Tag Archives: macro

Snowflakes

24 February 2013

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We’re in the midst of another cold spell here in the UK, and over the last couple of days we’ve seen a bit of snow. Fortunately the ground hasn’t been been cold enough for the snow to settle, so the entire country hasn’t ground to a halt yet.

The ground might have been too warm for the snow to not melt the second it made contact, but once I’d been outside for a little while my black coat was cold enough. Whilst waiting for a train in the snow yesterday, I realised the snowflakes settling on my coat were perfectly formed. Despite being out in a light snow flurry, I couldn’t help grabbing my camera and switching to my macro lens to grab a shot of some that had landed on me.

1/80sec, f/3.5, ISO 400, exposure bias -1.0, 100mm

1/80sec, f/3.5, ISO 400, exposure bias -1.0, 100mm (cropped)

1/125sec, f/3.5, ISO 400, exposure bias -1.0, 100mm

1/125sec, f/3.5, ISO 400, exposure bias -1.0, 100mm (cropped)

I’ve never seen such perfectly formed snowflakes. They always seem to fall in such a haphazard shape most of the time.

So Long, September

1 October 2012

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It seems that just about every month at about this time I sit here and reflect on my amazement that another month has already been and gone so fast. This time, however, I know exactly why the month has shot by so very quickly – the two week break I took in the middle of the month which helped expedite the month quite pleasantly.

For my summer holidays this year – which I usually take in September because 1) it’s cheaper, and 2) it’s right before work hits the ‘busy until Xmas’ phase – my wife and I visited Tenerife. Although we only visited for a week, as we were flying out and back on a Tuesday we took two whole weeks off of work, which rather nicely meant that there were only two working weeks in the month. Makes things run a lot faster.

If the month of September can be summed up in a word, it would be this: catchup. Which is technically wrong because although ‘catchup’ is a word it means ketchup. I suppose I meant catch-up, but does that count as one word? The point is, you know what I mean, and it isn’t condiments.

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Damp Macro

15 September 2012

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1/200sec, f/3.5, ISO 100, 100mm

One of the few good things about having a wash-out summer like the one we’ve had (apart from, this year, the amazing non-weather stuff that’s made it an incredible summer) is the weather makes for arguably more interesting photographic opportunities. There are more fluffy clouds, more interesting lighting, the chance of thunderstorms, and just general rain.

And with rain come droplets of water. You don’t need to be a scientist to know that (although, I suspect a decent level of scientific knowledge is required to truly understand it). Some time ago I finally had the chance to shoot some macro shots of flowers after a light smattering of rain. Despite the summer we’ve had, I hadn’t gotten a chance to shoot something like it. Until now. Well, until July, which is when these shots were taken.

1/160sec, f/3.5, ISO 100, 100mm

One of the standout elements of this set is the amazingly crisp detail in the leaves; you can clearly see the intricate detail in every tiny capillary.

1/200sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, 100mm

I also really love the way the water droplets magnify the capillaries. I just wish there was an ant on the leaf, for scale.

1/200sec, f/3.5, ISO 100, 100mm

It remains an aspiration of mine to seek out more macro photography opportunities, especially ones that involve things like water making the macro world more interesting.

Macaroons: An Exploration in Pictures

19 May 2012

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I came back from my trip to the Indian market at the South Bank with a bag of macaroons. I felt guilty after taking all these pictures of the market stalls without giving the sellers something, and the macaroons looked particularly irresistible, especially since I’d never eaten one before.

Once I’d gotten them home, I couldn’t just eat them, could I? Such colour, such detail, I had to set them up and try my hand at photographing them. So, I got a plate, and set them up by the kitchen window.

close up of colourful macaroons on a plate

1/80sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250, exposure bias -0.33, 85mm

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Borough Market

7 March 2012

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Working, as I do, in the middle of London, one of the world’s most vibrant and varied cities, it theoretically doesn’t take much for me to get some interesting photos. All I should need to do is bring my camera to work, and then go for a walk at lunchtime.

It isn’t always that simple. For a start I’m obviously limited to somewhere I can get to and back from within an hour, allowing time for shooting. That’s difficult. I often shoot excessively to see what comes out which means I like to not have time constraints – not to mention I obviously also need to eat at some point during that hour. Then, of course, there is always the luck of the light with whatever you’re trying to photograph..

Sometimes, however, it all comes together. Last Friday two friends from work and I (Catherine and Simon – the same two who, for anyone with a long enough memory, I went along with to attend the International Paralympic Day celebrations) headed down to Borough Market. Catherine (curator of CJ Trigg Photography, linked to the right) had already spent a small amount of time there experimenting with the photographic possibilities, so we decided to all go there and see what we could capture. Fortunately, we got a work-sanctioned pass, which also removed the time commitment.

For us, the idea was to resurrect our joint blog plan from last August, as well as have the opportunity to compare and contrast the different images we got from the same location.

As is often the case with this sort of trip, initially it can take a while for the self-consciousness of going somewhere with a camera and shooting abstract things to wear off. It doesn’t help, of course, when you show up as three people, each with SLRs, looking quite a bit like this:

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Frosty Macro

11 February 2012

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I do seem to be playing about with macro a lot recently. It’s partly because I only bought a macro lens last month and am still exploring this new way of shooting things, partly because shooting at the macro level can breathe interesting new life into old or boring subjects, but mostly because I really like the lens and am willing to find any excuse to use it.

We’ve had a bit of snow in the UK. Some places more than others; where I am in southwest London we had a smattering last weekend and another on Thursday night, but the temperatures have remained low so the ice isn’t really going anywhere fast (the two snowmen made by the locals last weekend are still mostly present, although one of them has lost its head).

It’s so cold that I’m not all that keen on the idea of going outside, but we don’t get this sort of weather all that often, so I decided it would be a good idea to try to get some macro shots of the frost on the slightly surprised flora. Fortunately within ten seconds walk there were a few areas that served up just the right sort of thing, which coincidentally are also between my flat and the supermarket enabling me to kill the proverbial flock of seagulls with one brick (I’m not exactly ‘up’ on proverbs).

Luckily for me, the sun was out, making the light decent. Last weekend’s snow was followed by a grey and dull day that was pretty rubbish for taking good photos (although I did get some interesting shots from midnight the night before when it was still snowing and remarkably bright; I’ll stick these up at some point in the near future too).

Exposure 1/640sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, exposure bias -0.67 (+0.53)

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Playing with Fire

28 January 2012

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When I got in from photographing the moon the other day (‘the other day’ being a very useful phrase I use a lot to hide just how long it sometimes takes me to write up posts – although on this occasion, it’s not actually been that long), I was still in a bit of a shooting mood, so I decided to return to a little idea I’d been toying with for a while.

When I was first playing around with macro photography, I made a few attempts to capture in extreme closeup the striking of a match. These early attempts were ill-fated; the narrow depth of field and ease with which I could wander out of it whilst trying to light a match meant that the shots were all out of focus, apart from the ones where I closed up the aperture a bit – and those were too dark.

But last weekend, I had an idea: if I lit the match from an existing source – such as, say, a candle – then I could use said existing source to check focus and exposure before the ‘actual’ shot.

So, that is what I tried. I lit a candle, and set up the shot.

Exposure 1/500sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, 100mm focal length

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