Project 2013 - Weekly Photos

Geoff, interesting photos. Did you have a particularly co-operative bombylius major or did you simply have a lot of patience after you'd set up the tripod?

With all of my insect shots, Bruce, it's basically a case of set up the camera/tripod with my 'default settings' at a safe distance. Then try to edge close enough to anything interesting. I usually try a first shot at a safe distance of around 18 ins to 2 ft so at least I have something in the camera if my model gets disturbed. And it gives me a chance to check the required flash output level.

Then try to get somewhere around 12 ins working distance if possible. Most of these were shot around 18 ins.

With these insects, I was checking out likely spots and there were a number of bee flies feeding mostly on primroses.

I did witness one hovering while flicking its eggs towards Andrena bee nest holes, where the larvae live as parasites.

It hovered close to the ground and made a quick flick of its tail. But it kept moving to other bee nests so I never had a chance of photographing the event.

One irritating occurrence which frequently upsets my macro photography is when I have just edged into a good position and my subject gets spooked by another insect flying close.

Another common problem is knocking a trailing bramble with a tripod leg, which starts a 'chain reaction' which eventually ends with moving the leaf where the insect is placed! :(

Thank you for the information. Your lens combination seems to work well -- sharp pictures. Do you use autofocus or manual?

Nearly always manual focus, Bruce.

That makes sure that I focus on the required areas, for example keeping the head and eyes sharp while the tail can merge into the background without problems.

And quite often, I need to get a specific area of an insect perfectly sharp for a successful identification. Like being able to 'count a fly's toes' for example.

Auto focus can help for those species which flit around faster than I can manually focus but I always get a lot of rejects, even when just using the centre focusing point. Which does reduce the number of false focus issues.

And that lens is rather slow to auto focus, usually with a bit of 'shunting around' before it finally settles on what it thinks to be the most suitable area of focus.

Sometimes, I need a bit of shooting position realignment to get most of a larger subject into focus with these shallow depths of field. For example, the damselfly where I had to shuffle around until I was perfectly square with it but still retained a decent camera angle.

Flowers from Andrews Wood

Besides the insect life, I am attempting to photograph some of the wild flowers which can be found at this site throughout the year.

Billberry - Vaccinium myrtillus

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/imag...9/original.jpg

7D with Sigma 180 macro lens. 1/250 F14 iso 200 flash used. The tiny flowers are less than 10 mm so I shot in the same way as if they were an insect. In a fairly dark woodland area so I used a little flash.

Bugle - Ajuja reptans

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/imag...0/original.jpg

7D with Sigma 180 macro lens 1/250 F14 iso 200

Just a quick shot between insects so I moved back a little instead of changing lenses.

Early Purple Orchid - Orchis mascula

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/imag...1/original.jpg

7D with 24-105 L lens with flash on tripod 1/250 F14 iso 200.

Raining and blowing a gale so I used my normal insect procedure except with a different lens. Tried a few shots with different flash exposure compensation. Cleared most of the 'rubbish' from the background area but eventually tried a couple of alternative angle shots which showed more of the background debris.

And, of course, I preferred these angles; even with the complicated background.

Marsh Marigold - Caltha palustris

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/imag...2/original.jpg

Also with the 24-105 lens and with 'insect settings' plus flash because this was another windy day and they were growing in a shady location

Geoff, thanks for sharing these photos. Were you using a ring flash around the lens or a gun mounted on the camera?

Geoff
What lovely photos - wild flowers are so under-rated and I like the debris in the background which adds to the subject. I also like the fact that the flowers themselves aren't perfect -so much macro photography focuses on the perfect specimen. I too am interested in what type of flash you used, when I have tried with my gun I have had a tendency to blow all the colour.
Kaye

Just the standard Speedlite, Bruce.

When I first considered using external mounted flash units for macro photography, as an improvement on the pop up flash, I did consider a macro ring lite but eventually rejected this idea for a couple of reasons.

When photographing insects in the wild, on rough ground etc, tripod fall over has to be taken into account and I thought the Speedlite was more durable, and placed further away from the chief damage risk area.

Also, I need to avoid anything which will scare nervous insects and I reckoned that placing two 'large eyes' on the end of my lens would be really scary to them. I'm careful when using my hands to manually focus. In fact I have even wondered about using thin dark gloves to disguise my fingers!

Photographing dead subjects or flowers under studio conditions is a different matter, although I have a couple of daylight quality lighting units for that situation. And in an ideal situation, I prefer to photograph flowers in that manner, where I have better overall control than in the wild.

But wild flowers often have to be photographed in their natural surroundings.

Kaye. My first attempts at macro flash photography were unsuccessful but I eventually worked out that I could achieve better results by manually setting my camera to suit the scene then using flash output compensation as required. Usually somewhere around -1 to -2 stops.

In fact I now use that same idea for nearly all my flash photography, and I usually get much better results this way.

However, using a single camera mounted direct flash can be problematic for flower photography due to uneven light levels across the scene amongst other issues.

Direct flower flashing isn't the best method; but sometimes it is all that is available.

Good photos Geoff, the lighting does look pretty natural in these.

Thanks Peter. With these tricky lighting shots I try to slightly underexpose the flash then recover more natural looking lighting during editing.

Week 20 - The Bluebell Path

At the Andrews Wood site again. I have looked at this scene several times and wondered about how I could photograph it; and each time I moved on to something else. But eventually decided that I had to try something before the bluebell season is over!

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/imag...9/original.jpg

And a different angle, looking in the other direction.

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/imag...0/original.jpg

Both are a manual merge of three shots at different exposures. F14 and shutter speeds between 1/125 and 1/500.

I spot metered around the scene to work out my starting exposure, taken from a 'neutral point' and manually set my camera to this value. Then shot with bracketed exposures of around 2 stops overall variation.

The scene didn't require a lot of variation but it was a little bit too much for just one shot.

I edited each shot differently during Raw conversion and finally did a merge using layers and masks which I blended together.

Selecting a focus point was another problem. Eventually, I focused on the trees which risked having the foreground excessively blurred. But I had my tripod at eye level so the foreground is fairly well into the distance and a narrow aperture helps to increase the focus field.

I wanted an angle which showed a hint of gateways leading into the woodland to create something of a mystery concerning where the path is leading.

Every year I try a number of bluebell shots, but at least 90% get ditched. :(

Beautiful photos. I especially like the first shot for the colour and composition, and all those blue bells in the foreground.

I have been working through some of my alternative shots of the bluebell scene and think that I prefer this more subtle version which was taken earlier in the day with a softer lower angle light.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2ui7z7r.jpg

The shooting and editing was similar to the previous image.

Just out of curiosity, I also produced a slight LCE version and an auto HDR alternative but rejected both of them.

Although some slight LCE selectively applied might be worth a little more experimentation.

Week 21 - Grazing Sheep

I have looked at this scene several times but always thought it was lacking some foreground interest. Today, there were some newly spruced up models to add a bit of extra interest. :D

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/imag...0/original.jpg

7D with Canon 70-200 lens at 127 mm. 1/250 F14 Iso 200. A little bit of under exposure to prevent the clouds from over exposing.

Some selective use of Adjustment Layers to rebalance the exposure. I set the sky adjustment layer blend mode to multiply in order to add contrast and interest. Then gradually faded it in until the opacity looked correct. Another layer slightly darkened the highlights on the sheep.

I took several shots with different angles and zooms with this scene but eventually though the sheep grouping looked best with this shot. It was a bit of a struggle to get into a shooting position; on a bramble hedge between blackthorn bushes. So it was handheld.

Beautiful photo, Geoff. I adore the composition, not only for the lines but also for the changing colours... Being stuck between a bramble hedge and blackthorn bushes was well worth it! :)

Thanks, Christina, moving further to the right there are a couple of houses, and a small island in the background. I may post an alternative angle tomorrow, or in a couple of days.

And I always look forward to seeing your photos! How about posting some insects, once in a while on a separate thread in the nature section? I'd like to see more of these too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

Week 21 - Grazing Sheep

7D with Canon 70-200 lens at 127 mm. 1/250 F14 Iso 200. A little bit of under exposure to prevent the clouds from over exposing.

Some selective use of Adjustment Layers to rebalance the exposure. I set the sky adjustment layer blend mode to multiply in order to add contrast and interest. Then gradually faded it in until the opacity looked correct. Another layer slightly darkened the highlights on the sheep.

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A pleasant scene. Thank you for explaining what you did in the editing.

Always willing to help with an explanation, Bruce.

I was shooting insects when I took this photo, Christina. Something a little scary, from yesterday, is on the Insects thread now.

But I need more time for editing (and identification); however, more dull wet weather due tomorrow, so I will start to catch up then.

Same shooting position but a different angle which shows more of the general landscape instead of concentrating on the sheep.

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/imag...7/original.jpg