Tag Archives: macro

Hang-on Weta!

by

I always hard to figure out what to photograph on one of those miserable rainy days. The skies are grey and birds are hiding away waiting for the storm to die down. I reckon these kinds of days are when getting out a macro lens and either creating something abstract or capturing some nature is the way to go. We were lucky enough to find this weta (a New Zealand native insect) right outside the back door. Weta’s are often found in damp places so the odd bit of rain didn’t phase this character. They can grow very large but this one was only about 4cm long; I was careful to not annoy the insect as it has a long stinger at the back. I’ve been stung by one and it really hurts (harmless though)!

To take the shot I placed the weta on a piece of think glass and then used an off-camera flash from below. I dialled-down my flash to 1/32 power; just enough to give him and the rain drops a little sparkle. Now is the time for some full disclosure; the rain had let up a bit by now so I used a little spray from a $2 water spray bottle to add in a few more drops. Don’t worry it was pretty gentle and there was no danger of swamping the insect. After the shoot I returned the weta back to the garden.

Weta close-up

You can buy a print of this to scare your friends here.

Use the coupon SUPERSAVERJUNE2012 during June 2012 to get 40% off!

These tools helped me work the magic:

Beauty in the garden – Naked Lady Lilly

by

I can’t believe I have not blogged for almost two weeks! I guess life has been pretty crazy but in a good way. I have been shooting a lot; don’t worry about that!
The weather is going from summer to autumn here and that means wind, rain with a few trees changing colours. Flowers are the one constant though. Here we get them even in the middle of winter. I like to find them in unusual, common places. If you look for them, you will find them. Sometimes that means peeking-over the fence…
These little beauties just appeared one day on our driveway. Pretty breathtaking I reckon and not needing any trickery to make them look perfect. I exposed for the flower only, letting the background fall into the black. The shade is the place to get these lovely flowers; the direct sunlight is just plain brutal on flowers.

20120320-124802.jpg

Capturing Insect Macros

by

This little bee was quietly feasting on the nectar; nice and peaceful at the end of the day.

I used my 100mm f2.8 macro on this one.   You can take these photos hand-held but really the tripod does help.  It allows you more creativity in terms of ISO and Aperture.   My tripod has the ability to work “upside down” that is the central part can flip over and this means you can get the camera very low.  If you get a tripod make sure you can get it to work down very low.  Its not a thing you often think about until you want a macro!

I do like to take photos of bees but they can be difficult to catch during the day.   Once it cools down they get nice and sleepy; a great time to take a macro.  Another trick that can work (depending on your bug catching skills) is to put the insect into the freezer for a few seconds.  Just long enough to cool them down.  
Take a few shots at different apertures if you can as well.  Here I went from f2.8 up to f11 and then reviewed in Lightroom.

Bee on orange flower macro

These tools helped me work the magic:

Red Bubbles!

by

Some for a rainy day?  When the rain starts falling I like to get out the macro lens and see what I can capture at home.  There were no bugs around the place so I decided to try and create something.   In this photo I took some food colouring into some water and then added a little olive oil.  Finally a little stir to get those bubbles going!I had my camera fixed on a tripod and used the remote release to fire the shutter.  Initially, the light wasn’t quite right so I added some off camera flash. IMG 6332 Edit small

These tools helped me work the magic:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...