My macro journey

[Hatchdog]

For those of us in the north just the beautiful colors in your pictures are a treat. Add in the critters and you bring a bit of sunshine to us.

[dave77]

Yes, most of the insects and small critters here in Eastern WA are pretty bland compared to yours.

[clovishound]

Well, like I've said before, I used to feel the same about the insects in our area. Then when I started to look closely at them, and photograph them up close, I discovered a whole world of color and decoration. Granted, they don't have the variety of tropical insects, but there is much more to our small critters than the casual eye sees.

I missed getting something really cool. I was trying to get a picture of some kind of bee or wasp that was deep in a flower. All of the sudden a yellow jacket swooped in and grabbed him and flew off with him. All I got were couple of out of focus, poorly framed shots. Bottom line is that you've got to be ready for the unexpected. Especially close up, when getting focus is critical, and difficult to achieve.

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I know you must have some bees around there.

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[dave77]

We do have bees around but I don't see them as anywhere near as colorful as some of your bugs. Only others I can think of around here are Butterflies and Ladybugs. You're probably right that some of them would be more colorful in a macro closeup.

[clovishound]

The Pup and I made it out to Magnolia today. Managed to snag a few pics of the hover flies.

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[clovishound]

Tried my hand at making a slide show. Had to post it to Youtube to be able to post it on my Nikon forum. Not sure it's something I will continue with, but nice to know the basics of how to do it. You will already have seen most, if not all of them already, if you have been watching my photography threads.

BTW, it's mercifully short.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdAhi2aLHtU

[markiver54]

Very nice clovis! I enjoyed that. Great music selection as well.
Carol has been following your journey with me and I'm anxious to show this to her.

[daytime dave]

I have to echo Mark's sentiments. I really enjoyed your photographs set to nice music. It made a nice moment with a cup of coffee.
One of your first flowers reminded me of a photograph I had taken years ago. I was playing with the macro setting on a Canon Elph. It's not in your league, but the same type flower.
I really liked the last photograph and how the lizards tail wrapped around the blossom. Nice work.

[clovishound]

Nice shot. If it were one of mine, I would run it through the software and call it a keeper.

I tried bumping the resolution up a little with a different set of pictures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW852N99HKQ

I'm pleased that ya'll are enjoying my attempts.

[daytime dave]

Beautiful work.

[markiver54]

Excellent!

[clovishound]

Not actually macro, but I'll post it here as it seems appropriate. I loaded one more wildlife slideshow to YT. That will probably be it for a while, until things start to green up and the critters become a little more active.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QxYuHfMQ5k

[clovishound]

And another one. This one is macro and it's rendered in 4K.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5TcR0-C1k8

[markiver54]

I'm really enjoying this journey. It looked like that big guy at the end was keeping an eye on you!

[clovishound]

He could care less. He's been in his enclosure for years, with untold thousands of people wander through to gawk at him. He knows you can't get to him, and he can't get to you. I've been closer to several, during my river diving years, with at all between us. Of course, they weren't quite as big as him, although I have seen bigger than him from the boat. When you start getting guys that are around 12 ft and larger

By the way, is that you who left a couple comments? I wondered.

[markiver54]

yes, I left a couple comments and Carol and I both posted likes...because we do!

[clovishound]

I've been experimenting with a homemade diffuser for the flash. Here are a couple I shot with it.

Not a huge change, but I like the quality of the light better. Right now it's thin cardboard and an old T-shirt. I need to make a more permanent version, or purchase a commercially made one.

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[clovishound]

The nature photography club I'm a member of had a macro workshop yesterday. Very interesting, although quite different than the macro I do in the field. Got a chance to work with a light table, a droplet machine, and other interesting equipment and techniques. I especially enjoyed the droplet machine. It pumps out a specified number of droplets after a specific delay. It even had the capability to be controlled by the camera, although my camera was not one it would "talk" to. We put food coloring in the water and a bowl under the machine and photographed them as they hit the surface of the water.

These are what I got.

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I even tried a setup at home today using a ziploc bag with a pinhole suspended over a glass bowl.

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I liked this photo of a slice of chambered nautilus shell using a light table and judicious amount of fill flash. Ended up with a somewhat distracting hot spot and shadow, but gives an idea of what can be achieved.

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[clovishound]

Tried out a little different system for the drip this afternoon and was surprised with a face in the water.

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[Hatchdog]

Great stuff Clovis. Interesting to learn about the tools available to creat these incredible shots.