Pretzel and the Gypsy King - A Tale of Adventure (cum a spus de fotografie) for 2015

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Macro adventures in... GREEN! (part 1)

BUSY weekend, but had a moment of sunlight peeking through after the last thunder shower, so ran outside really fast like with the Raynox DCR 250 on to get close-ups of the tiny things. Ended up VERY green, so here ya have it!

The long-legged fly that's so tiny, two (side by side) would fit on my pinky nail. Gorgeous GREEN!

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A JUMPER! Love these guys, but he wouldn't come out to say hello. To get this pic, I had to sneak inside his world of GREEN.

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A tiny little bee soaking up some sun on a leaf so GREEN!

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Macro adventures in... GREEN! (part 2)

Another long-legged fly, a bit more tattered, and not quite as green... BUT STILL GREEN!

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No bugs for a couple of shots, just blooms. First, the inner workings of a cone flower still holding on to a few drops of the recent rain. Lots of different shades, but still lots of... (you guessed it) GREEN!

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These tiny little blooms would probably fit 4x on my pinky nail, but I'm still in awe of the tiny little buds and the details inside the blooms (also holding water from the recent rain). I think they're called White Alyssum, but there's still quite a bit of GREEN!

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Macro adventures in... GREEN! (part 3, the end)

Ok, this little guy was just doing circles on a leaf, trying to get my attention. He's a darker sort, but still likes to hang out on GREEN!

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This dude was sitting right in the middle of my African Daisies. Long and skinny, 'til he curled up. Wait, I meant long, skinny and GREEN!

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What the... Where's the... IDIOT BROKE THE RULES!

Oh, come on, give it a rest! I was really just enjoying showing off my pics of the "Macro" world, but being Spring and all, there just happened to be lots of green. This little critter deserves it's chance at glory too, ya know! Sitting still and soaking up the sun on the end of an African Daisy petal...

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Ok, I'm done.




For now.....
 
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10 Gauge

Senior Member
Wow! The Raynox IS impressive!! Nice shots @Pretzel. I'll be looking in to this for sure now. How hard do you find it to get a subject to stand still long enough to get that close to get a good clear shot? Seems like it would be near impossible?!

How are you using your flash? Holding it off to the side, certainly it's not on the hotshoe is it? I would think the lens would be in the way?
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
10 Gauge said:
Wow! The Raynox IS impressive!! Nice shots @Pretzel. I'll be looking in to this for sure now. How hard do you find it to get a subject to stand still long enough to get that close to get a good clear shot? Seems like it would be near impossible?!

How are you using your flash? Holding it off to the side, certainly it's not on the hotshoe is it? I would think the lens would be in the way?
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Thanks! As far as catching all those bugs, it's a challenge in patience, for sure. That was about an hour of handheld wandering (all but 2 shots were handheld anyway), but the more you do it, the better you get at it. The hard part is learning that you've got to nab the focus by adjusting your own distance to the critters instead of trying to use the AF. 1/2" can RUIN a shot! I'd love a chance at a nice stable critter so I could get enough shots to focus stack, but haven't found one that willing yet. ;)

As far as the flash, it's a hot-shoe mounted SB-700 with a Fong Lightsphere and inverted dome (dome pointing inside instead of out) firing straight ahead. Great up close diffuser, large enough for quality light, but small enough that I don't have to worry about some of the tighter spaces (like getting in the shrubbery for that spider shot). Scott Murray has an onboard diffuser set up that he uses with just his built in flash, and I think a softbox might make for a little better lighting, but I like my results.

Most of the above were shot in manual flash mode at about 1/2 power, some at full. You can see that I was shooting 1/60 shutter in all of 'em, so the extreme close up of the curled up green bug and the tiny white blooms were shot on a tripod being used as a monopod (sort THAT one out), as they were at a much longer focal distance on my 70-300. The more zoom going on, the harder it is to handhold for shots.
 
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10 Gauge

Senior Member
Thanks for all of the good info.... I've got a softbox for my flash that may work decently enough for this. I am definitely going to look in to the Raynox now. I didn't realize that there were QUALITY macro converters on the market. Back in the day I had a cheap set of macro converters that were such shat that they weren't even worth threading on (and from there I just figured they were all garbage). This has proven that theory thoroughly wrong! :)
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Just a few things I've been goofing around with lately. 1st a couple of up close macro shots of BuckyBalls! One is a mixed color set (black/orange), and the other is my son's set that's all chrome. GREAT TOYS, no longer available except obscure internet places...

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Finally, some toying around with light painting. These were 15 second exposures in a dark living room. The only light came from a penlight passed over the violin... I love the way subjects stand out when done this way. Same basic shots, different lighting on each one... mediocre at best, but fun to shoot and learn!

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Stoshowicz

Senior Member
Pretzel said:
Then, using the Raynox again, a goofy attempt to be "artsy". I call it Shadows of Life.

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IMO you really do have a great eye for creating arty pix , they look great , have bold color and all the stuff you want in a pic ,,, this particular one doesn't work for my taste, but your work shines as being really well done and creative... and when you bring it to bear as with the hoverfly , its really really nice. Youre bringing an element of the 'idealized' to the mundane, which I admire. I'd have picked the fly in post 63 over the dude on the bike for june , though it also looks a bit surreal ... but thats just my 2 cents of feedback.
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Stoshowicz said:
IMO you really do have a great eye for creating arty pix , they look great , have bold color and all the stuff you want in a pic ,,, this particular one doesn't work for my taste, but your work shines as being really well done and creative... and when you bring it to bear as with the hoverfly , its really really nice. Youre bringing an element of the 'idealized' to the mundane, which I admire. I'd have picked the fly in post 63 over the dude on the bike for june , though it also looks a bit surreal ... but thats just my 2 cents of feedback.
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Many thanks friend... the kind words hit in a time of doubt, to be sure! That's exactly what I try to do in most cases, show the "glitz" in the midst of the ordinary.
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Been a while since I posted. Figured I'd throw up a few...

Bought a quart of half n' half and food coloring, then tried some drop shots.

LiquidRed.jpg


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Then caught this wicked looking twist of souls and captured a good close-up. It reminded me a bit of way back when I read Dante's Inferno, so I titled it "Dante's Blue". Can you see why?

Dante's Blue.jpg
 
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Lawrence

Senior Member
WOWSER!
Some great photos here and a very enjoyable catch-up for me.
Macro with a 70-300 is impressive - those spiders are awesome shots!
Raynox 250 you say? Mmmmm .... :eagerness:
 
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Blacktop

Senior Member
Lawrence said:
WOWSER!
Some great photos here and a very enjoyable catch-up for me.
Macro with a 70-300 is impressive - those spiders are awesome shots!
Raynox 250 you say? Mmmmm .... :eagerness:
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Yes, yes you should get one!:watermelon:
(Don't know what the watermelon smiley means, but I just finished eating some and it was delishhh)
 
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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Pretzel said:
Out grilling chicken for a family get together later today, and saw this little lady run off a black jumper twice her size. The other jumping spider I posted was also a Maevia Inclemens (or a "little jumper" as I call 'em), but I've come to find out it was a juvenile male. This is an adult female.

She was shy at first... hanging under the edge of the siding.

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I was slowly convincing her to come out. For a size reference, that's the tip of a medium finishing nail in the left of the frame.

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She finally came out where I could catch the yellow palps and the red coloring along her abdomen. She was a beauty!

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The best shot was when she was hiding between a couple of boards leaning up against the wall, so she felt safe. Even so, when I got close enough for the shot, she perked up and was making sure to keep an eye on me!

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MAN, but I love this Raynox DCR 250!
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Got caught up,pleased i didnt miss the last one in this set
 
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