Posts in Category: macro
12/27/2008
Impression of Fritillary
Two years ago, the Jekyll Island Commission planted wildflowers along the causeway out to the island, and when I visited in October, they were in their prime. Fritillary migration was also at its peak, so the flower expanses were were filled with butterflies. I got a lot of excellent portrait shots of butterflies (and bees) on the flowers, but this chance shot really pleases me. “I could not have done it if I had tried.” Sometimes chance is better than any amount of calculation.
Sony DSC H9 at the wide end of the macro zoom. F4.0 @ 1/100th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Nothing much more than a bit of crop, some Vibrance, and some Sharpening in Lightroom.
From the Jekyll Island Gallery.
12/24/2008
Holly and Ice
Holly, sharp as our failure to love, berries red as the blood that was shed, ice as cold as the world he came to save. We celebrate his birth. Merry Christmas!
I saw this bush, covered in ice, in passing on the street, and immediately thought of it as a Christmas image. I took a few shots of the berries and leaves in their sheath of ice. The light was not ideal, as the bush was tight up against a house in deep shadow.
Wide macro. F2.7 (wide open) @ 1/50th @ ISO 100.
Just basic sharpening and Clarity in Lightroom. Cropped for effect.
Because of the poor lighting, slow shutter speed, and hand-held macro, this just holds sharpness. Just. Enough.
From the Winter Weather Gallery.
12/23/2008
Plum in Snow
Parson’s Beach after the 20 inches of snow we got day before yesterday. A beach plum (rose hip) at the tip of an otherwise buried bush. Another exposure challenge, but the Snow scene mode on the H50 handled it well.
F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Snow Scene Programed Mode.
I tried to take this at the tele end of the zoom for framing, but could not get in tight enough. To make it work I had to capture all the detail in the plum, and the texture of the snow. Therefore I zoomed out all the way to 31mm equivalent to take advantage of the super-macro focusing at that end, stepped off into the snowdrift to get close enough, set the camera so the LCD was on, and took the image at arms length. It is options like this that keep me carrying and using the H50.
This required only a tiny crop on the left, and sharpening in Lightroom.
It is from the Winter Weather Gallery.
12/14/2008
Iced Ornamental: Kennebunk ME
Walking into town for milk, camera with me of course, on the morning after the storm. Clear. Cold. The sun had begun the job in the late afternoon of the storm day, melting and shedding the encasing ice. This little ornamental tree, planted by the town along our street, had not fared well. Branches lay all around its base and the top was still bowed down. Because of the intense cold, the hanging berries were still half coated with ice, and it was not yet melting even in full sun.
No challenge here really. I just crossed the street and took a number of point blank shots with the macro at the wide end of the Sony H50’s zoom. The only issue was finding a good background. I cropped out some of the road and a telephone pole on the right. That leaves the berries more centered than I might like, but this is pretty much a portrait shot of the moment.
F4.5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I applied my standard a bit extra Clarity and Vibrance, and used the Sharpen Landscape preset. Pretty simple.
In pics from the day before I had had to pump up the highlights to show the effect of the low light in the ice. In full sun no help was necessary.
It does not get any easier than this. Always pick the low hanging fruit, or berries in this case.
From Winter Weather.
12/12/2008
Light Touch: Kennebunk ME
Once more the articulated LCD of the Sony DSC H50 comes into its own. Right down at ground level, centimeters away from the grass blades encased in ice. And the 2 cm macro helps. I was able to catch the sky light in the ice around the individual blades.
Dim light, still raining a bit. 32mm equiv. F2.7 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Cropped (some sky at the top, out of focus grass and ice on either side). In Lightroom, added Clarity and Vibrance (not much effect). Sharpen Landscape preset. Increased the highlight value slightly to bring out the light in the ice.
12/11/2008
Iced Moss: Kennebunk ME
Still raining. I was working fast to avoid getting my camera too wet. The light was miserable. This is moss. Very tiny. Taken from 2 cm close focus of the macro at the 32mm equiv. F2.8 @ 1/40th @ ISO 400. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom this shot required some lightening, a bit of color temperature correction to warm it, my usual Clarity and Vibrance, and Landscape Sharpen preset. Because of the higher ISO it also required some noise reduction, both Luminance and Color.
It is still not critically sharp. The slow shutter speed and the awkward position (even using the LCD), combined with my hurry lest a big drop of half frozen slush fall on the camera and forever short it out, all combined to soften the image. Still, it is a very pleasing shot at screen resolution, and would look fine printed at wall hanging size, from the usual several feet of viewing distance. 1 to 1 on the screen, or in a print from an inch away, you would see the softness.
From Winter Weather
11/14/2008
Crimson Patch: NABA Gardens, Mission TX
A morning at the NABA Gardens, right on the Rio Grande river in tropical Texas, is always rewarding. Butterflies everywhere you look. Spectacular butterflies. The challenge is finding one perched for long enough to photograph it. A fairly long lens, zoom, with macro, is recommended.
This was taken at the wide end of the macro zoom on the Sony DSC H50, at an equivalent of 31mm (in 35mm terms), from inches away. F4 @ 1/100 second. ISO 100 (Auto). Programed Auto with no exposure compensation. Auto White Balance.
Minimal post processing in Lightroom. Clarity and Vibrance. Landscape Sharpen preset.
Shots like this are possible because of the big, relatively bright, articulated LCD. Really though, if you spend any time at the NABA Garden, you can’t miss. You will come away with memorable shots if you are half trying.