Macro
Macro photography is a niche interest, but one I have always been attracted to. Small things are often weird things. And weird things make fun photographic subjects.
I need to explore macro photography more - I’ve had fun playing around, but will definitely be doing more of this stuff - I just need to get a bit more inventive.
So, I hope you enjoy what I have up already, but check back or subscribe to the feed for more macro photography.
I was in the mood to take lots of photos today, but the weather’s a bit bland, so I went and bought lots of colourful bits and bobs from tesco to mess about with.
This is my first success of the day. I might upload more later on if I pull anything good out of the bag 
Technical info: iso 100, f/4, 1/60s, tripod, external flash bounced off white wall.
This was one of my first flower experiments, back in 2007 - I’d forgotten all about it until just now. It was taken using natural light in my front room with my macro lens. I tweaked the contrast a bit after the fact to increase the blackness between the petals, and I love the result.
Technical info: iso 100, f/22, 20 second exposure, tripod.
I love snails - they manage to be both freaky and familiar at the same time. This little chap was crawling down the top of my rough wooden fence just after I got my sigma 70-300, and I took so many pictures of him he forgot where he was going and ended up facing the other way.
Technical info: iso 400, f/8, 1/400s, handheld (the high iso and shot speed were because I was shooting at 190 mm, and had no tripod at the time, so camera shake was a bit of a nightmare).
I can’t remember what this flower’s called! It’s annoying me a bit. But I’ll try to forget about that.
It’s set up very similarly to the rose shot - indoors, with a flash bounced off a piece of white plastic to reflect off the water droplets created by spraying with an atomiser.
Technical info: ISO 200, f/22, 1/30s, tripod, flash.
Posted in macro.
The weather has been absolutely foul for the last few days, and I’ve been working hard, so not too many opportunities have presented themselves. I have just been tinkering around with some roses I bought Ali a couple of days ago, and I quite like this shot. It’s nothing earth shattering, but better than a punch in the face.
I reflected my flash off a big piece of white plastic I got from an art shop a couple of years ago, sprayed the rose with an atomiser from the shed, and tweaked the contrast a little. I found I had to go up to ISO 200 to get a decent level of brightness, because the macro focusses so close I couldn’t bounce quite enough light at the rose at 100. Still, 200’s OK.
Technical info: ISO 200, f/22, 1/60s, tripod.
I had some fun today playing around my macro lens and reflecting a flash off some big bits of coloured plastic - is it immediately obvious what this is?
Technical info - iso 100, f/22, 1/200s, outboard flash used (sigma EF-500 DG ST), tripod.
More silly marbles - as before, just marbles in a wine glass full of fizzy water, shot from various angles.
Technical info: iso 100, f/22, tripod, 3 shot HDR processed in photomatix pro
I had a fun couple of hours earlier this year playing around with a bag of marbles - this is one of my favourite shots (It’s still my desktop wallpaper, actually).
I filled a wine glass with fizzy water, plopped a load of marbles in it, lit it from behind with a lamp and proceeded to take hundreds of photos with my macro lens. It looks vaguely spacey, which pleases me!
Technical info: iso 100, f/22, tripod, 3 shot HDR processed in photomatix pro
I had an odd few days earlier in the year, playing around with sweets and my macro lens. I spent rather too long arranging gummy bears, fizzy snakes and liquorice allsorts on various pieces of coloured plastic, and experimenting with different sorts of lighting.
I have since sought psychiatric help, and the phase is thankfully behind me.
This picture was taken at 1:1 macro (see lenses) in a dark room - each gummy bear was sitting on the edge of a lit tea light candle, giving them that somewhat sinister glow. It’s an odd picture, but I like it!
Technical info: iso 400, f/8, 1/166s, tripod.
Posted in macro.
I had a phase of playing around with marbles a couple of months ago, and this is one of the results of that.
The actual subject is more prosaic than it looks… It’s a wine glass filled with fizzy water and marbles, with a lamp behind it. The spiral structure that makes this picture work so well was just a fluke.
Some vaguely technical info: iso 100, f/10, tripod. Taken with Canon 450d / Sigma 70mm 1:2.8 DG Macro. 3 shot HDR combined in photomatix pro.
Recent Comments