Macro, getting up close - part 2

Now to get slightly more serious about macro… These were taken with my all new Sony DSC-H10, not the camera of choice by photographers, but a good camera to learn with nonetheless when you are on a budget. So, I had the camera but mere days, I was excited and anxious to see what it can do, with this image, the lense of my camera was about 20mm away from my subject.

In order to get a good macro, you need to make sure your target is in focus and the rest of the image, especially the background, is completely out of focus, or as close to as possible.

This "Hen n Chicken" flower is less than a centimeter in diameter, I estimate to be about 7mm wide actually. If you click on the image to view full size, you can see the amount of detail captured. I think I did a good job of snapping this one up, but critics may differ.

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Ooh, I don’t know what flowers these are, but I can tell you this, each is only 4-5mm in diameter in full bloom (measured). Again, it was tough to get the flowers in focus. Here I used an aperture of F3.5 and a shutter speed of 400… ISO was on 200 because I was still playing with shutter speeds and aperture and using the built in ND filter (still need to find out what that is lol) I took a few photos until I got this one in focus properly. But, alas, I still had the shutter speed wrong as there is miniscule motion blur on some of the flowers… but it gives a nice effect. I also see a bug had taken a taste of two of the petals… nom, nom, nom haha erm, moving along. Notice the backgorund is almost completely blurred, getting better...

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Now, this Praying Mantis was a friendly bugger… crisp morning about 7:30 am, shutter speed was at 800, aperture at F3.5 and ISO again at 200. This time the ISO was wrong but the rest was just right, you can tell by the amount of digital noise I’ve picked up. Hey, by this time I’d only had the camera a week and a half, having only weekends to really play with it. So anyway, I couldn’t get quite as close as I would have liked, I wanted the whole mantis in the image so I had to back up a bit while he politely posed and it looks like he smiled at me too.

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Back again for another visit to Ballito, we went for breakfast at a place called "Beach Bums" in La Lucia brought me to this tiny little shell… about 1cm in diameter it posed intrigue. This time I had my shutter speed right at 800, aperture at F3.5 again ( I usually use this aperture as you will learn) and the morning light was perfect. I didn’t want to get too close to my subject because I wanted to get quite a bit of the beach sand in as well to emphasize on how tiny this shell was. Sometimes it’s good to keep some distance, it enhances the quality of the shot… well in this case maybe.

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Okay, one of the first images I uploaded, taken on Saturday 22 May 2009. It’s of a seed, but I got too close because the fine “hairs” were actually touching the lens of my camera. Click to enlarge to see the tiny dew droplets… Shutter speed 800 again, aperture F3.5. “Nice shot with the dew, try to keep attention to the subject here and the rest OOF (out of focus)” “Not a bad shot the highlights are a bit too overpowering and there doesn’t really seem to be a focus point in the photo. I think if you took this from a bit further away it would have made a better image.” “Nice idea, not sure as your focus is only 6.3mm away and slight loss of detail”

Anyway, that's it for now... catch another installment later...

Macro, getting up close - part 1

Okay, macros are tricky because it's usually tiny objects you are focussing on or trying to squeeze in as much detail into a small space as possible. I love macro, but it can get limiting unless you have good subjects, like the one below...

The images below were still taken with my measly Kodak C713, remember this camera has no major settings, but it does have a macro, which was cool, but you can only get so close…

The shell in this image is approximately 2cm in diameter. Notice the shadow being cast, you can see it’s still early morning and the sun is still very low. I didn't want to get too close so as to demonstrate the vastness of the surroundings. The ISO was set a little brighter to capture the shell properly. I took my time (not that I had much because of the waves coming closer lol) and gently pressed on the trigger button to make sure that the auto focus on the camera was staying on the shell and not shifting over to something else. Click, perfect (well, close enough) on the first attempt because just seconds later a wave caught the shell tipping it upside down. Well, I had to grab a picture of that too because it just looked so cool…

Oh man… look at the detail in this pole, it’s part of a shelter on the beach and I just loved the way the bugs have eaten away at the exterior leaving this awesome pattern… This was taken later that same day as we were relaxing on the beach doing less than nothing…

Okay, macro part one done...

Beach morning - Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique

Ah, nothing like waking up in the early hours of the morning, taking the thirty odd steps to get onto the beach and seeing a view like this... what a beautiful way to start the morning before breakfast and then basking in the sunshine and splashing in the waves.

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This picture was taken before I invested in a proper digital camera, so I couldn't really change any settings. I had to settle for a low ISO (on the standard Kodak C713 it is -2.0) to capture all the elements and create an image that would be something worthy of keeping.

Collin Scott Photograhpy

Hi, I'm Collin Scott. Welcome to my photography blog. I hail from Pretoria, South Africa. I have started this blog to share my love for photography. Over the next while you will have the privelage of learning about taking amazing pictures while I learn how to improve my photographic skills. With each post I will include a little info on how, when and where each picture was taken. Feel free to post some comments, share tips on getting a better photo and so on... So, sit back, read and enjoy as I develop myself into a good, no wait, great photographer.