photoartflightWater Droplets
Posted on September 29, 2013
A lot of photographers do not like it when it rains, cuts down on their photography. I like a rain showers, when it ends or just drizzles a little, it gives you an opportunity to go and add water droplets to your photos. It adds interest and dimension to leaves and other subjects. It is like a Treasure hunt and you can do it in your own yard or a local park. When shooting wet leaves, sometimes it helps to use a polarizing filter to cut down on the glare if the sun comes out. Most of the photos shown here were shot using the Panasonic GH2 m43 camera with an older manual focus Canon FD 200mm f/4 macro lens. I like using this combination for macro. With this combo it is like using an f/4 400mm macro that goes to 2X without extension tubes. Your depth of field is also extended because it is a 200 mm lens, but with the 2X crop factor of m43 giving you 400mm. Plus you are not right on top of your subjects, gives you a nice working distance. You just press in the exposure compensation and the image in your viewfinder zooms in for critical focus. Then you just touch the shutter button and it zooms out for the full image on the viewfinder. Also as you stop down, the image remains bright in the electronic viewfinder, but you also see the full depth of field of the aperture you set. After you shoot your shot you also instantly see a preview of what you just shot for a second and will give you “blinkies” on a bright area that might have gotten blown out so you can instantly compensate and reshoot a darker exposure. So enjoy and go out and look after a rain shower to see what you can find.
Web Browsing
Posted on September 28, 2013
I like a different kind of Web Browsing. It is fun to wander around either in my yard or parks looking for spider webs. Sometimes I get lucky and find nice webs with morning dew with interesting backgrounds & backlighting. But more often I find webs in difficult areas to get to or in really dark areas with bad light and wind blowing it around. If you keep an eye out for webs while you are out shooting other subjects, quite often you will come across them. Sometimes I try to get in as close as I can for more detail in the web and spider. Other times I back out to show more of the whole web. For whole webs you do not need a macro lens. If you want to get closer and do not have a macro lens, try extension tubes or achromatic filters. They work quite well on 70 – 200 or 300mm zooms or even 50mm normal lenses. You can even try a short extension tube on wide angle lenses. When shooting spiders close-up, try just moving up or down slightly to get different backgrounds. You do not have to move too much to get different background effects and density variations. Either way, give it a try and have fun.
Twenty four shot image stack assembled in Photoshop
Black and White at Brigantine NWR
Posted on September 25, 2013
Here is a brief selection of birds from the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ. Some are Summer visitors and the Snow Geese are Fall and Winter Visitors. Brigantine has a huge variety of birds & wildlife. Eagles, Ospreys, Egrets, Herons, shorebirds, gulls, terns, skimmers, rails, down to smaller birds. The birds here are White with Black (or Dark Brown). In bright light these can be a challenge to photograph and not blow out the whites and still retain detail in the dark areas. If they have black or dark brown coloring on them or a dark bird next to them, I capture in raw formats, depending on the make of the cameras. I usually underexpose slightly for the whites to retain details and open up the dark or shadow areas in the processing software. I use Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop or Lightroom. Sometimes I will do additional processing for sharpening in Photoshop and I use NIK Color Effects to bring out some additional details in the whites. You have to be careful not to add too much and bring out noise. Brigantine looks like it is coming back after Hurricane Sandy hit last year. We like Brigantine because of the wide variety of Birds & Wildlife photography, Landscapes, Sunsets, Sunrises, Macro – Bugs & Flora, the list is endless.
One of My Favorite Macro Setups
Posted on September 19, 2013
I enjoy shooting a lot of closeup and macro shots. One setup I like when I do not want to carry a lot of gear and still have maximum flexibility, is a m4/3 camera body with adapters for my old manual Canon FD 200mm f/4 macro and Nikon 55mm macro. I am using a Panasonic GH2 body, but with the crop factor it is like using a 400mm f/4 macro, but with the depth of field of a 200mm macro, which is more depth of field than a 400mm. This helps when you get really close. Because my old macro lenses are manual focus, on the GH2 with the electronic viewfinder, I just push the control wheel, and zoom in for critical focus. Also as you are shooting you get a preview in the viewfinder of your shot, so you instantly see if any highlights are blown or if you need exposure compensation. With the articulating rear screen it also helps when your subjects are in difficult positions. Because the body is not stabilized I use my tripod when using the old manual focus lenses. The Olympus OM-D e-m5 or the new OM-D Pro bodies have stabilization in the bodies so using these lenses would then be on a stabilized setup which is an interesting. Using the old manual focus Nikon 55mm, with the crop factor, would be like a 110mm macro with amazing depth of field. The GH2 with the Panasonic 14-140mm & 100-300mm stabilized lenses, with the crop factor (2X) is like carrying 28- 280mm and 200-600mm in a lightweight package. I am quite impressed with image quality of both of these lenses and often carry the GH2 with one of them as a second backup setup when my main setup is a Canon body with long telephotos or macro lens. Gives the opportunity to shoot something wide if a 400mm is my main camera, or something far if my main camera has a macro lens. I shoot raw files and using Adobe Camera Raw adjust for sharpness and to control the noise. If I have to I can use up to 3200 – 6400 ISO. A lot of damselflies and dragonflies I shoot at my pond are late in the evening or early in the morning when they are not moving around yet, or after a rain shower when the light is low. If you access to a m43 body give it a try, it is a lot of fun.
Painted Lady Butterfly
Posted on September 11, 2013
I was by the plants along the edge of Gull Pond looking for Dragonflies at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville, NJ. I noticed the Painted Lady on the yellow wildflowers, thinking the orange of the butterfly worked with the yellow wildflowers and was trying to get an interesting shot. Then I noticed the smaller insect with similar colors on the same plant. It is an Ailanthus Webworm Moth. I waited and tried to get them both in a pleasing close composition. I was handholding my Canon 400mm DO with a 1.4X Teleconverter, with extension tubes, so it was tough to get them both in focus with the distance between them. With all the extension tubes, I had to raise my ISO to 1000, and I chose an aperture of f/9 with a shutter speed of 1/640 to get the most depth of field and still maintain a soft look on the rest of the plant, so your eye goes to the insects. Being patient did not pay off this time because the Painted Lady went behind the plant and then flew off, but I am still pleased with what I captured and had fun working the shot.
Winged Wonder – Butterfly Wing at 5X
Posted on September 9, 2013
Here I was trying to get as close as I could to this butterfly wing with a Canon 1D MkIV and a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens. This is a 1x to 5x macro zoom (on a full frame camera). On a Canon 1D MkIV with a 1.3 crop sensor it is more like a 1.3X to 6.5X macro zoom. The MP-E 65mm is definitely a special purpose lens and is a little funky to use. Sometimes it seems like your subject is right up against the front element. Here I backed the zoom down a little and moved the camera in on a rail until I achieved focus. I am guessing it was about 5X. Usually when I am done I photograph a small tape measure and compare it to the image of the sensor. I did not have an opportunity this time to do this. With this extreme close focus it is critical to get as parallel as possible to your subject to achieve focus as much as possible over the entire frame. The MP-E 65mm has a very limited depth of field so it is important. I had the lens set to f/16 and still had a very narrow depth of field. I used an off camera flash above and to the side and a small white reflector for fill flight. I also uploaded a closer crop of the same image.
Work Your Background
Posted on September 8, 2013
Unexpected visitors to the pond today – 2 Autumn Meadowhawks. Went to get my camera with a 150 macro, but they were very skittish. So I switched to 400mm with extensions tubes and a 1.4X teleconverter. I was trying to get the right combination of background and f/-stop combinations to have an uncluttered background as much as possible. I gave up increased depth of field on most and settled for f/5.6, for a smoother background. I thought it might be interesting to see my progression. I moved vertically & horizontally to try for the best background. With a long lens it does not take much to get a different effect. The dragonfly was also slightly moving around the same plant which also gave me some other choices. It then landed next to a spot with some red berries, so I thought maybe the red berries and the red dragonfly would be interesting. Then I worked some on the other side of the pond with the other dragonfly, but it was much darker, so I was shooting bursts to hopefully get one sharp enough to use. You can see the exif data by the photos.
My favorite was the one at the start of this blog, but pick the one you like best.
Green on Green
Posted on September 7, 2013
Sometimes when I am out enjoying nature, looking for birds or wildlife, I keep an eye open for alternate themes that I find interesting. This can fall into almost any photo category. Sometimes they work out well and are great additional images either for prints or for my ebooks. They also help tell a story if used with other images. This also helps sharpen your eye for what is going on around you as you are out in the field. Often it is also more rewarding and fun than finding the same Great Blue Heron in the same spot as last week. It gives you the chance to try different compositions, crops, depth of field, etc. There are unlimited themes you can work with and can help push your creativity. Here I am showing Green on Green, which is great in Spring & Summer, but tough in Winter in the Northeast. Use your imagination to come up with themes you like. White on Black, Red & Blue, Hard & Soft, Sharp & Soft, Dark & Light, you can come up with an endless list. Next time you are out in the field, and it is a slow day, look closely around you and you might be surprised at what you find. These images here were from local parks, my yard and National Wildlife Refuges. Images here were shot with everything from 400mm to macro lenses with Canon equipment to Panasonic GH2 with Canon EF and FD lenses. Thanks for looking and see what you can find.
Click on the image below to see a slideshow.
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