Macro flower photographs

Ivy-leaved Speedwell (klimopbladereprijs)

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/aef...ronika-007.jpg

The flower is just a few millimetres wide, in the lower picture it's seen with chickwort flowers in the lawn underneath.

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/26e...eronika-02.jpg

Urban, here is one of mine

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7258/6...440e8d64_b.jpg

In Holland I would call it a Veronica (plantaginaceae family), but speedwell is correct as well

Here the name is Veronica too, and the particular one is "murgrönsveronika", while it also has the name "murgrönsärenpris". The more common species "trådveronika" is a different one with rounded leaves in pairs along the stem, while this one does not have the leaves in pairs opposite. And the Dutch name of "klimopereprijs" puzzled me a bit, as it does not climb at all but crawls along the ground, but inserting "blad" makes a bit more sense, considering its Swedish name, as well as the English, which seems to be given for the shape of the leaves.

The Veronica is competing with the Chickweed for space, and the Chickweed grows way faster, making a veritable mat of stems and flowers. Chickweed stems shoot away from the plant so rapidly, that many of them lose contact with the root system, and they seem not to propagate vegetatively, but flowers at the end of stems set seeds far away from the first location, while the Veronica also shoots out long stems, but they root in various places, thus propagating in a vegetative way. It seems as this particular Veronica is not half as invasive as the Chickweed. There are large spots in the lawn behind my house where the Chickweed is almost the only species, not even giving the grass a fair chance.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7207/6...e1c02e6a_b.jpg

A simple crocus

and
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7181/7...b62a2f76_b.jpg

an allium

Better colours (than whitish) are rapidly growing now, so I am looking forward to next weekend.

Perhaps not really a macro shot, but it illustrates just how the Speedwell competes with the Chickweed that is invading the lawn. This image was taken with a Pentacon 29 mm lens tilted to stretch the focus field along the lawn.

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/5b2...-av-vatarv.jpg

Here's some moss from yesterday.

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/a33.../mossa-003.jpg

The pennywort mostly is blue; in Swedish, its name is "blåsippa" (blue anemone). However, many colours are possible, often it takes a reddish purple tone, and in rare cases it can be almost white.

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/271...asippa-002.jpg

Amazing photographs.

I just bought a Nikon D7000 with a 18-105 mm lens. What else should I buy to make macro photographs like those you made?

Washington

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Originally Posted by Washington

Amazing photographs.

I just bought a Nikon D7000 with a 18-105 mm lens. What else should I buy to make macro photographs like those you made?

Washington

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Washington

If you want to make macro pictures as opposed to just close-ups of various smaller objects, then you need a specialist macro lens.

You could look on the various online retail sites to find out details about what macro lenses are and what sort of prices you need to pay. But if you also go to 'Discussion Categories' tab on the menu bar above and choose 'Macro Photography', you'll find lots of discussions about macro lenses.

Most of my closeups of flowers are taken with a 50 mm Trinar enlarging lens, as I have posted above, with extension rings and focusing by sliding the camera a bit back and forth to find focus. Many images of somewhat larger surfaces are taken with a 29 mm Pentacon lens that I usually tilt a bit to get sharpness over a larger area. The camera I use is a Panasonic Lumix G1.

For the Nikon, the most suitable lenses for closeup are macro lenses from various manufacturers. There's a Nikon 60 mm that is terrific, and it performs well for flowers, but not so much for insects as it gets a bit too close. The most popular macro lenses are from 90 up to 105 mm, and there are very good lenses that are longer too. They give a bit more leeway for insects so that they are not as disturbed. The longer lenses, 150, 180 and 200 mm are more difficult to handle, as it is not so easy to find the subject with such a small angle, considering the very shallow depth of field. For a Nikon DX camera I'd go for a 90, 100 or 105 mm, which maybe is the most versatile macro lens. However, the 60 could be a best choice for price, ease of use, and it also doubles well as a portrait lens, having IMO the nicest bokeh of any of the Nikon lenses. There are also scores of other lenses that may be considered. Sigma has 50 and 70 mm lenses, and there's a Micro Nikkor 85 mm too that is not overly expensive. There is also a Tamron 60 mm f/2 if one wants a lens that can double as portrait lens with extremely short DOF.

To get into the closeup world with just what you have and one little extra accessory, I would opt for using either a +3 diopters Hoya closeup lens or a +5 diopters achromatic closeup lens. At the longest focal length with your 18-105 such a combination will give you a very useful closeup range, although it won't go all the way down to 1:1 scale on the sensor. Don't invest in a "set" of closeup lenses; they contain some you don't need at all and the strongest one has rather much optical errors. One +3 lens that is uncorrected does well with the 18-105 from 50 mm setting and up to 105 mm, or a +4 or +5 achromatic lens, but those are more expensive. You won't need more than one closeup lens. When using a closeup lens, the longest distance you can use is set by the diopters of the lens. For a +3 lens it is 33 cm (1'1") from the lens and for a +5 lens it is 20 cm from the lens. The AF will fine focus a few inches closer, and VR operates normally.

Interesting little flower, quite delicate and small and beautiful leaves.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7043/6...5098894c_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7096/7...106cae1c_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7257/7...04722f3f_b.jpg

I am still trying to find the name though. TBC

Edit: looks like the alliaria petiolata (alliaria officinalis) or in Dutch look-zonder-look

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Washington

Amazing photographs.

I just bought a Nikon D7000 with a 18-105 mm lens. What else should I buy to make macro photographs like those you made?

Washington

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Washington, all the photos you see from me in this thread are taken with the D7000 and the Nikkor 105mmVR. The combination works great for me and enables me to walk around and make macro photos of flowers and insects.
The lens provides a bit of stability with the VR and the D7000 can use quite a high ISO, which makes it possible to do most of the shots handheld without flash, provided there is enough light of course.

This anthurium resides in a pot in my kitchen window. To eliminate the background of the neighouring lawn and house and the street, I took it with a Carl Zeiss Planar 50 mm f/1.4 wide open. It's taken at a distance of about a metre, which throws the background really far back. The Planar is reasonably sharp also wide open, although the three element Trinar lens is even sharper and has a nicer bokeh with softer edges. However, when there are no disturbing bright objects in the background, the f/1.4 lens can blur out just everything.

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/d09...8/flamingo.jpg

I love it when the wild flowers come up

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7076/7...8bafacbb_b.jpg

a lamium

Strangely, the coltsfoot allmost went awol here this spring, but now they abound in some places.
http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/3d6...rfara-0100.jpg

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Originally Posted by Inkanyezi

Strangely, the coltsfoot allmost went awol here this spring, but now they abound in some places.
http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/3d6...rfara-0100.jpg

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Lovely detail on that yellow Urban. They are coming up here as well, if it is sunny tomorrow I might try to shoot some.

Well, nice and yellow was there. Quite windy though, so only the low growing flowers would do

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7133/7...73ae8c9f_b.jpg

Dandelion

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7125/6...8ea06cff_b.jpg

chelidonium majus or tetterwort. Stinkende gouwe (stinky golden one) in Dutch

I took an evening stroll and found a couple of new signs of spring. The lungwort stands in bloom now in a few places.

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/a15...onaria-001.jpg

And I also found a rarity, the common toothwort, Lathraea squamaria, (bleke schubwortel), a parasite on the hazelroots. It was a bit dark already when I shot these, I think I might find a better opportunity somewhat earlier another day.

http://uploads.ifokus.se/uploads/ee5...chubwortel.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inkanyezi

I took an evening stroll and found a couple of new signs of spring. The lungwort stands in bloom now in a few places.

...
And I also found a rarity, the common toothwort, Lathraea squamaria, (bleke schubwortel), a parasite on the hazelroots. It was a bit dark already when I shot these, I think I might find a better opportunity somewhat earlier another day.
...

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Nice to see flowers that don't grow where I live (Texas).