Macro on a budget

I’m sure most of you have considered a macro lens at some point in your photographic journey, the idea of getting up-close-and-personal with flowers, insects and other fine details is a lure that afflicts many.

For many the cost of a dedicated macro lens is a substantial outlay, often running into several hundred pounds, a hard pill to swallow for something you may not use all that often, but luckily there are some cheaper alternatives that while not as good as a dedicate macro lens, offer much closer magnification without the cost.

First up is the simplest solutions of all, a close-up filter.  This is simply an extra filter that screws onto the front of your lens and allows you to get a little closer to your subject:

I used Scooby Doo as my model and focused on the eyes, clicking on the image below you can see how close I can get with and without the additional close-up filter,

Without Filter

With Filter

As you can see, a modest but welcome increase in magnification.  The downside to these filters is that they are dependent on the thread size of your lens, so if you change lenses you may not be able to use the filter any more if the new lens uses a different thread size, plus you are also introducing new glass into your equipment so the quality of the filter will directly affect the quality of the final image.

If you are willing to spend a little more, extension tubes are probably a better solution. These tubes include no glass and so the image quality is purely dependent on your lens, all they do is move the lens further away from the body and this is what allows you to get close to your subject.

Some tubes are extremely simple and offer no connection between body and lens, effectively turning any lens into a manual focus lens (not necessarily a huge issue as many macro photographer exclusively use manual focus) but others such as mine shown below keep the electronic connection between body and lens which allows you to retain auto-focus.

Again using Scooby Doo as my trusty model, click on the image to see with-and-without images... as you can see, when using the tubes I managed to get so close that it blocked out most of the light!

Without Tubes

With Tubes

In the real world, here is a little bug that I found in my garden one day. and to give you an idea of scale, the entire bug was only 2-3cm long.

This shot was taken with my Panasonic GX7, with extension tubes mounted on the 45-150mm telephoto lens, and the shot was also quite heavily cropped but there is still plenty of detail to be found.

What a difference a day makes

It always amazes me how different the same location can be when visited in different weather conditions.

We recently had a weekend away near Newquay and I took the opportunity to visit Holywell Bay as it's been somewhere I've been wanting to visit for a long time but have never managed.

On Saturday evening I was being a little hopeful that the small band of colour on the horizon would break into a proper sunset but that hope quickly faded once I'd arrived at the beach and the night drew in under a veil of cloud with not even a whimper.  Sunday on the other hand was a completely different evening, with fabulous colours lighting the sky all evening.

Here's my favourite shots from each evening, taken only 24 hours apart:

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Wistman's Wood Photo-walk

I'm not sure if it was the drive to the location or the anticipation of the walk but something put everybody off this week and I had a lonely photo-walk!

Still, got to look at the positives and that did mean that I had the splendor of Wistman's Wood to enjoy all by myself allowing for a free-roam over all the compositional opportunities on offer, and I think it's only fair for me to post something that will hopefully make you a little jealous of what you missed! :)

News flash! As it turns out I'd just missed Andy by mere minutes, and while he didn't make it as far as the woods he did take some great shots of the moors on the way!

Davidstow Airfield photo-walk

Davidstow Airfield is always an interesting place to visit, lots of old abandoned buildings with plenty of rusty old metal... it's photographic gold!

But the weather had the best surprise for us... wow! What a stunning end to the day! Here's Richard and Shaun setting up for their shots of the old control tower with that glorious sky:

Droplet Reflections

It's great to catch a water droplet sitting on or dripping from a flower, with another reflection in the droplet. Its much easier if you slow the action down, or keep the droplet exactly where you want it by adding glycerin to the water or even just using glycerin on its own. This may seem like a bit of a cheat, but sometimes mother nature needs a little helping hand to get the shot you want.

Inspiration - Michael Shainblum

Michael Shainblum is based on the West coast of America and has a knack for creating larger than life landscapes; his motto is "EAT, SLEEP, CREATE" though with the amount of quality work on his site you've got to question how much he eats and sleeps!

If you'd like to see more check out his website:

http://www.shainblumphoto.com/

https://500px.com/shainblum

Telephoto Compression

For my first top tip, I have used my lovely daughter Jasmine, one of our chickens and our old Massey 35 as you do.

This is just a fun little experiment to see the affect that increasing the focal length of that lens can have on the background. Think very carefully about the focal length you use when deciding on a shot, as the results can be drastically different, as can be seen in the series of three shots. Jasmine did not move from her position, the tractor stayed where it was, the only change was the distance between me and Jasmine and the focal length of the lens. It's amazing how much the distance between Jasmine and the tractor has seemingly decreased.

35mm

100mm

200mm

23 Ninja Tips For Your Next Photo Walk

An interesting video from the Cooperative of Photography, some interesting food-for-thought for your next street photography adventure!

Colliford Lake photo-walk

Well, what a difference! The good weather bought with it loads of club members to a bright and cheery evening at Colliford Lake.

The nice weather brings with it its own set of challenges; the sun was reflecting fiercely off the lake making it difficult to get a nice exposure and even having the sun out of frame still made one side of the image brighter than the other side. The cloudless sky meant that sweeping vista’s were off the menu so the trees that eek out their lives on the shore became a focus for many.

Our brave and fearless chairman Richard even spent half-an-hour wading through the lake trying to get an image of one of the lake’s fishes jumping out of the water, but they kept tormenting him by jump just out of frame!

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Still, it was interesting to see how different people interpreted the same location at the same time!

One Photograph Series - The Comfort Zone

Throughout my years of making photographs I have worked hard on forging my own style, taking a subject and putting my own stamp on it.

In the main my work is characterised by a few specific elements which tend to be black and white landscapes which have been taken with a 28mm lens which is a moderate wide angle.

Every now and then I try to mix things up. One area of photography which I enjoy immensely is street photography. This style of photography I find challenging and very much pushes me out of my comfort zone.

About 3 years ago I went to London for a day. Sebastiao Salgado had an exhibition of his latest work on at the Natural History Museum. I booked my time slot for an mid morning which then gave me a few hours in the afternoon to mooch about London taking photographs. For this trip I wanted to specifically shoot some street photography and I headed to the Southbank and Shoreditch areas.

When I’m looking for photographs I always want to find a different perspective and to try and be creative with a scene. I tried to stray away from photographs of people walking down the street holding shopping bags.

Whilst I was visiting a Shoreditch I came across a square which had lots of galleries and a camera fair (I didn’t buy anything!). It was quite late in the afternoon and the sun was starting to go down behind the tall buildings. I noticed the shadows on a wall of a couple of people who were chatting, I thought the shadows looked great on the wall and I moved in closer to frame them. I liked the separation of the people and I waited for a gesture which would give the photo more interest and if possible a perceived connection between the people.

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Camera: Fuji X-Pro1
Lens: 60mm (35mm equivalent 90mm)
Aperture: f9
Shutter Speed: 1/1000th sec
ISO: 1600

The colour palette is quite minimal with only 2 colours being present. I feel the colours play an important part in this image, the yellows and blues are a perfect match and complement each other very well. I had my 60mm lens on my camera which is not a traditional street photography focal length, and is probably my least used lens.

For me this photograph is almost the complete opposite to my usual type of photography I create. By pushing myself out of my comfort I will hopefully be able to develop my skills and become a better photographer.