Macro Frog(nohopper) & Zebra

Hi there,

I am almost ashamed to post again, after 'promising' that I would post a stunning image for the painting with time entry, and then never doing it. Like Paul, let me tell a little story too: I had this great idea of getting a model to jog in the evening, and it would run into my 'image' that I was taking with a long shutter speed. Then in the middle of my image/frame, she had to stop right there and then with jogging, and stay as still as she could, and then continue to run. My idea was that there would be motion coming in, then a somehow sharp jogger frozen in mid air, and then a blur again moving out.

If this would work, then I would get the model to dress up in a dress, and run in the surf doing the same thing. But it never worked out... I spend 3 hours actually trying all sorts of things, but they all looked rubbish, blurred or with no 'motion blur' at all. Then tried various other things to come up with at least some image for this entry, from photographing a spinning egg coming to a standstill, to amarula being poured over ice. I can tell you one thing, i had a great evening trying all this and learned loads and drank a lot of amarula, but no shot was even close to being a 'nice image'. Sorry...

The Macro entry brings me back to my favorite subject, being wildlife. Here I post two images, no true macro shots, and not nearly as sophisticated as Paul's image, but I like them nevertheless. Would be good to get some feedback from you guys to improve on these images. For example, I think a little fill in flash would have helped to bring alive the eye of the zebra. The frog image I like because of the soft 'lines' of the leafy background, but I am sure you can come up with something where I can improve.

By the way, I also made a little website for some of my images. If you want you can have a look at www.nuphotography.co.za It is quite a simple one, but I am quite new to making websites. Concerning the images, please keep in mind I am still an amateur! Perhaps you would like to tell me which image you like, and which one you don't.

Hope to hear from you.

Kind regards,

Nick

70-300 VR lens, set at 300, F 5.6, Exp 1/60

Rainy cloudy day in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park

18-55 lens, set at 55, F5.6, Exp: 1/20

Sunny day, frog sits in shade of canopy of surrounding trees

Macro Froghopper

This is a froghopper. I took it with a 100mm macro lens. Exposure details: F/16 at 1 sec. Manually fired flash, under powered to about 50%.


Ahh... forget it! Back to my long winded self! :) I took this month or so ago and had to work quite hard. As far as froghoppers go this guy was huge measuring in at a whopping 2cm! As froghoppers tend to do, this chap kept scooting around the twig forcing me to engage "determined-hot-pursuit-mode", tripod and miniscule depth of field not withstanding. I was able to herd the beast by moving my hand towards it from the opposite side. Of course returing and sliding my flash baring hand forward into position saw the frogster slide round the twig again. Repeat performance ad infinatum!
Then it started raining! But this was a great thing! I taped an umbrella to the tripod and the froghopper, less determined than I, was also less willing to scoot round the twig if it meant getting wet! Yes, the umbrella was strategically placed! So I was finally able to compose a halfway decent image. But wait! There is more (and I will try and be brief!)
The background was brick and burglar bars. So I rectified this by plucking a bunch of agapantha leaves and waving them around, about a meter behind the scene. Crucifiction-like, I was still able to reach forward and fire the flash from camera side (But I had to tuck my rain coat into my Jean pant!)
The Froghopper lived in case you were wondering. Next I am going to photograph an apple, and when I am bigger I wanna do birds in flight :)
And if you have read this far...... it tells me you too are determined, and could conquer froghoppers also.
Paul the Abrupt.

New Theme - Macro

Thanks to the few images from last month's theme, painting with time. This month the set theme is macro, so have fun chasing critters in the garden, or possibly even getting in close for abstract views of things we take for granted. The world up close has a habit of surprising those who are incapable of contemplating the small :)

E