Week 48 of 52 – Theme: “Winter” Fallen Jewels

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Camera Mode, Cheap Macro, crystal, D7000, D7000 Blog, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, Extension tube, focusing, handheld macro, Learning D7000 controls.Camera Controls, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, LPTG, LPTG52, Macro, macro flash, Macro Snow Crystal, Macro Snowflake, nature, Nature Macro, New D7000 user, new DSLR, Nikon, Nikon Blog, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, Nikon Macro, off camera flash, Photography, Photoshop, Salt Lake City, Seasonal, seasons change, Shooting Mode, Snow, snow crystal, Snowflake, Still Life, strobist, up close, Using a Nikon D7000, Utah, Winter, winter macro

This theme nearly ruined my whole 52 week project! Not because it was too difficult to think of a shot, but rather because the shot I wanted had one element that I had absolutely no control over – the weather! So I had to wait, and wait, and wait meanwhile two weeks went by and I didn’t want to post my other shots before posting this one so I missed out on the weekly roundups and being able to say that I finished the challenge without missing a weekly posting, although I do have 52 themes shot and in the bag! (and posted to the challenge page) So expect a flurry of blog posts as I catch up!

Fallen Jewels 50mm f/1.8 + about 6 inches of extension tubes!

I’ve seen numerous macro shots of snowflakes, and I’ve always wanted to shoot them but thought that I’d have to wait until I had a proper macro lens to do so, until I saw a link on G+ to a photographer who shoots them in natural settings using only his 60mm macro lens and I thought I could at least match that with my 50mm f/1.8 and some extension tubes. So I took my Zeikos tubes and added a set of ‘El Cheapo Chinese tubes to them and the 50mm and found out I could get really close to the flakes although it required strobes to get enough light on the snowflake (technically I should be calling them Snow Crystals, but since when have I ever been a technical kind of guy?) Then once a flake landed on the plant I was able to shoot for about a minute before it melted away, here are some of my favorite shots of the three different weather events (hard to call them storms) I was able to capture flakes from.

Double crystals! This was a very close second place.

Same flake as the first but from a different angle

Fragile!

Same flakes – different backdrop

This was so tiny and fluffy!

And finally…

I used a blue oven mitt to catch this one, I’m not a fan of the textures and fibers it shows, but I love the color!

You will definitely be seeing more snowflakes on this blog!! I hope to get a focus rail soon so I can do some focus stacking and really show these beauties off right!

As always thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the snowflakes. If you have any questions please feel free to ask and I’ll try my best to answer.

Happy Shooting!

Howard

 

 

 

 

 

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

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Benro, Benro A298M8 Tripod, Cactus V5 trigger, camera, camera controls, Camera Mode, D7000, D7000 Blog, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, DSLR Modes, flower, Flower Macro, focusing, Fotodiox extension tubes, Hornet, Insect, Insect close up, Learning D7000 controls.Camera Controls, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, LPTG 52 challenge, LPTG52, Macro, macro flash, New D7000 user, new DSLR, Nikon, Nikon Blog, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Benro Tripod, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, Nikon Macro, off camera flash, Photography, Photoshop, Salt Lake City, Shooting Mode, Still Life, strobist, Thistle, Thistle flower, Using a Nikon D7000, Utah, Wasp, Week 26, Week 26 theme Yellow, Yellow Jacket close up, Yeloow Jacket, YN-560, YN-560 flash, Zeikos, Zeikos Extension tubes

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

Week 11 of 52 – Theme: “Lucky Something”

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back lit, blade, camera, camera controls, Camera Mode, commercial style photography, D7000, D7000 Blog, D7000 HDR, diffuser, diffusion panel, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, DSLR Modes, flash diffuser, focusing, HDR, Learning D7000 controls.Camera Controls, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, Macro, macro flash, macro handheld, macro strobist, Midnite Champ, New D7000 user, new DSLR, Nikon, Nikon Blog, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, Nikon HDR, Photography, Photomatix, Photoshop, Pocket Knife, product shot, Red LED, scissors, single flash, Still Life, strobist, Using a Nikon D7000, Utah, Victorinox

So what’s your “Lucky Something”? This weeks theme made perfect sense seeing as it was St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday the 17th, unfortunately I’m not all that superstitious, I don’t believe in good luck charms, fortune cookies (that doesn’t stop me from eating them though), and don’t even get me started on Astrology. So in thinking over the theme I wondered what I could possibly shoot that represented my “Lucky Something”

My trusty Swiss Army Knife! 50mm f/1.8 + 12mm extension tube

So here’s what  I came up with, my trusty Swiss Army Knife that I’ve had in my pocket for over 12 years! (hence the worn out logo/light switch)  Here’s the link to the white light version of my knife as they no longer make the red light version that I have. 

I had several different possible images for the knife in mind and I was able to actually make each one happen, although with different levels of success. I chose the above image because I liked it’s close and low viewpoint giving an ethereal view of a rather small ordinary subject and the selective focus. I made this image by placing the white diffuser panel of my 5in1 reflector across two chairs and placed my YN-560 flash zoomed out to 24mm directly underneath  and I flipped out the flash’s “wide angle” diffuser. I triggered it using the Cactus V5 wireless trigger.

I was set at 1/4 power and with the 50mm f/1.8 + 12mm extension tube I just moved around the knife taking shots at different angles, heights, and distances, focusing on different parts of the knife and its multi-use implements.

My favorite tool of the knife and the one I use most often are the scissors. The next most used tool is the Red LED light (the blurry circle at the end of the knife) I often use that when I'm at my telescope.

The high power setting of the flash combined with the diffuser really wrapped the knife in a soft glow that I loved.