With the rain in place, and a VCR to take apart, I started hacking away, with a thought of starting a week or so of macro shots of itty bitty electronics. Tonight’s image comes from the “Really?” category from Captain Obvious. 🙂
This image was captured with my Canon 7D, Canon 100/2.8 macro lens and Canon 580EX II, and whipped into shape in Photoshop CS4E, Nik Viveza and Nik Color Efex Pro.
Every time I think I’m done with the pendulum, it surprises me with something new. Today, I noted these fine diamonds etched in the sand by the pendulum from another recent session with it, and decided that they might look nice with some low-angle lighting added. I liked the look.
Once I pulled the image into Photoshop CS4E, I used Nik Viveza to nudge the image to black and white, and add the deep blue toning. I’m a big “blue” fan, so this deep blue toning really spoke to me.
Enjoy!
I’m a bit of a lens hound. I love getting new glass, and it seems like I’m always on the watch for a bargain. Tonight, I was able to add a horse to the stable. I found a used Canon 100/2.8 macro lens for about 2/3rds of the retail price that I couldn’t resist pouncing on. I have the MP-E 65/2.8, but it is just a little unwieldy for regular macro work, and of course, cannot be used as a “normal” lens, being an incredibly nearsighted lens.
So I took the new lens, fired up the pendulum, adjusted to touch the sand, and played with some flash shots of the pendulum doing its job. I’m finding that this lens is nice and sharp, and seems to be taking great photos. I can’t wait to get it out into real world, with real sunshine, chasing after some targets outdoors.
It’s back to the small game pieces today. I broke out the Monopoly set, and made images of various pieces from the set. My favorite ended up being the iron. I really liked the shadows created by my desk lamp that I used to light it.
This image was made with my Canon 7D and MP E-65mm/2.8 macro lens. Aside from some straightening in Lightroom, there was no additional post-processing.
After the snow Friday, we were left with a fleeting winter wonderland this morning. At sunrise, I took my Canon 7D and MP-E 65/2.8 macro lens out into the snow to see what I could see.
The gentle constructs of the snow and ice were still just clinging to our forsythia bush, and really attracted my attention. Along the top edge of the thin branches were really cool little ice constructs that were beginning to fall off due to the slight wind and the sun’s peeking from behind the clouds. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time before this ice was gone, so I shot a series of shots — handheld! — with this mammoth lens on the front of the camera.
I was having to capture this at f/8 for to widen the insanely tight depth of field on this lens. Unfortunately, that also meant really long shutter speeds, which didn’t work well when magnified like this in a light breeze, so that meant cranking the 7D up to ISO 800, which gave me a handhold-able speed of 1/320th. Still, I had to put the camera in high speed continuous shooting mode to “spray and pray” for a shot where my wobbling, the wind’s blowing and the lens’ depth of field all came together at the right time. I suppose I could’ve put the camera on a tripod, and used something to clamp the branch in place, but where’s the fun in that? 🙂
In the digital darkroom, I brought the image into Photoshop CS4E, reducing noise with Nik Dfine, adding a couple of control points with Nik Viveza, and finishing it off with the Glamour Glow filter from Nik Color Efex Pro. I’m really growing to like that soft filter look in some of my nature images, and it really seemed to work for this one.
I’m back at playing with the Canon MP-E 65/2.8 tonight. Tonight’s subject matter is a stack of quarters showing off their reeded edges. Once again, I lit from above and to the right with a desk lamp. I believe the lens was set to around 2x life size. Lightroom, to Photoshop CS4E, with a little Nik Color Efex Pro thrown in… nothing but net. 🙂
Tonight’s shot comes from my light table and chess sets again. I put one of my grandmother’s chess pieces on the light table, while leaving the blue chess pieces set up on the light table, refracting through the head of the pawn. I love the way the blue set appears through the pawn’s head, pointing out the contrast between the smooth lines of the blue set and the handmade uniqueness of the pawn.
Once again, this was photographed with my Canon MP-E 65/2.8, finished in Photoshop CS4E, with the assistance of Nik Color Efex Pro.
This morning, I awoke to the remnants of the very small snowfall we had late in the week. My favorite glass table on the deck had ice atop it, which prompted me to pull out my Canon MP-E 65/2.8 lens. The more I shoot with this lens, the more I love it… kinda. I mean, it is definitely a lens that takes a lot of practice to use well.
The biggest challenge I’m having with it is in getting the focal plane broad enough by ensuring that what I’m photographic is parallel to the film plane. Any slight angle yoinks the focal plane down to nothing. I’ve got some ideas about how to fix that… stay tuned!
I’ve pulled out some old game sets to play with my Canon MP-E 65/2.8 macro lens. For some reason, I picked Q from the Scrabble tiles. Dunno exactly why — it’s rare, hard to use, and can be a killer if played right. I kinda like that.
I shot with a big desk lamp above and to the right, about four feet away. I cropped it, and applied a black and white filter in Lightroom to give it the look you see.
I think I’ll be playing with game pieces more in the future — stay tuned!
Today’s experiment in macro land involves my Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens and a carpenter bee. The bees and I have had an ongoing feud over ownership of my deck for the last few years. My take is that if they think they should own it, they should help pay for it. They, on the other hand, march up and down the deck, buzzing us all day when we’re on the deck, enforcing a no-fly zone.
One of them was stunned in a small skirmish on the deck, and I knew I had an opportunity to photograph this bee under some controlled circumstances. Based on some material I’d read, I knew I could drop the little dude into freezer, and be able to photograph him without him squirming around so much. I extracted him from the freezer, and took him to the deck for a proper photographing.
The biggest thing I noticed was that there was a ton of condensation on the bee, especially noticeable on the eyes. I was also fighting a 20mph wind, which was making it tough to set up the shots. These images may not be the best in the world, but I’m pleased with my first foray into photographing these little guys with this awesome lens.