It may be basic, but when you think about macro photography, the first thing you think… bugs, right? Other than the fact that they move and they’re hard to control, especially outside, there is good reason. Here’s my bumblebee:
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Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & no lens info |
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1/200 s |
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2008:06:28 13:17:54 |
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f/4.0 |
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N/A |
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200 |
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Normal program |
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100 mm |
With my 100mm macro lens, things get really big, if you can get close enough. While this is great, it also means you have a pretty darn shallow depth of field, which means that your bee looks more like this:
Nice bee wings but I was going for a full-bee type of thing. Anyway, getting distracted. Cameras these days are pretty darn good – my 3-generation-old Digital Rebel XT still leaves plenty of room for cropping, which is what I did on the picture above to give it just about the same look as the closer picture below. I guess the parting thought is that although it is always good to try and shoot what you want to end up with, sometimes cropping is a useful tool. Want a little tip? Hit the jump.
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Tags: bee, bumblebee, macro
Posted in Photos | 3 Comments »
When you see the fields of tulips, looking out over all the different colors is pretty nice, but some of my favorite pictures were down close with just one color. Pink works pretty well.
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Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & 100.0 mm |
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1/400 s |
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2009:04:25 09:41:38 |
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f/5.6 |
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Ari Brown |
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200 |
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Normal program |
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100 mm |
This one comes from my 100 mm macro lens. I love the shallow depth of field, which devolves into solid pink. On the Digital Rebel XT I shoot with, you’ve got to multiply the focal length by 1.6, so I have a 160mm lens which means I was probably 5 feet back from the flower in question. With overcast sun shooting at ISO 200, you still have plenty of light to freeze any movement in the breeze, but late in the day or inside, this isn’t the perfect lens for hand-held shooting. Sometimes it’s nice to try to figure out what else you can do with the lenses you have. Macros are great up close, but that’s not all they can do.
Tags: depth of field, flowers, macro, skagitvalley, tulips
Posted in Photos | No Comments »
Seattle in Spring is a fickle place to be. Just weeks ago it was snow – far too much. Now it is rain, even as the days get longer. Spring is somewhere, I’m sure, because the flowers are coming everywhere you look.
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Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & 100.0 mm |
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1/250 s |
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2009:02:26 12:44:36 |
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f/5.0 |
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Ari Brown |
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200 |
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Normal program |
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100 mm |
This is from my wanderings a couple weeks ago. Some of my favorite flowers are one the plants that you don’t think of as flowers. Rosemary is almost as rampant as blackberries in my area of Capitol Hill, so it’s hard not to find. The tiny flowers are pretty neat though, especially in macro!
Tags: flowers, macro, rosemary, spring
Posted in Photos | No Comments »
I’ll just say this up front – for a lot of people, this is really elementary stuff. Every photo class I’ve ever taken, for the first or second assignment, did something with DoF (depth of field). In any case, I was playing around and just happened to end up with some pictures that demonstrate it well, so I’m posting here. Someone said they liked this stuff before. We’ll see what you think.
Wanna learn all about it, or just see some purdy pictures? Click the link:
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Tags: africanviolet, depth of field, flowers, macro
Posted in Photos, Technique | 3 Comments »
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Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & no lens info |
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1/400 s |
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2009:02:12 14:31:12 |
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f/5.6 |
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N/A |
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200 |
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Normal program |
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100 mm |
I used to really hate Valentine’s Day. Now I just kinda dislike it. Only on this day is a romantic gesture seen as compulsory instead of… well… romantic. Even so, it’s a good reminder – do something nice for yourself or someone else. You can do it tomorrow too, if you wanna rebel against the system. Happy Valentine’s Day everybody.
Tags: carve, heart, macro, valentinesday, wood
Posted in Photos | 1 Comment »
When it was too cold to do anything else, I went to the Zoo. I might have been the only one who thought it was a good idea because in three hours I saw maybe 5 other people. Lot of animals were surprisingly off display – maybe
Africa in the snow should have been my first clue. It was a good day to shoot though – no crowds to shoot around and as some of my favorite stuff isn’t even alive, it didn’t matter how cold it was. I did see some animals though, and it made me reconsider what I was there for. While most animals don’t want you getting too close, some don’t mind. This King Cobra was right up against the glass. He knew I was there and didn’t care a bit. The whole “not moving much” part was nice too.
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ApertureValue: f/2.8
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DateTimeOriginal: 2008:12:16 15:37:08
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ExposureTime: 1/5 sec
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Flash: No Flash
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FocalLength: 100 mm
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ISOSpeedRatings: 200
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Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
Tags: cobra, macro, zoo
Posted in Photos | 5 Comments »
So this morning I thought it would be a great idea to upgrade to the newest version of Wordpress. While it works great, my fancy photo plugin is now broken, so consider this one freestyle.
My friend Charlie has these neighbors. It’s not so much that they’re crazy, in a medically-diagnosed kinda way, but they sure don’t like throwing things out. The yard is full of tarp-covered “finds” – it’s all very great depression. In any case, they also have a great little chain-link fence out front, which they decided to decorate. With bread tags. To each his own, right? Back to the photography.
This one is shot with the same macro lens, but for a different reason. I really like the blurry look – there is a lot going on in the frame and blurring out most of it makes me happy, which this lens is great at. The photo snobs call that “bokeh”, which loosely translates from it’s Japanese origins to “some stuff is blurry and some stuff isn’t”. Anyway, here it is.
ApertureValue: f/5.6
DateTimedigitized: 2008:06:28 13:15:00
Flash: No Flash
FocalLength: 100 mm
Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
ShutterSpeedValue: 1/500 sec
WhiteBalance: 0
Tags: bokeh, macro
Posted in Photos | 3 Comments »
Top on my photography frustration list is finding a good setting – my apartment has brown doors, eggshell walls, tan carpet, ivory blinds, and a beige cat. Pictures inside are almost always uncompelling. Another reason I love macro so much is you can always find something to shoot if you only need a few square inches of interesting subject. Here’s a couple inches I like.
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ApertureValue: f/2.8
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DateTimeOriginal: 2006:02:03 06:21:03
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ExposureTime: 1/20 sec
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Flash: No Flash
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FocalLength: 100 mm
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ISOSpeedRatings: 100
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Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
Tags: macro
Posted in Photos | No Comments »
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