Holy Macro

I am still working on macro techniques. This image of a fly with its tongue out was quite involved in the making but the end result was worth it. I used Nikon D3 with 24-70mm 2.8 lens racked out to 70mm and focus set to infinity. I added a 36 mm and 12 mm extension tubes and used the raynox 250 on the end of the barrel. This combination gave me a pretty good image but I still needed to crop to get the image I wanted. The full frame sensor of the D3 can withstand considerable cropping before the image starts breaking down. I used one flash off camera attached to a homemade bracket with an old Gary Fong lightshere for diffusion. I had strong window light from behind the fly to give it dimension. The fly is distracted with honey to keep him in the same spot until I could get some shots off. Click on image to enlarge. Oh yes, one last thing. I used a focus stacking image program, CombineZM to stack 3 images to get more depth of field.

Nathan Muth is now One!

My grandson Nathan came over for a couple of pictures. He is now one years old and cute as a button. He didn't get enough nap that day but I did manage to get a couple keepers. Including one of his clowning around at the front window. His parents promised to bring him back for more pictures on Sunday. The top three images were done in studio with four strobes. Nikon D3.

Ring Flash testing

Take two aspirin and call me in the morning, or in this case two ibuprofen. This image is a not cropped shot of two tablets of ibuprofen. I used a CD disc for the reflection. Nikon D3. Lighting is a nice wrap around effect from a ring flash.

Macro Shot

Another macro attempt at a common house fly this time. I fabricated a flash extender and diffuser to attach to my sb 600 speedlight. I used cardboard and aluminum foil. It isn't pretty but actually works very well. Gives off a soft wrap around light coming from overhead. Nikon D3. Click on image to enlarge.

Sunset on the River

I had a wonderful opportunity shooting a couple of swans on the water yesterday. A few weeks ago I saw these swans in a little bay area on River Rd. in Wheatfield, NY. The sun was setting and what a wonderful picture it was except for one thing I didn't have my camera with me. Since that day I had made several trips back to the same spot with my camera hoping to get a chance to capture an image. The swans never showed up. Finally yesterday my trusty scout Wendy was driving by and she saw the swans dining in the bay. She knew I was trying to catch them so we grabbed my equipment and headed back to the river. The timing was perfect as the sun was setting and created a wonderful golden glow on the water. Sometimes patience in photography is a virtue. I think the images above prove that. Niko D3, Nikkor 70-200mm AF-S VR 2.8.

Focus Stacking

I am continuing my quest to learn macro photography. One of the major stumbling blocks is depth of field. To counter the shallow depth of field on this tulip I downloaded a focus stacking program called Combine ZM. It is free and a great little program with very little learning curve. The image above is a combination of 32 images stacked together to make one image in focus. I give myself an A- for this attempt. I needed about 3-4 more images in the foreground to totally complete this image. This technique has great potential but would be very hard to do with moving subjects. Click on the image to enlarge.

Macro Tests

After much testing I have found the Raynox 250 is a very reasonable approach to macro photography and can compete with most other macro techniques. Like any photo technique it does have limitations. Depth of field is shallow and tricky to handle. Probably its most attractive feature is that it is cheap way to get in close, $43. The most advantageous feature of the Raynox 250 is that it gives you a good 6-7 inches of focus room between your lens and the subject. This is extremely important for lighting issues and being able to get your subject lit properly.The Raynox 250 is 49 mm filter used for video cameras mostly and has an adaptor to fit it up to a 62mm lens. My main lens is 77mm so it became a problem to affix this filter to my 70-200mm. I purchased an additional step down filter ring from Adorama for $2. and this solved the problem.

The bottom image above is shot with this combo while the top image has a 2x converter added. The images did get some vignetting around the edges and are cropped for composition. The cricket used in this demonstration is approximately 13 milometers in length. Click image to enlarge.