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.

Congratulations April & Steve

Congratulations go out to April Martin and Steve Press on their upcoming wedding August 1, 2009. They stopped in this week and we had a great time shooting their engagement photos. What a nice couple they make. We got a wonderful selection of photos from the session and I am sure April and Steve are going to love them all. I will be looking forward to doing their wedding.

Cricket macro

Today's macro shot is of a cricket on a leaf. I used a two light set up to illuminate the subject. Camera settings were 180th sec. at f-22, iso 200. I used a 70-200mm set at 200mm with a 2x converter and a raynox 250. I was quite happy with this image as I got some good detail in the eyes. Depth of field is really shallow with my lens set up (even at f-22) so I will have to evaluate this technique and then decide if maybe another lens combination may work better.

Nature walk...

One of my favorite wildlife photographers is Brad Hill. His work is so inspiring.
http://www.naturalart.ca/voice/blog.html
I have studied his work and tried very hard to duplicate his techniques. Here is a Squirrel image I took today and worked it in post. I don't have any bears to shoot like Brad but I think my technique is getting better on the wildlife I do have to work with. Click on image to enlarge.