I thought I would share a small selection of images I took while staying with my parents over the Christmas break. It doesn’t matter how many bugs I take photos of, I’m still floored by how amazing they are, truly strange creatures!
The Unstable Image
A tradesman's view on Digital Photography.
Tagged with tamron …
Boxing Day Macro
“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…” ― Alfred Tennyson
Exactly 12 months on, I found myself back in my parents garden on Boxing Day making the most of their wonderful selection of flowers and plants. I found some great critters, lots of beautiful flowers and made the most of the light to get up close and personal with them. I still find it amazing every time I photograph macro the immense level of detail that doesn’t lessen the closer you get. I gave the new tripod a good workout, which performed brilliantly and allowed me to shoot without a flash while using my Tamron 90mm Macro and full set of extension tubes.
Macro Studio – Reflecting on Death
From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity - Edvard Munch
All life is part of a cycle. We come from the earth, we live on it and once our days are out we return to it. It’s not something to be scared of if you consider Edvard Munch’s quote above… It’s merely a change of state. The common May-fly lives for between 30 minutes to one day compared to worker bee who has comparably lengthy life of one year. Around our house, I’ve found some insects that were at the ‘gates’, preparing to continue on in another form. In a slightly macabre memorandum I used their slowed behaviour to test out my new white board/background with my macro lens. (Click on the image for a larger version)
Escargot go
These little fellas were just sitting outside our door. Couldn’t resist a couple of photos!
Botanical Flowers – Part two
Following on from part one, a few more photos from a lovely walk around the Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens. It was a fabulous couple of hours in the sun after quite a few weeks (read months and months) of bad weekend weather. Enjoy and remember to click the photos for larger versions.
Botanical Flowers – Part one
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)
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.
