Following on from my last post Botanical Butterfly, here are some flora macro and HDR shots. Being winter there wasn’t a great deal of flowering plants, but we still managed to find some! (click for larger versions)
The Unstable Image
A tradesman's view on Digital Photography.
Monthly Archives: July 2012
Botanical Butterfly
After a long period of rainy weekends I was excited to be able to get out for a quick trip to Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens. With my official bug spotter in tow, we headed off for a nice sunny walk. Along a nice hedge row we came across a couple of small butterflies enjoying the sun. I snapped a bunch of shots but, as with most of my experiences with flying insects, they seem to have a sixth sense to fly on shutter press! These shots are not what I would call technically brilliant macro shots but they have great appeal to me. I hope you enjoy them as well (click for larger versions).
FAMILY LYCAENIDAE
DIY light box test shots
Have you ever tried to sell something online and uploaded some so-so photos to use in the advertisement? I purchased a Speedlite 430EX II to add to my Macro setup, and discovered that it was great to use with a light box. Light boxes are a great tool to help you make a good impression online with your advertisement.
I went through a few DIY sites on making a light box but found this one here on the Strobist. I had a box lying around, some cheap baking paper and tape. I used a sheet of A3 paper for the backdrop.
Using just the one Speedlite, and the 600D’s inbuilt wireless trigger, I tried out my new light box on some old models from when I was young.
Everything set up and ready to go.
Close up Clivia
The Clivia, Kaffir Lily, Bush Lily or Winter Lily is one of our favourite plants that we’ve been growing. They generally only flower in spring or winter, however ours has flowered almost constantly since we got it. I decided one day when there was a lovely group of flowers to grab the macro lens out and take some pics. Click for larger version and enjoy!
Rainy day in April
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain - Dolly Parton
The last 18 months has seen a ridiculous amount of rain over most of Australia. My area had not escaped this treatment and had seen us rather house bound for a while. Since I’m a massive fan of macro and landscape photography, this had been a difficult time for me to embrace my new found passion.
With the rain pouring down I headed out onto our covered courtyard and dragged a couple of plants out of the rain, set up my tripod and strapped on the Tamron 90mm macro lens.
It was the first time shooting stationary water drops. I was very excited and it turned out to be great fun! I think this will be something I’ll be having another crack at later on. Here are a few shots, click for larger versions.
