Group f11

In 2008 three photographers, starting out on their careers, decided to keep in contact through a blog page in which they could share ideas, post images and ask each other advice. This has since mutated into a web space where those photographers still meet, but so too do their students and other like-minded photographers.

If anybody would like to join all you need to do is email the blog administrator, Emil
.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The past two weeks were good for me in terms of photography

Here we are again... The photos from my previous post were photos taken before I knew about the macro theme. Yet I felt that with this new theme, I should actually be encouraged to go out and specifically shoot some macro stuff to practice. Especially since I bought a second hand macro lens a few months ago that I haven't used much yet. So here some shots of the past two weeks.

Leaf mantid nymph, 55 mm macro prime lens, an old bugger with an aperture ring and no light meter... But good optics! F 3.5, 1/20 sec, ISO 125 Weather: cloudy and rainy. And some determined hot pursuit mode as these insects have the habit of mimicking a twig moving in the wind. Can you imagine me whispering "For heavens sake, sit still for a moment please!" while adjusting aperture rings etc. while that thing obviously keeps on rocking back and forth....


Parasitic wasp with caterpillar that it is about to bury. Not such a fantastic shot perhaps, but I like the 'unique animal behavior' shown here.
Tech specs: 100mm F2.8 prime lens, Old bugger too, aperture ring set at F8 if I remember correctly, 1/800 sec. Bright sunny weather. But then I wanted to hang myself when I found out I forgot to turn the ISO down and was shooting ISO 400, and then the wasp was just finished burying his prize and flew away... No wonder you could shoot at 1/800 sec... Idiot!



Once again a not so special shot, but for me a first of a close up macro of a flower. Never really done flowers before, but they can be quite nice. Will practice these things more. Advice please... I don't know yet what I am doing...
Tech specs: that macro lens again aperture set at 3.5 or 5.6. 1/160 sec. ISO 400. Flower in heavy shade


I know, super cliché, everybody has such a shot, but I still like it. Game drive vehicle in eye of impala. 70-300 VR lens set at 300, F5.6 1/60 sec. ISO 200 Sunny day but yet a little fill in flash.



Don't even know whether this falls under macro as this shot is also taken with the 70-300 VR lens, set at 116mm F7.1 and 1/160 sec. Bright sunny day. But I like the metallic shine of the beetle that is so clearly visible in this light.


Well, whether the images are good or not, I leave that up to you to decide (and please let me know so I can learn), I enjoyed putting a lot of effort in this months theme. Looking forward to seeing your macro shots too.

Nick again.


Posted by Geert - Nick at 10:05 PM

1 comment:

Emil von Maltitz said...

awesome set of images Nick! I'd say the flower is probably the least strong of these. I'm not sure if I'd like to see a slightly off centre composition or a tighter crop (possibly a tighter crop as I find the darker green almost distracting). I really like the Mantid, wasp and dung-beetle. The low angle view of the Mantid is brilliant, giving the view that it's prey would have ;) the dung beetle would possibly benefit from a slightly lower point of view (i.e. camera slap-bang level with the ground) but this doesn't detract from teh fact that it's a really good image! Brilliant post mate. I look forward to each one now.

E

November 10, 2009 at 3:10 AM

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