Thanks to all the guys that turned up. Really enjoyed it, and must make it a bit more regular. The BIMBO club haha.
Roma St Parklands really turned it on for us, it was a lovely still and clear morning. Must admit I wasn't expecting so much variety to be around this time of year, but we ended up spending quite some time in one little corner of the parklands due to the abundance of subjects.
Been a while since I shot macro, and was a little rusty at first. Happy with results for first real outing for the season. Here's some of the macros:
- Bee covered in pollen
- Robberfly
- Another fly
And there was also a very pretty male wren posing for us. Showing off colours front and back.
A lovely portfolio of photos. The detail, colours and depth of focus in the insect ones are really excellent – top shots. The Wren was zipping around at a great rate of knots so you’ve done very well to capture him given that he was so far away on that perch.
I learned a lot today from watching you guys at work, and thanks for remarking out loudly, in earshot of my wife, that without a Canon 100mm F2.8 L macro lens I would be wasting my time. Let’s see what Xmas brings!
Cheers
Dennis
PS – hope your clothes dried off from all that crawling in the wet grass!
It's been a long time since I did any serious macro as well, and I managed somehow to set the 40D to take shots at 2 stops under exposure, which has resulted in over half of my shots being a bit "ordinary" to say the least.
Troy, that Wren seemed to be as badly behaved when you captured him, as the pose he offered me. From the V shaped set of the tail, to the posture showing his bum to us, I feel that he had a comment to make to photographers, and BIMBOs in particular.
Anyway, for what it's worth, here are my offerings, but I'm not particularly proud of any of them.
Nice work – you had to work quite hard for those given the +2 stop under exposure. I like your idea of the mono pod to “lean against” – something I will be putting into practice as several of my shots today suffered from the dreaded shakes.
What a great morning we had. Thanks all for coming along ... definitely something to do again and soon.
The weather and timing were great.
I don't think I had my best shooting day, but overall I got a few keepers and still came a way very happy. It usually isn't a macro shoot without nabbing at least one hoverfly shot, but the few opportunities I had today were all missed - one because I didn't realise I had on autofocus . As usual I also struggled to get a decent honey bee shot ... one day I hope!
Here are a few from today:
1) Dennis and Mike (Dennis in one of the rare times he was vertical ... see other thread for reference)
2)Troy shooting the wren
3) Damsel Fly
4) Damsel Fly
5) Lady Beetle
6) Lady Beetle (and Man Beetle presumably)
7) Native Bee
8) Native Bee
All of mine are with the Canon EF100mm f2.8 macro lens. It is a cracker of a lens - super sharp. You want regret that purchase. Mine is the older (non-IS) version.
#4 - cracking shot Andrew. I'm jealous, I've never managed to get this close to a damselfly, despite trying very hard.
#6 - insect porn!!!
#7 - that's a superb shot of a native bee. For those that don't know, they don't have stingers and they are very placid. Much smaller than a normal honeybee, but equally as important ecologically. I wonder if this would be better rotated 90º clockwise?
Dave
Quote:
Originally Posted by astro_south
Here are a few from today:
1) Dennis and Mike (Dennis in one of the rare times he was vertical ... see other thread for reference)
2)Troy shooting the wren
3) Damsel Fly
4) Damsel Fly
5) Lady Beetle
6) Lady Beetle (and Man Beetle presumably)
7) Native Bee
8) Native Bee
#4 - cracking shot Andrew. I'm jealous, I've never managed to get this close to a damselfly, despite trying very hard.
#6 - insect porn!!!
#7 - that's a superb shot of a native bee. For those that don't know, they don't have stingers and they are very placid. Much smaller than a normal honeybee, but equally as important ecologically. I wonder if this would be better rotated 90º clockwise?
Dave
Cheers Dave. I thought about changing the orientation of #7, but this was as it was taken with the bee kind of reaching up to climb so I thought I would leave it.
You will also notice some aphids in #6 ... to keep their energy up no doubt
Quote:
Originally Posted by dpastern
Nice caterpillar, and the native bee in flight shot is most excellent. Not an easy shot to pull off imho. Very well done.
All of my macro shots were with the Canon 100. So were Andrew's, and Mike "Sharnbrook" too IIRC. Dennis had the EF-S 60, and Greg (not IIS member) was using the Canon 180 and MP-E 65.
Excellent shots as usual Troy. I miss seeing Robberflies, never seen one in our garden...![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
I'd love to be within slappin' reach of you now.
