Weekend in Dallas

I was in Dallas this weekend for my fiancee's second bridal shower. Her mom happens to have an awesome backyard with a huge garden, a pond, and lots of little critters. Perfect opportunity for me!



1/80 @ f/2.8 iso 200 (click for big)

This first on is just another dragonfly shot. Boring, I know, but I'm still amazed at how sharp this new lens is. The dragonflies were pretty hard to get close to, since they were landing on plants in the pond.






1/250 @ f/3.5 iso 400 (click for big)

The lizards actually turned out to be even harder to get close to than little bugs. They're pretty suspicious, and tend to just scamper off if you start approaching them. I waited around for awhile, watching this lizard and another, to see if they'd go after any of the flies or bees gathering pollen, but they never did.




1/125 @ f/3.2 iso 200 (click for big)

This last one is of my mom (on the left) and my almost mother-in-law (on the right). It isn't a macro photograph, but it certainly shows how sharp a macro lens can be, and thus how useful it can be for portrait photography. Plus, the subjects happen to be two very cool ladies.

Equipment for macro photography

Brian Auer over at the Epic Edits Weblog has a couple of great intro articles on macro equipment.

Part one:
Equipment Options for Macro Photography

Part two:
MORE Equipment Options for Macro Photography


Coincidentally, Brian and I use the same lens (Sigma 105 f/2.8 macro) and tripod (Slik Pro 700DX). Great minds think alike!

Unknown fly

Found in my front yard this evening. There really is a whole other world once you start doing macro photography.

The downside to taking this kind of picture is that you don't notice someone walking down the street, and all of a sudden there's a guy right behind you while your face is down in the grass behind a camera. Makes for an interesting situation, anyway.



(click for big)


Alternate selective black & white version:


(click for big)

What a coincidence

From browsing the photos posted at fredmiranda.com and photography-on-the.net, jumping spiders seem to be one of the most common subjects for macro photography. I'd never seen one before, until I was out poking around with my new lens today, and ran across one. He stayed still for quite awhile, which was nice.

1/125 @f/9 iso 400 (click for big)

The beginning

I recently received a macro lens for my camera as a wedding gift from my fiancee. This blog is intended to be a record of my experiments in macro photography. Hopefully there will be some improvement in my photographs over time, but that remains to be seen.















1/100 @f/5.6 iso 400 (click for big)

This is one of the first pictures I took with this lens. The dragonfly macro shot is rather cliche, but it'll work for now. I'm sure I can come up with more interesting subjects in the future.