The subject of this post is Celly Belly, my very awesome cello. I love it to bits although I get my fingers sliced open every time I play it. Especially when I change positions on the A string. It's like sliding your fingers along a knife blade.

Being such a beautiful instrument, Celly Belly is very photogenic. I had a lot of fun a few months back, photographing it from various angles.

f/3.5, 20s @ ISO100, 21mm

Obviously, a tripod was used. I used Live View to get the composition I wanted, and adjusted the focus manually. Then I switched off the light and activated my phone's torchlight application. It gives off a red light, which complements Celly Belly's brown body. Haha. Then for 20 seconds, I swept the torch around Celly Belly, trying to illuminate every part of the instrument. It took a few tries. The trick is to keep moving and shine the same amount of light on every part, or some parts will look brighter than the other. As you can see from my photo, I didn't do a very good job, as some parts are thrown into the shadows. But the shape of the cello is visible (I hope!). I'd have taken more pictures if it weren't the middle of the night.

f/2.8, 1/8s @ ISO200

I took this photo with my phone, because I never use ISO200 on my camera if I can help it. Here you can see orange light shining on my cello. It is the light of the setting sun. I had to position myself so that the shadow of my phone wouldn't appear on the cello. You can still see my arm's shadow though. Haha.

That's all I have about Celly Belly! Before I sign off, I'd like to tell you people that I now have 11 photos on A.net!!!!!! I just got 2 photos accepted this morning! Check them out...

f/11, 1/4s @ ISO100, 18mm

I know, I shouldn't have used f/11, but I guess I did well here and managed to avoid camera shake!

f/11, 1/200s @ ISO100, 55mm

TBH, one of my least favourite shots. But I just submitted it for the hell of it!

I'm disappointed by the number of views as I thought that this photo was one of my better ones. Maybe it's because there were many interesting shots uploaded on the same day, thus diverting viewers away from mine.

I just got my new laptop but because of monitor calibration problems I can't edit photos on it. I guess my old desktop computer will have to stay on for quite some time...

f/11, 1/250s @ ISO100, 79mm

Just got my 6th shot accepted on A.net! So far, 5 of my 6 photos on A.net are from the airshow! However, I have a bad feeling that once I go back to boring side-ons, the rejection emails will come flooding in...

Until then, I'll have to enjoy my acceptances while they last!

f/8, 1/6s @ ISO400, 18mm

And my accepted shots:

T-50 Golden Eagle.

f/11, 1/250s @ ISO100, 214mm

C-17 Globemaster.

f/11, 1/160s @ ISO100, 123mm

Now I'm off to upload more shots!!! :DDD

f/5, 1/60 @ ISO100, 135mm

f/11, 1/4s @ ISO100, 18mm

f/11, 1/4s @ ISO100, 18mm

f/11, 1/2s @ ISO100, 18mm

f/11, 1.6s @ ISO100, 33mm

f/11, 3.2s @ ISO100, 55mm

f/11, 1s @ ISO100, 18mm

f/11, 1/8s, @ ISO100, 18mm

f/9, 1/4s @ ISO100, 18mm

f/4.5, 1/2s @ ISO100, 36mm

f/4.5, 1/30s @ ISO100, 79mm

f/4, 1/40s @ ISO100, 55mm

f/9, 1/5s @ ISO200, 18mm

f/9, 1/5s @ ISO200, 18mm


f/9, 1/5s @ ISO200, 18mm

f/11, 1/60s @ ISO200, 100mm

f/4, 1/50s @ ISO1600, 55mm

f/4, 1/50s @ ISO1600, 55mm

f/4, 1/50s @ ISO1600, 55mm

f/4, 1/20s @ ISO1600, 55mm

f/4, 1/20s @ ISO1600, 55mm

f/4, 1/80s @ ISO1600, 55mm

f/4, 1/125s @ ISO1600, 55mm

I know that they're not spectacular shots, especially the trees. In fact, I don't like photographing plants. But there's a photography competition going on and the theme is 'Flora and Fauna'. And I want to develop an 'eye' for creative composition.

:DDD

Here's the link!

Yay!

On a side note, I recently found out that 'foxy' means 'sexually attractive' (for a girl). Well, all I can say is that it wasn't my idea (it's yours, Xu Xue Kun!!), and despite what my A.net profile may say, I'm indeed a girl (I can't change my profile gender, dammit!). And besides, I don't mind being foxy! Haha!

f/11, 1s @ ISO 100, 250mm

And that was after some heavy photoshopping. However, there's a thick red band around the bottom half of the moon that I don't know how to remove. Take a look at the original:

The secret? Unsharp Mask. I swear by it. (Thanks, A.net!)

My 55-250 can produce some decent moonshots but wait till I get my 100-400. I also want a fast, wide-angle-to-general-purpose L-lens. If only Canon would make an f/2.8L 17-85...

f/11, 1/250 @ ISO 100, 18mm

However, it's not recognised as my photo :( On my Photographer Administration page, it is said that I only have 1 shot in the database, when in fact I have 2. So I can only upload 2 photos at one go instead of 5 (photographers with 2-10 photos in the DB can have 5 pictures in the queue). What's more, the photographer of that shot is still X Y Foo, when I've since changed the name to Foxy. Apparently I'm not the only one with this problem, as can be seen from the forum posts, but it still sucks. I have a whole bunch of photos waiting to be uploaded but I can't because of the bug!

Oh well. I hope A.net sorts things out soon. In the meantime I shall wait for my 2 photos to be screened.

Let me show them to you:

f/11, 1/200 @ ISO 100, 25mm

f/11, 1/160 @ ISO 100, 18mm

Click for full size.

And that concludes my first post (not counting the one below) of my photography blog. In future posts, I'll show you people my older photos, and I hope that you can comment on them.