Week 15 of 52 Theme” “Something I Don’t Like” Dandelions

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#LPTG13WK15, backyard exploration, backyard HDR, backyard weeds, blossoms, camera, camera controls, Camera Mode, close up, D7000, D7000 Blog, D7000 HDR, Dandelion, dandelion seed, Dandelions, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, DSLR Modes, flower, focusing, Gorillapod Focus, green, Handheld HDR, HDR, lawn, Learning D7000 controls.Camera Controls, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, LPTG, LPTG 52 challenge, LPTG.com 52 week Challenge, LPTG52, Macro, nature, Nature HDR, Nature Macro, New D7000 user, new DSLR, Nikon, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, Nikon HDR, Photography, Photomatix, Photoshop, purple, Salt Lake City, seed head, Seed Heads, Shooting Mode, Something You Don't Like, spike, spikey, spikey plant, Still Life, Using a Nikon D7000, Utah, utah HDR, vegetation, weed blossoms, Weeds, Week 15 of 52, yellow

The theme “Something I Don’t Like” is one of those themes where it’s so open you get a little overwhelmed trying to narrow it down to one subject. It just so happens that ever since we moved into our home we’ve been locked in mortal combat with weeds in our backyard which seems to be specifically formulated to grow weeds, but not grass.

What will be… 50mm f/1.8 + 12mm & 20mm extension tubes – 3 shot HDR Handheld.

I caught this shot in a surreptitious moment as the seed from another Dandelion I was photographing fell off onto this blossom and absolutely made the shot! I’ll credit luck every time it happens!

This is what the seed fell from…

Going bald, I can sympathise! 50mm f/1.8 + 12mm & 20mm extension tubes – 3 shot HDR Handheld

50mm f/1.8 + 12mm extension tube – 3 shot HDR Handheld

50mm f/1.8 12mm + 20mm extension tubes – 3 shot HDR Handheld

Offensive Line… 70-300mm – 3 shot HDR on Gorrillapod Focus.

50mm f/1.8 12mm + 20mm extension tube – 3 shot HDR Handheld

A full seed head in the grass 50mm f/1.8 + 20mm extension tube

I love the dreamy abstract feel of this one. 50mm f/1.8 + 36mm extension tube – 3 shot HDR Handheld

Full Seed Head 50mm f/1.8 + 12mm extension tube – 3 shot HDR Handheld

Some new friends arrived this year to keep our dandelions company… 50mm f/1.8 +12mm extension tube – 3 shot HDR

They look like mini Venus fly traps. 50mm f/1.8 +36mm extension tube – 3 shot HDR Handheld

 

If these harden as they mature we’re in big trouble. 50mm f/1.8 12mm +20mm extension tubes – 3 shot HDR Handheld

50mm f/1.8 12mm + 20mm extension tubes. – 3 shot HDR Handheld

I have to inform you that although no weeds/vegetation were harmed in the making of this series of photographs that all of these died a horrific death at the hands of a rapidly spinning mower blade soon after…

I refuse to mourn!

Thanks for stopping by, my next post will show something I love and dislike, I hope this week you photograph something that you love.

Happy Shooting!

Howard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 12 of 52 Theme: “Planted” Too Soon…?

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50mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.8 with extension tube, close up, D7000, D7000 Blog, D7000 HDR, D7000 Macro, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, Extension tube, flower, green, Handheld HDR, HDR, Howard Jackman, Leaf, leaves, LensProToGo.com, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, LPTG, LPTG13WK12, LPTG52, LPTG52.com, LPTG52weekchallenge, Macro, Macro HDR, Macro Snowflake, Nature HDR, New D7000 user, new DSLR, Nikon, Nikon Blog, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, Nikon HDR, Orange, Photography, Photomatix, Photoshop, Planted, Primrose, Snow, Snowfall, Snowflake, Spring, spring storm, Still Life, sumoetx, tog, togs, Using a Nikon D7000, Utah, utah HDR, yellow, Zeiko Extension Tube

I love Spring! It’s a truly magical time of year and here in Utah it’s even more magical in that one day it can be sunny and 70 degrees and literally 24 hours later there’s 8 inches of new snow on the ground… Yep gotta love Spring.

I wasn’t quite sure what to use for the theme of “Planted” but as soon as it started to snow I knew I had to grab a shot of the flower outside because I love how it shows the collision of two seasons with Spring triumphing over Winter as the snow began to melt. I hope you enjoy it as well!

Primrose and Snow 3 shot HDR Handheld 50mm f/1.8 + 20mm extension tube

Taken before the Sun really started to shine again, 3 shot HDR Handheld 50mm f/1.8 +20mm extension tube.

3 shot HDR handheld 50mm f/1.8 + 36mm extension tube

Melting quick! 3 shot HDR Handheld 50mm f/1.8 + 36mm extension tube

Do you see that one flake upper right that’s reflecting the light just right? I love it! 3 shot HDR Handheld 50mm f/1.8 + 36mm extension tube

It was a real quick photo shoot, as soon as the Sun came out it was game over for the snow so I wasn’t able to get those real close up shots of the snowflakes that I would have liked, but shooting wider meant I could include the green of the leaves for some nice color contrast.

I hope you have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by.

Happy Shooting!

Howard

 

 

 

 

 

Week 7 of 52 Theme: “Love” Sweetheart!

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#LPTG13WK7, Benro, Benro A298M8 Tripod, camera, camera controls, Camera Mode, Candy, Candy Hearts, Cheap Macro, D7000, D7000 Blog, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, Extension tube, flower, focusing, heart, Kiss, Learning D7000 controls.Camera Controls, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, Love, LPTG, LPTG52, Macro, New D7000 user, new DSLR, Nikon Blog, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Benro Tripod, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, petal, Photography, Photoshop, Pink, red, Rose, Shooting Mode, Still Life, Sweet, Sweetheart, Theme:Love, Using a Nikon D7000, Valentine, Valentine's Day

Sweethearts! Any mention of these sugary treats is enough to send me reeling back through time to my elementary school days of shoebox Valentines Day boxes, silly cards, cheap candy, and the worry that the messages printed on the sweetheart might give a classmate of the female persuasion the wrong impression of your feelings for her. This was back in the days when you would handpick the candy and put it in the small envelope with the valentine. The one’s marked “You’re Cool” were in high demand as they were the safest ones to include, others were “UR #1″ and “Be True” all obscure enough to be harmless.

I must have eaten thousands of the sappy ones to prevent accidental inclusion… Of course at home after class I had to open and read each valentine I received and try to interpret what it might mean, unless of course the disclaimer was given at time of deposit in the box that “My mom put the candy in”  in which case all was fair game and eaten without worry.

When Valentines week rolled around this year and the theme was “Love” I couldn’t resist blasting back to my past and photographing these little messages of heartfelt devotion and love.

Taken using the 50mm f/1.8 and the 20mm extension tube

I’m not scared of this one anymore…

50mm f/1.8 and the 12mm extension tube.

And just in case you were wondering – yes I did eat them!

I hope you had a great Valentines and more importantly that there is love in your life everyday!

Happy Shooting!

Howard

 

Week 26 of 52 Theme: “Yellow” Jacket – Halfway done

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Week 26 of 52′s theme was “Yellow” There was never a doubt about what I was going to shoot for this one, only a matter of how… Every summer we get tons of these little buggers buzzing around our yard giving us a case of the ‘twitches’ as they always seem to sneak up on you and trigger that most human of traits “fear of pain!” (I know I’ve been stung before) So my shot decision was to do a close up of one.

Yellow Jacket on a Thistle – 50mm f/1.8 + 36mm extension tube

I cut a thistle branch off of a plant we have growing in our garden area and placed this Yellow Jacket near the top of it, since I was using the extension tube I needed more light so I used my two YN-560 flashes on Cactus V5 triggers, the main light was high camera right at about a 45 degree angle softened with a small flash head softbox at full power,  the second flash was used as a fill light with bare flash and zoomed to about 80mm, I placed it at camera left almost level with the camera around 70 degrees to the subject and 1/4power.

I used a piece of white paper as a background/bounce reflector to give a clean backdrop and I just held that up by hand for every shot.

I really liked how much detail I was able to bring out and still get a wide angle feel from the shot.

A different angle and a little closer:

A head on view. 50mm f/1.8 + 36mm & 20mm extension tubes

In this next shot I was setting my flashes and didn’t hold up the paper for the background but I liked the dark background it made.

50mm f/1.8 + 36mm & 20mm extension tubes, the lighter area of green in the background is another stalk from the thistle branch I cut, even though the ambient in the room was plenty bright at these macro levels the background goes dark pretty easily without a direct light source on it.

When I first bought my D7000 I found some ultra cheap Chinese knock off brand extension tubes on sale, Here’s a link to some that are similar, however when I got them I instantly realized that there was just no way I was going to trust them on my new camera and I ended up buying the much better Zeikos tubes instead, however I’ve held on to the cheap ones and this time I decided to give them a try. I still wasn’t going to use them attached to a lens or my camera, but I could insert them in between my other extension tubes to really increase the magnification. The cheap tubes together totaled 49mm so I added them to my Zeikos tubes which total 78 mm giving me a total extension tube length of 127mm and this is how close you get.

50mm f/1.8 with all 6 extension tubes (78mm + 49mm)

I had to have my daughter hold a flash light right up to the yellow jacket so I could see it enough (barely) to focus,  the depth of field at that level of magnification is insanely shallow and  I was lucky to get anything in focus at all.

So what have I learned as I reach the halfway point in this 52 week challenge?

Well a few things:

1- I can not do a 365 project! I have no idea how anyone can and my hat’s off to everyone that manages it. I simply take too long to plan, shoot and process my images and that’s OK with me (although I could cut that time down greatly with a newer computer)  I think I would feel too rushed to do a daily shot and my creativity would actually decrease as I hurried each day to just shoot something to fulfill the requirement, as opposed to making an image with deliberate thought and care and planning.

2- I do much better when I have at least an idea or possible ideas thought out ahead of time. Even if I don’t get the exact shot I had pre-visualised it opens possibilities up and I can often find or make a similar or even better shot.

3 – My work schedule really blows for finding time to shoot in good light! I’m basically left with just one evening each week. (Mornings just don’t happen so it’s not even an option)

4 – I’m having an absolute ball!! I can’t wait for the next half of the challenge and hope to improve my skills and creativity along the way.

Thanks for visiting!

Sorry about that I couldn’t resist!

Happy Shooting!

Howard