Solar Eclipse July, 22 2009

The first solar eclipse visible in Japan in 46 years, it was visible throughout Japan and many parts of India and China. Shanghai actually got to experience totality but here in Osaka we were only in the umbra and had the moon cover about 86% of the sun at the maximum. The day didn't turn to night as the entire sun was not blocked but it did get considerably darker.

Unfortunately, it was overcast during the event. However, I did manage to get a few shots when the clouds allowed glimpses of the sun and moon just before the maximum occlusion and about 45 minutes afterward. The images have had the exposure levels corrected, and some dust spots removed in photoshop, they were a bit overexposed, but are otherwise untouched.

About 14 minutes before the maximum occlusion.
Also, my favourite shot.

About 13 minutes before the maximum occlusion.

And the last at about 45 minutes after maximum.
The clouds were still rather thick.

I shot a Panda!

I recently bought some lighting equipment to let me use off camera flash and expand my photography techniques and knowledge. I have been learning how to use all of this and working through the very useful lessons at the Strobist blog. A really great place to learn about off camera strobes and how to use them.

First up was an exercise on directional light. The light coming from the side really brings out the texture of the panda. 'Tare Panda' for those who were wondering.

An unsuspecting Panda

The depth of field of the light can also be controlled to a high degree. The following two shots were shot in a day lit room with the window open. The aperture on the camera is set to underexpose the white wall in the background and the flash, set close to the subject to provide the light to light it to the correct amount.

Something seems amiss

The darkness is closing in.

In this shot I used an umbrella (camera right) to light the panda, and the specular reflection of the same umbrella's light off the computer monitor to define the side of the panda that was lit by the ambient light (camera left) from the window.

What will happen?

I used the reflection of the umbrella on the silver to bring out the smooth metal texture of the silver necklace. Having the umbrella close to the subject helped to get rid of the shadows, as did the water which killed the reflection off the black plate it was sitting on.

Bigger, Faster, Stronger Crawling Creatures

I had a small bit of luck and was able to shoot a few of the faster creatures that inhabit the area around the school where I work.

This little brown lizard is very well camouflaged and I only managed to spot it after hearing it run through the dried leaves. Usually that means I am too late to even see them but not this time!

This gecko was hanging out on the wall, looking for a place to lay her eggs I suspect.

Pregnant gecko!

Amazingly this large green dragonfly allowed me to get quite close without flying off. I know getting sand in my eyes hurts a lot though it doesn't seem to bother him.

A leaf!

No, just a rather stocky moth.

Something is hiding in the shrub...

A white-sided longhorn beetle (Batocera Lineolata). While related to the pine beetle it is about twice the length and I would guess about 8 times the weight.

Those massive jaws are why I kept it on a stick, rather than my hand.

Looking down from the top we can see that the compound eye actually wraps around and behind the antennae! It also has a nice goth style spiked collar.

Evening in Osaka

The JR Osaka station is undergoing and extensive remodeling and the cranes have moved a bit from the last time I shot them, last year.

As it was evening, I decided to use some slower shutter speeds to photograph people crossing the street. I think it is quite interesting that even if the person has been rendered into a blur by their movement, there is almost always on foot firmly anchored to the ground.

When crossing the street, pay attention to the walk/don't walk sign!

A long exposure helps to show the cars are moving, not merely parked on the road.

Ironically enough, a higher shutter speed helps to get the moon sharp. Despite it being dark the moon is actually quite bright and very easy to overexpose. This was taken at 1/160 seconds, a setting more common to taking shots in daylight.

The fast shutter also helped to get rid of the abundant light pollution in downtown Osaka.

Circumzenithal Arc and Solar Halo

Some of the students at the school where I work came into the staff room asking their teacher for a digital camera, they were quite excited about seeing a rainbow.
As well they should have been! It was not your everyday rainbow but an 'up-side down' rainbow, or more correctly a Circumzenithal Arc!

This was my first time seeing such a rainbow and I was and still am surprised at how vivid the colours were, much brighter than any rainbow I had seen before.

Incredibly, this rare rainbow was accompanied by another rare solar halo. You can see a portion of it in the top of this photo.

The Arc, lower, extended horizontally across a good portion of the sky, and the halo with fainter colours encircled the sun.

Almost had the full arc here, but it is just as bright to look at the sun directly as it is through the lens of the camera. I needed to aim with my hand blocking the sun and shoot blindly lest I risk eye damage.

Small things....larger!

It is spring, almost summer, once again in Japan, for this post I decided to take some close ups of the various flying and crawling friends that have awoken with the lengthening days.
I still don't have a lens to get extremely close to my subjects but, with 12 mega pixels, a good sharp image can be cropped to achieve much the same effect.

Click the photos to enlarge.

A fly perched upon a flower petal.

This particular fly does its best to look like a wasp and thus scarier than it deserves!

A rather hairy butterfly sipping nectar concludes the prey section of this post.

Predators!

Any gardener will welcome the Ladybug, destroyer of aphids in their garden.

Waiting,

Got 'im!

Spider dines on a gnat.

A surprisingly large jumping spider (11mm long) investigates a stray piece of cloth in a sink.

And decides the camera was much more interesting!

Flight

A falcon riding the thermal updraft over the valley, looking for a meal.