separation between the subject and the background. Wide angle lenses do the opposite, they pull content in to the photo, thus taking away that visual separation. This is why it is difficult to achieve a nice bokeh in a wide angle shot. 

I am experimenting now with a method of taking wide angle shots with bokeh. It is in the experimenting stage and requires a very particular way of shooting with some very particular lenses, and as always some post processing, but I think it may have a place in my landscape portfolio if I can master it. 

This is a shot I took last night using this effect. What do you think?

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