Friday, January 9, 2009

More About Amila And The Photoblog

Dominic has added this to his speech, I thought it warranted a separate post as it's high praise indeed:

"Amila Salgado's blog is a joy. I have been following it for awhile, learning about the birds and dragon flies in my neighborhood 'somewhere in the Dry Zone'. Having tried to take a few pictures with a Macro lens, I am amazed by what he produces. Not even a flower is stable and the slighest wind or any movement is enough to throw everything out of focus. How he manages to get that close to dragonflies is just a mystery. (Are they real?) I no longer see Bumble bees, house sparrows, parakeets or Katussa's at our home in Thimbirigasyaya, so I am just amazed by what he finds in his own garden. Apart from the great photographs, the writing is a treat."

Wow - Is all I can say.

RD

2 comments:

Amila Salgado said...

Thanks a lot, Dom once again! I am so delighted to hear those words.

Yes those dragonfly shots are real!

I started chasing dragons in 2004 with a Nikon Coolpix 4500 - a 3 x optical zoom point & shoot. (this was mainly used for digiscoping birds). It required that I get a foot or less from the subject if I want to get a decent macro shot. I used this camera until Dec, 2007 to shoot quite a bit of dragonflies. So, being left with a 3 x optical zoom camera for nearly 3 years did the trick for me in horning my ‘hunting skills’ necessary approach them close regularly. From Dec, 2007 to Sep, 2008 I used a Lumix FZ-18 for the same purpose, which suddenly became too easily with its x 18 optical zoom increasing the working distance to a metre or so. With my first dSLR, Canon 40D that I got in Sep, 2007 with a Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro lens, the working distance was again down to a foot or less, which was not a new challenge for me. Other than that studying their behaviours have been the key, which has thought me when to go for a hunt and when to give up and look for other subjects. I hope I have answered your question!

Amila Salgado said...

'taught'