Mount Tomah – Bilpin, Blue Mountains

This is my second trip up to Mt. Tomah. Seems like every time I decided to come here it rains. Looking on the bright side there will lots of water drops on the flowers and plants.

I got some really cool macro shots. The majority of them were shot at 1:1, hand-held of course . I used my home-made macro flash rig which consists of 2 x SB-800s.

ISO 500 f/16 1/800 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/80 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/200 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/125 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/200 secs Flash            ISO 200 f/16 1/200 secs Flash

 

ISO 500 f/16 1/80 secs Flash

ISO 500 f/16 1/160 secs Flash

The macro rig, both Nikon SB-800s, the Nikon 105 macro lens and D700 was totally wet from the constant drizzle. Happily, I like to report that everything is still working.

Eden Gardens | North Ryde | Sydney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nikon D700 – Low Light, High ISO Macro Photography

Decided that my hand-held macro technique needed some “brushing up” this weekend. It has been awhile since I did any macro photography and as they say practice makes perfect! I never use a tripod for macro as I find it inconvenient and I am too lazy to cart a tripod around anyway.

It was showering all Sunday morning so I just waited in the cafe sipping cappuccino until it stopped. Anyway, the shower was a bonus really with all that water droplets on the flowers makes for great macro photography!

Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro

ISO 320 | f/11@1/320 | No Flash

 

Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro

ISO 400 | f/11@1/250 | No Flash

Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro

ISO 1600 | f/8@1/200 | No Flash

Majority of my macros shots are 1:1, it took awhile to get the technique down pat but now I have quite a good hit rate for sharp macro shots. I need to work on my insects macro shots, especially bees. I have not gotten a bee macro that I have been totally happy with.

 

Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro

ISO 400 | f/16@1/500 | Flash

 
Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro

ISO 1600 | f/8@1/400 | No Flash

Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro

ISO 640 | f/11@1/30 | No Flash

Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro

ISO 1600 | f/8@1/250 | No Flash

This weekend I decided to shoot at a higher ISO than normal just to see what the results would be like. I also didn’t use any flash for the majority of the shoot. I think that they were okay up until about ISO 640 after that they where a bit furry when viewed at 100%.

Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro

ISO 1250 | f/9@1/640 | No Flash


Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro
ISO 400 | f/16@1/500 | Flash

Shot hand-held with Nikon D700 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF Micro
ISO 320 | f/11@1/320 | No flash

Overall, I was happy the results from this weekend. I am interested in getting the Nikon R1 Close-up Speedlight Remote Kit. My current home brewed macro rig consists of 2 x SB-800s which can get pretty heavy after awhile. A lighter load would provide more stability and greatly improve my chances of obtaining sharper and crisper macros shots.

Early Spring in Sydney - Tulips

We have been experiencing unusually hot weather for the last few weeks. In fact this has been the hottest August in years. Spring has arrived early this year and the tulips, in the botanical garden, blossomed 2-3 weeks earlier than normal.

I love the bokeh

The background or bokeh in the photo below is just amazing, It reminds me of a water colour painting. The Nikon 105mm macro/micro lens is awesome.



I never realised that tulips came in so many different colours and patterns. They were just beautiful. I just wished I came earlier when they had just blossomed.

Up Close and Personal with theTulips

Macro 1:1, hand held

This is not a tulip, I think it's a daisy - Macro 1:1, hand held, no flash

It was extremely difficult to shoot at 1:1 as it was very windy. Just had to be extremely patient and wait for the wind to drop, take the shot before it picked up again.

Yellow Tulip with red racing stripe

Gorgeous Pink Tulip

Lovely White Tulip

Fagan Park - Macro Photography

I decided to go out last Wednesday morning to take my newly modified macro rig for a test run. I just added a Manfrotto quick release plate so that I could quickly add and remove my D700.

It was a cold and windy day today not conducive for great macro photography. I managed to get a few shots before the wind just got too much. Unfortunately, winter is not a good time for finding bugs to capture.





The D700 is still twisting on the rig. I need the 200 PLARCH-14 anti-twist plate from Manfrotto to remedy this.

Click here for more shots from Fagan Park.

Eden Gardens - Macro Photography

It's another lovely sunny Sunday morning here in Sydney. Time for more macro photography so I headed out to Eden Gardens in North Ryde to get some nice flower shots and hopefully shots of some creepy crawlies. Unfortunately, there wasn't any.

I am still trying to improve my macro technique, especially with the bee shots. Most of them were not usable. I need to learn how to get pin sharp shots of moving bees.

All these shots were taken hand-held with my Nikon D700 and Nikon 105mm macro lens with a dual SB-800 flash set-up.

Anyway, click here if you want to checkout more of my macro shots from Eden Gardens.

Sydney Botanical Gardens - Macro Photography

It was a beautiful sunny day in Sydney today so I decided to go down to the Sydney Botanical Gardens to work on my macro photography.






I had hoped for more insects but there were only flies, ants, spiders and a couple of bees. There was a nest of wasps but I was to chicken to go near them. I guess the bugs don't like winter too much.

All these shots were taken hand-held with my Nikon D700 and Nikon 105mm macro lens with a dual SB-800 flash set-up. My technique is improving with each outing but still needs quite a lot of work. I have to investigate and find out the best places to take shots of insects.

Click here for more of my macro shots from the Sydney Botanical Gardens .

Nikon D700 - Macro Photography

I visited the Mt. Tomah Botanical Gardens in the Blue Mountains yesterday with some photography buddies. The aim of this shoot was to improve our macro photography. This is the first time I have teamed the Nikon 105mm with the D700 and I have to say I am very impressed with the results.

The weather wasn't the best as it was raining intermittently for most of the day. I shot most of the afternoon in the drizzling rain after lunch. I was wet and cold and so was my camera equipment.

Two of the Canon buddies called it quits when the rain started and headed for shelter. Their excuse was that they didn't want the precious Canon 5D to get damaged. I reckon it was them that didn't want to get wet!

They reckon the 5D did not have weather sealing and didn't want water in their cameras. I always assumed that the Canon 5Ds

were water resistant. The other two Canon buddies didn't seem to let the wet weather bother them too much.

Anyway the Nikon D700, 105mm macro lens and SB-800 flash all survived the ordeal.

I am amazed with the sharpness of the Nikon 105mm macro lens. I bought this before the VR version was released.

Click here for more macro photography at High ISO.

Click here if you want to see more of my macro shots.

High Speed Photography (Water Droplets)

Here are some of the shots from my first attempt at high speed photography of water droplets. It was kind of a hit and miss affair.

Orphaned droplets

This looks like a little guy praying

This was my goal!

More Orphaned droplets

The next thing I like to do is build a circuit to automate the whole process so I can capture more predictable/consistent results. So stay tune.