Macro Hydrangeas

Blue Hydrangeas

I'm pretty new to macro photography and I've got a fair bit to learn. The Hydrangeas are in bloom and  since they make good macro subjects, I took the opportunity to practice a little. The hardest part of taking these photographs was the lighting.

More photographs inside.

 Pink Hydrangeas

In order to achieve a greater depth of field, relatively small apertures are used in macro photography. The photographs on this post were shot at around the f14 mark. Because of the small apertures, artificial lighting and a tripod are pretty much essential.

Blue Hydrangeas

I used a Canon 430 EX II to light these images. The flash was handheld and triggered via the 7D's flash trigger system. I think I fired the flash at around 1/8th power. I'm still not too happy with the dark areas on the image and I will probably look at using a second flash to light up those spaces. However, I do think the shadows give the photograph a bit more depth and I'd have to figure out how preserve them.

Pink Hydrangeas

I used the Canon 100mm macro lens and the 7D for these photographs.

33/52 - The Macro

The Macro

I photographed my macro lens for this weeks entry. The challenge with this photograph was controlling the specular highlight on the lens itself. I had thought the process through and was happy with the fact that I had to actually use only one light setup. At lest I seem to be learning something! I used a two light setup for this one.

Lighting setup shots after the jump.

Lighting setup - The Macro

The lens was lit using a snooted Canon 430 EX II fired at 1/8th through a 1/2 CTB gel. I used the snoot because I only wanted a section of the lens to be lit. The highlight on the edge of the lens was created by this flash.

The specular highlight on the lens was created by a Canon 580 EX II fired at 1/32 into a white foam-core board on the right of the frame. 

32/52 - The Rose

The Rose

This weeks entry for the project was fairly quick and pain free. I used a single strobe and the macro lens to produce the shot above. I did move the flash around a bit to add a bit more depth to the image by creating shadows of the layers of petals. I converted the shot into a black and white image and I'm quite happy with the result.

Lighting setup shots and a black and white version after the jump.

Lighting Setup - The Rose

I used a Canon 580 EX II fired at 1/16th to light the flower. Looking down at the end result, the strobe was positioned at about 2 o'clock. The flower used for the shot is highlighted in the setup above.

Here's the black and white version.

The Rose in Black and White

Macro Bee

A Bee settled on a Jasmine

I pulled out the macro lens a few days ago to try my hand at photographing live insects. It was interesting to say the least. I had been photographing flowers with the lens earlier and had the extension tubes on. I was lazy and didn't bother taking it out which made photographing insects a bit harder. 

More shots after the jump.

A Bee settled on a Jasmine

I first tried to pre-focus on a flower and wait for the Bees to settle on it. Half an hours wait without a single Bee landing on the flower was quite frustrating. Having got sick of waiting, I changed my approach and decided to move close to the Bees once they settled on a flower. Lighting was a bit more difficult as I had to hand hold the flash ( I didn't want on axis light so couldn't mount the flash on the camera itself).

A Bee settled on a Jasmine

This time I was able to ask my sister-in-law to help me out by holding the flash (she didn't seem to mind). I need to find a long term solution for this as it can become a bit of a problem. My options are getting a macro flash or looking for some sort of bracket to hold the flash.

25/52 - Whisk

Whisk

This weeks subject was a whisk which I found in the kitchen. I wasn't sure how I was going to use it initially and started experimenting with it to create bokeh. After shooting a number of frames with it, I decided to use the whisk itself as the main subject but shoot it with a shallow depth of field to try and make it look a bit "different". I had the macro lens on at the time and this made things a bit easier.

Lighting info after the jump.

 Lighting Setup - Whisk

This was another two light setup.

The Canon 580 EX II was fired at 1/32 at the background from in front of the subject on camera left through a CTB gel. This light bounced off the handle of the whisk to create a bit of blue bokeh.

The Canon 430 EX II was fired at 1/64th through a CTO gel from behind the subject on camera right. this light lit the inside of the whisk and the handle. This flas was zoomed to 105mm.

I used two black foam-core boards for the background and to place the whisk on. I hadn't used black boards to absorb the light before so it turned out to be a good excuse to try it out.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Pink Gazania

A Pink Gazania

I played around with the macro lens and the extension tubes over the weekend to get used to using them. I found this Pink Gazania in the garden and decided to use it as a subject. It's actually quite a small flower and I was relatively happy with the results of my first macro shoot. However, I must admit, it took me a lot longer to find the name of the flower than to photograph it!

More photographs inside.

A Pink Gazania

I used a tripod for these shots but didn't have a light stand for the flash and had to hold it with my right hand while releasing the shutter with my left. It wasn't the best position to hold the camera steady but a shutter speed of 1/250th helped. These were taken at an aperture of f/11 and the flash was fired form very close to the lens.

A Pink Gazania

I'm not sure if I actually needed the extension tubes for these shots but I wanted to use them anyway. In the coming weeks I want to use the macro a fair bit and really familiarise myself with apertures, lighting and when to use extension tubes! In other words, watch out for a whole bunch of macro shots on this blog. 

23/52 - Longines

Longines

I decided to use the macro lens to photograph my wife's watch as this week's shot for the project. I still haven't used the tripod for macro shots and it's pretty tough without it. The depth of field is so shallow that the slightest movement blurs the image. I used a straight-forward one light setup for this shot.

Setup shot, inside.

Setup - Longines

I used a Canon 430 EX II fired at 1/8th from camera right to light the watch. The light was bounced off a white foam-core board placed just out of frame on the left of the camera. The shot was taken from directly above the watch.

22/52 - Stitched

Stitched

I got a macro lens over the weekend and decided to use it for this weeks photograph. I hadn't used a macro lens before and it took me a while to get this shot. The part of macro photography that I have taken a while get the hang of is the shallow DOF and figuring out what aperture to use (It's not easy to see the DOF on the LCD at the back of the camera). This shot was taken at f/9. Hopefully practice will make it a bit easier.

Setup shot inside.

 

Setup - Stitched

This was a single light setup. I used a Canon 580 EX fired from camera right at 1/4th and zoomed to 50mm.

I used a white A4 paper from camera left to bounce the light and fill the other side of the thread.

Kiwi Fruit

Back lit Kiwi Fruit

I was playing around with the flash over the weekend when I composed this image. I wanted to capture an image of backlit slices of Kiwi fruit on a black background to highlight the "furry" exterior of the fruit while capturing its green insides. Read on for lighting information.

I placed the slices of Kiwi fruit on a piece of glass which was suspended across two chairs. I lit it with a Canon 430EX shot at 1/64 from under the piece of glass (not directly under, it was just out of the bottom of the frame in the shot above). The differences in the shade of green on the slices was caused by the thickness of the slices themselves.

I could have shot the flash through a sheet of white A4 paper to make the light source appear larger and create a white background but I wanted to go for the black background and back light the fuzzy exterior of the fruit.

I'm not sure about this image to be honest. what do you guys think?

It was shot with a canon 24-105mm lens mounted on a Canon 7D. No Tripod was used.

Dancing Dropwing

A Dancing Dropwing photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The Dancing Dropwing is an uncommon dragonfly found in Sri Lanka. I came across a number of them in Anuradhapura. They differ from their more common relatives as they are slightly bigger in size. Their black and yellow coloration, long spidery legs and bicoloured pterostigma can be used to identify this species. More info after the jump.

A Dancing Dropwing photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The female of this species has tinted wings and yellow anal appendages. it's abdomen is also shorter and thicker than that of the male. The abdomen area is around 26 - 32mm in length and the wing span is also around 30-36mm in length. They can usually be found on the banks of tanks (man made lakes), ponds, paddy fields and slow flowing streams. Their range covers areas of both the dry and wet zones.

A Dancing Dropwing photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

I was photographing Asian Groundlings in an abandoned paddy field on the banks of Tissa wewa (sinhalese word for a man made lake) when I saw a couple of Dancing Dropwings among them. I miss took them for the more common Green Skimmer and only captured a few images of the species. I was surprised as I was able to get within about a meter of them to capture these images. As usual I was unable to get closer to them because of the minimum focusing distance of the 100-400mm lens. I think I see a new macro lens on the horizon.

These images were captured using a Canon 7D and a 100-400mm lens.

A Dancing Dropwing photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Another post on the Green Skimmer can be found here.

* I initially made a mistake and identified this species as a Green Skimmer.Thanks to Amila Salgado for the the correction.

Indigo Dropwing

These shots of a male Indigo Dropwing were taken in Kandy. I found it flying around near the swimming pool and noticed that it kept settling in the same place at the edge of the water. It allowed me to get quite close to photograph it but I was limited by the 1.4 meter minimum focusing distance of the lens. More images and info inside. 

The Indigo Dropwing (Trithemis festiva) is an Asian species which is found near flowing water. They are frequently seen on rocks or on vegetation near water ways guarding their territory. Mature males are entirely dark overlaid with a fine whitish pruinescence. Young males look similar to females sporting extensive yellow patches on their abdomen. Females have dark patches at the wing tips and lack the amber spot at the base of their hind wings.

The Indigo Dropwing is often mistaken with the Restless Demon (Indothemis limbata) because both of them are dark blue in colour and they are both similar in size. The orange streaks on the abdomen distinguish it from the Restless Demon which also has dark wing tips.

 

All the images on this post were taken with a Canon 7D body and the 100-400mm lens. It's a good lens for macro work but the only drawback is the nearest focusing distance of 1.4 meters.

Asian Groundling

The Asian Groundling is a common dragonfly found throughout Sri Lanka and also in many other Asian countries. These images were captured in Anuradhapura. Read on for more info and images.

The Asian Groundling is also known as the Ditch Jewel, the Asian Amberwing and the Common Amberwing. The wings of the male Asian Groundling are orange in colour where as the females have clear wings.  This is visible in the image bellow where the female was facing the camera.

These dragonflies can be found around ponds, lakes, drains and pretty much where ever there is water. The images on this post were captured on the banks of the Tissa Wewa in an uncultivated paddy field. 

These images were captured with a canon 7D which had a 100-400mm lens mounted on it. Unfortunately the 100-400mm has a minimum focusing distance of around 1.8 meters and therefore I was unable to get really close to the dragonflies.  What I found most annoying about shooting these images was the fact that I had to actually back away from the dragonflies to capture these shots!

I think I need to invest in a good macro lens soon. Maybe the new 100mm f2.8 IS L lens??? Food for thought....

Glassy Tiger

The Glassy Tiger is a common butterfly found at an altitude of up to 5000 feet, over most of the island. More info on the butterfly and the image inside.

Click here for techs.

With a wingspan of 65-80mm it is the slowest of the Danaids. It spends much of its time between 5 and 10 feet and rarely flies up into the canopy. It is the most shade loving of all the Danaids and is frequently seen nectaring on flowers in the undergrowth. It has a chemical defense that protects it against predators. When handled, it plays dead and emits a foul smelling substance. The sexes are similar.

The male has scent patches on the hind wing. The pouch shaped patch on vein 1 is larger than the pouch on vein 2. Both are more swollen and visible on the underside than on the upper side. The markings on the Glassy Tiger are uniformly grey. It is also the smallest butterfly in the group.

The Glassy Tiger is similar to the Blue Tiger, Dark Blue Tiger, Female Dark Wanderer and the Common Mime.

The fact that it is slow in flight probably helped me when it came to capturing the image above. I followed it as it settled on a number of different flowers until I finally got the shot I was after. I used the 100-400mm lens for this and therefore I didn't have to get too close to it. I came across this butterfly in the middle of the afternoon which is probably the worst time to photograph Butterflies. The best time to photograph them is early morning before they "warm up" in the sun and become more active. Make sure that your shadow does not fall on the subject when you approach it as that tends to disturb them.

I've got more shots of this butterfly at http://devwijewardane.blogspot.com/2010/04/glassy-tiger.html

Oriental Scarlet