under construction again!

Hey everyone!
So (story of my life) I have been super busy this summer! With lots of work, lots of trips to Toronto to see the family, a trip to a cottage etc etc!

I have been taking pictures, but i have not uploaded that many! Finding the time to spend post processing is increasingly hard this summer. I have about 100 images to get through and upload to the gallery!!!

If you have tried to visit the gallery in the last couple of days, you will notice its not there. Rather, it is there, but it is password protected. It will be back, I have just locked it out for the time being so that I can make changes to it without people seeing it until its complete.

So asides from that, there is not too much going on :P

I am shooting a good friends wedding in September, and I have a gig doing some shots for a local companies website and advertisements. More on that later! So things are looking good right now.

Stay tuned for more updates, and follow me on twitter for up to the minute (when I remember) stuff. I also will be sending the occasional picture from my cellphone to 'TwitPic'. Usually of clouds or a sunset or something that catches my eye when I don't have my dslr.

here is few i have posted to twitpic so far





My new cell phone is pretty nice! Maybe I will do a short write up on it in the near future! It's a Sony Ericsson C905A from Rogers. With an 8 megapixel camera on it! Its no D80, but in a pinch its pretty good, and I can make phone calls with it too :)

See ya later!

Need more magnification!

hi everyone,
so since i have been using my macro lens (which i am stil in love with!) i have been dabbling with greater than 1:1 magnification. i have done a lot of research into the various ways to this. close up diopters, extension tubes, reversed lenses, bellows, teleconverters, etc.

it can be pretty overwhelming and confusing sometimes! As you may remember, before i got the macro lens, i was using a reversed 50mm 1.8d on my camera to achieve 1:1 magnification. albeit at the sacrifice of all the automatic functions of the camera, and working distance! but it worked and was a lot cheaper than a macro lens!

well, now that i can go to 1:1 with all the auto functions and a little over a foot of working distance, i wanted to experiment with more than life size! i spend awhile researching methods to do this and decided on using a combination of a reversed lens and extension tubes. well, i don't actually have the extension tubes, but i am able to reverse my 50mm on the end of my 105mm macro for roughly 3x life size (as far as i am concerned)

I went this route because it seemed to be the cheapest (teleconverters are pricey), have the best image quality (diopters can have a degrading effect on IQ, extension tubes have no optical elements, the nikkor 50mm f1.8 is a quality lens), and have the most potential for portability (try handholding your camera with a bellows attached to it!)

what i wanted for this to work:
-a 52mm to 62mm male-male coupling ring to thread onto the front of the 105mm (62mm filter thread) and the front of the 50mm (52mm filter thread) so i can attach them together.

-this leaves the rear element of the 50mm exposed at the front of your rig, so i was trying to think of ways to DIY a cover for the end of the 50mm involving a rear lens cap that i was going to cut the center out of and MacGyver a UV filter on the end. but i wanted instant (relatively) gratification, so i did some poking around online and found that nikon of all people make something specifically for this!! the Nikon BR-3 has a fitting to attach to the rear part of your lens, and then it has a 52mm filter threading on the other end so you can attach a filter over it, thus protecting the sensitive bits of your reversed lens! i found one on ebay pretty cheap and it works great, although it does cut down your working distance a smidge (more on that later)

-then i just used my flash bracket i made up a while ago (see older posts) and made a soda can diffuser thanks to lordV at dgrin (directions here)

so i was setup. here is a shot of this monstrosity i have created (it will be bigger when the extension tubes come around :) )



if you click and go to the flickr page, look at the full size and you can see the BR-3 on the front with the filter on it protecting the rear element!

well, now its time to take some shots to test it out!
first of, a shot of the millimeter markings on a ruler.


so there is about 8mm shown across the whole frame. so according to the internet ;) to determine magnification by photographing the millimeter markings on a ruler, you; divide the width of the sensor of your camera by the amount of millimeters in your test photo!
so sensor width of a nikon DX dslr is 23.6mm, divide that by 8mm and you get 2.95! so just shy of 3x lifesize :D cool! lets find a bug or something

off i go to the backyard to go crawl around in the grass! here is a little sampling of what i found:

this is one of those dandelion puffballs. the brown stalks are the stems of the actual white wispy parts that fly through the air, and the holes are empty spots where the wispy things used to be (very scientific i know)




Here is the same dandelion, from a different angle, really showing off the detail of the wispy parts stems (i need to figure out what they call those things)




there seems to be a theme here! this is a different dandelion, this one with all its wispy's intact. and covered in water droplets!




Sorry about all the dandelions, we dont really have much of a garden, so all we have is an abundance of dandelions :)

Finally a little creature to capture. i found this fellow enjoying a meal on the bricks of our house.




see a 100% crop here to see the details of the eyes, its amazing!

So, a little on depth of field (how much of the image is sharp). the above images were shot with an aperture of f/16. for landscapes and such, that would usually suffice to render a large part of the image sharp. but at this magnification, its not good enough most of the time, especially when shooting bugs. for the most part, you should attempt to get the insects eyes in focus, unless you are accentuating a particular portion of the body. i managed to do this in the spider image, but you lose the rest of the detail because of the lack of depth of field.

so, to combat this, i am trying to perfect my skills of 'focus stacking'. this is taking multiple exposures of the same shot, but each shot focusing a little farther into the image. you then take all these exposures and you combine them in a program like helicon focus, combine zm, or zerene stacker. the dandelion wispy water droplets picture above is a focus stack of about 3 or 4 frames. i only have a trial version of helicon focus, but it seems to give the best results. combine zm is good and free, but the final stacked image is only 96dpi, which is unfortunate because free stuff is always better :). zerene stacker i just heard of, downloaded it (its still in beta), but i wasnt too pleased with the results, i was probably using it wrong, i am going to try again in the next little while.

**edit** i forgot to talk a bit about working distance! with the normal macro lens, it will focus at about 12 inches in front of the lens at life size magnification. with the reversed lens on the front, i have about 1-2 inches give or take (have not taken an official measurement yet!), and with just the reversed 50mm directly on the camera body, its pretty similar, a few inches. so, for shooting bugs with the macro lens and reversed lens combo, you have to be reeeeeeeeaaaal slow in your approach. i suggest practicing with a non living object, moving in and out of focus so that you get a feel for where that sweet spot is! and as always, although it takes a bit of practice, i suggest manual focus the majority of the time! then you can focus the shot by moving swaying your body back and forth slowly and hitting the shutter at the precise moment you are in focus (of course :) ). i am going to use some electrical tape and tape my cable release to the flash bracket next time i go out and that will probably help out too. also i am going to experiment with mirror lockup, any tiny movement can throw your focus off by a lot!

and, don't get frustrated!! i have a ton of images i have deleted because the focus was off by a hair (literally). it takes a lot of practice, i am still perfecting my technique and am nowhere near as good as i want to be :)

alright, so i didnt intend to type so much, but i guess i get excited when talking about this kind of stuff because its so fun and i still get blown away when i look at a shot of a tiny bug that takes up my whole computer monitor and seeing all the insane details :)

well, thats it for now! i hope this was informative and helpful to anyone wondering about increasing magnification beyond life size! if you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line!

i will leave you with a cool shot i took a few days ago, called 'i heart you'

spider eating some lunch

spider eating some lunch
Originally uploaded by supervillain1

here is a 100% crop of a spider :) this was with my macro lens, with a 50mm reversed on the front! i will be making a post soon with more pics!

thanks
C

a couple of shots from the new lens!

Hey everyone,

so i am totally in love with my new lens :)

i will give you a little rundown on my initial impressions;

1. the lens is built like a tank! its hefty (but not too much), seems to be made of metal, has a rubber seal at the end. the manual focus ring is very smooth and damped

2. focusing is fast and very quiet and spot on

3. images are super sharp and the color is perfect

4. lens hood is very high quality

i would like to write a full blown review at some point, maybe in the next few weeks!

i just ordered a 52mm to 62mm coupler, so i can reverse the 50mm on the front of this lens for greater magnification. that should arrive soon (i hope)

so in a few words, if you can spare the extra money, this lens is by far worth every penny! i have always believed you get what you pay for, and this glass is proof of that! 5 out 5 stars :D

here are a few shots i have taken, there is many more, but we are in the final stages of planning the reception and we have to get everything ready! once its all over, i should have some more time to make more posts :) thanks for reading, till next time!

C




'Network'




'Nothing Else Matters'




'Sol'

I am lucky, oh so lucky

Okay, just a quick note :)
sooo, got my birthday present today. My amazing, beautiful wife set up a fundraiser and pooled the money together and got me a.........

Nikon 105mm f2.8 Macro Lens!!

holy crap

this is my holy grail, i have wanted this lens forever now, and i actually own one, i cannot believe it! i will post some pics up real soon! i took about a million today just trying it out.

i want to thank all those who contributed! especially Dayna! Love you xoxox





thats all for now! i think i will get some sleep, seeing as i have to work all day tomorrow. although i would love to be out shooting with this new amazing glass...ah well, another day!!

take it easy!

C

whats new?

Hey everyone!

so, whats new, you ask? well, me and dayna have been pretty tied up getting things together for the wedding reception! its coming up fast!
in 2 days i will be turning 26! thats pretty exciting :)

i have been reorganizing my gallery, to try and categorize the images. i thought i finished the other day, but i asked dayna to go through it, and she noticed it was a bit too much! so i changed it again, i think i have got it now. its in a constant state of tweaking but its fairly close to where i want it!

hmm, what else. at work the other day, they brought a photographer in (Blair Gable) to shoot the plant and some people working for a promo. you should check out some of his stuff on his site, very good portraiture and photojournalism stuff there!

i got around to putting a couple of new images up on the gallery.

'Rise and Shine'




'Exodus'




'Rescued'




'Slow Drip'




'Swirling Daydream'





I have more black and white landscapes i did a few ago, i will put them up later!

I am off to go read a book, Dayna just got me this for my birthday 'John Shaw's Business of Nature Photography'


see you later!!

making some changes!

my site is being revamped, so the images are moved around and some of the links in this blog will not work! bear with me :)

Making use of an old flash bracket

Hi there!

just some updates:
first, i have surpassed 1000 visitors to my gallery page! :D :D :D if i had have known who was the 1000th visitor, you may have got a prize...
second, i built something cool out of an old flash bracket for macro photos!

i got the brilliant idea from the macro guru over at DGRIN, Lord Vetinari!

basically, you take your flash bracket, buy a cheap ball head at your local camera shop, and get some 1/4" bolts. then, i had to drill a hole in the top of the flash bracket to put the bolt through, i then attached the cheapo ball head to the top of the bracket. my sb-600 came with a tripod hookup, so i attached that to the top of the ballhead, then attached the flash to that, allowing me to swivel the flash around and point it in front of the lens! this cost me about $25 to do. my flash brackets handle got in the way of the bolts a bit, so i had to do some 'dremeling' of the plastic to make it fit, but it worked out wonderfully!




please forgive the quality of the images, i whipped them up in a few minutes just to show off the rig :)

i will post some test shots that i took with this beast after the weekend, i am working for the next 3 days so i wont be doing much shooting! but the weather is turning out for the better, so i will be able to find some bugs soon! *fingers crossed*

stay tuned!

The Nikon BR-2A Macro Reversing Ring

okay! i got an exciting thing in the mail the other day!
a nikon br-2a macro reversing ring!

for those that have not heard of this, it is a metal ring with a 'f mount' connector on one side, and a 52mm filter thread on the other. this allows you to reverse mount a lens onto the camera, effectively turning any lens into a macro lens, capable of 1:1 magnification. they suggest using a normal lens 50mm or so, a prime lens is ideal, also if it has an aperture ring, it makes life a lot easier.

i ordered from ebay, and it arrived from hong kong really fast! i had read online about ways to make one, involving an old uv filter, a lens body cap, epoxy, a dremel tool etc etc. i did not have the motivation to do this, and i wanted something a bit sturdier.

the br-2a is all metal and nice and chrome looking :) it was a little stiff to put on at first, but with a little coaxing it got on there. once you mount it on the body, then you just thread your lens on it like you would a normal filter.


here it is! nice and shiny


nikon lens cap and br-2a


A shot with my 50mm reversed on the camera!

first impressions:
-very fun! i went around my house taking pictures of light switch screws, peeling paint, nick knacks, and other random stuff. there is a ton of different subjects that open up to you when you can shoot like this.

-lighting is a bit of a problem. when the lens is mounted like this, metering doesnt work, and the flash needs to be set manually. after some playing around, i was able to get the best results with the lens aperture set at f/8 and the on board flash at 1/16 power. any smaller aperture and it gets hard to see the image in the viewfinder, and depending on the image you desire to take, you can go larger on the aperture, but DOF is super shallow as it is, and you may end up grossly overexposing the shot! but the fun thing about it is experimenting :) i did mess around with my sb-600 off camera, but it was really hard to hold the flash and stay steady with the camera. so until i can modify my flash bracket, thats a no go! luckily the on board flash is suitable for the time being (albeit a little flat)

-focusing takes a bit to get used to! seeing as i never used a proper macro lens before, it took a bit to get the hang of focusing with this shallow of a depth of field. basically you set the lens at infinity, then move the camera back and forth to focus. once you do it a couple of times its all good. as i mentioned earlier the DOF is so shallow, even breathing can put you out of focus. i am going to play around with mirror lock up and using my cable release once i get the flash bracket done up.

all in all, i am loving this little gizmo. i could go around my house all day finding wierd and wonderful little things to shoot. and its a blast to look at the details you can capture once you view the pics on the monitor!

for post processing these images, usually i will bump up the clarity, then sharpen in photoshop.

here are some test shots. these were taken the first day i got it, and i had no regard for composition, lighting, subject etc. these are straight out of the camera, only resized in lightroom:











final impressions:
-neat little thing to have in your camera bag! very cheap alternative to a true macro lens. but with that being said, if you are serious about macro photography, i would recommend spending the money for a true macro lens. for insects and living critters, with a reversed lens, you need to be really close to focus, this could scare them away. for flowers and still life subjects, this is an okay setup, but still, metering and ttl flash support is pretty handy, and you just dont have it with this.
all in all, i like the extra versatility this gives me, and it will for sure tide me over until i get my nikon 105mm VR (!). i have plans for that lens when i get it as well :) i am looking to get a full set of extension tubes, then use the 105mm vr, then reverse the 50mm on the end of that! it should be crazy :D

well, i hope you enjoyed my little review! and here is one final shot i took yesterday of a sluggish housefly on my windowsill. i converted it to HDR because i thought it was a little bland in its original state (which you can see here)





take care everyone!!

added a few new pictures

hello! so my weekend was quite busy. friday was a write off seeing as i just got off the overnight shift. saturday we went to a friends house for dinner and ate a lot of food and hung out with the kids! sunday, we got our dog trained by "Barkbusters". It worked out quite well, and we are seeing a big improvment!

i did get some time to work on some pictures though. we will get to them in a minute. but first, i sold 2 more prints!! thats really good news and i am really happy to see my work go up on more peoples walls!

i also ordered a Nikon BR-2A reversing ring to tide me over until i get a macro lens :) once it arrives, i will post some pictures up for all to see!

without further adieu, here are the 3 new pictures i put up last night!




'Silk'




'Scorched Earth'




'Venting Spirits'


Hope you enjoy, as always, if you pop by the gallery, don't be shy and sign the guestbook or leave some comments! i always love to hear from you!

see ya next time!
C