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.

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