September 14, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: ancient, bug, Cicada, ciceda, close, close-up, eyes, fuzz, fuzzy, insect, macro, mating season, midwest, north america, photo, photography, spent, wings | Leave a comment
I bought a set of screw on macro filters to play with. I was buying an intervalometer to enter in to time lapse photography and adding the filters to the order made it qualify for free shipping, for cheaper than the shipping cost. At twelve dollars, this four piece set made by AGFA is a steal! They simply screw on a lens like a UV, or polarizing filter and allow You to get physically closer to what You are trying to shoot. Not without a hitch though. This 77mm set has been mated to my Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 OS to reduce the minimum focus distance from three and a half feet, down to eight to twelve inches with the +4. The extreme curve of the +4 and +10 filters, dramatically reduces the amount of light intake. So You are pretty much required to shoot in full sun light. On My first try, I used a portable L.E.D. to augment the fading evening light. It worked okay, not great though.
Over the weekend, I was musing pretty hard on My friends garden, so I popped on the +4 filter and had a go in full sun light. The filter reduced the depth of field to nearly nothing. I had to run very tight apertures to get a range of one inch into focus. Using shutter speeds of 125ths, to 400ths of a second, with apertures from 16-22 and My ISO at 400 and 800 in broad daylight was very odd. It did yield some rewards, at a better ratio than the first time, but still only 1 in every 15 shots was acceptable. Half of those were still not quite sharp, but I think I am getting the hang of using these things. Who would have thought that a $12 set of filters could turn a telephoto lens into decent macro shooting optics. It is not as good as buying a 200mm macro lens, but at one, or two percent of the price, WOW. None of the images in this post have been cropped…
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August 4, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: +10, +2, +4, 1, 200mm, 70mm, 77mm, agfa, aperture, beautiful, bee, bees, beetle, beetles, best option, bloom, blooming, blooms, blossom, blossoming, blossoms, bought on amazon, bumble, bumblebee, burrowing, center, cheap, cheap option, close, close-up, collection, color, colorful, coloring, colors, contrast, core, daylight, eating, exoskeleton, filter, filters, flower, flowering, flowers, fur, furry, fuzzy, garden, gardens, grazing, image, images, img, instect, iridescent, japanese, kit, lens, lenses, light, lighting, lights, macro, middle america, midwest, minnesota, mn, nectar, nice, no coating, no cropping, no multi-coating, oppo moto, oppomoto, petal, petals, photo, photograph, photographic, photos, pic, pics, picture, pictures, pink, pistil, pistils, plant, plants, pollen, pollenating, pretty, range, salmon, see, sharp, shell, shoot, shooting, shot, shots, shutter, sigma 70-200mm, speed, sun, sunlight, twin cities, view, wing, wings, without cropping, yard, yellow, zinnia, zoom | Leave a comment
August 3, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 2014, andor, andorblogs, angles, august, beautiful, beauty, bee, bees, blogs?, bloom, blooming, blooms, border, bumble, butterflies, butterfly, canon, close, close-up, color, colored, colorful, contrast, eat, eating, flower, flowers, garden, green, images, lens, many, natural, nature, nectar, on, orange, pattern, patterns, perch, perched, photo, photographer, photos, picture, pictures, pink, planter, planters, pollen, pots, potted, pretty, purple, range, red, rock, rocks, rocky, scheme, sigma 70-200mm 2.8 os, stand, summer, t4i, tall, telephoto, varieties, variety, view, yard, yellow, zinnia, zinnias, zoom | Leave a comment
I wandered out to find a good spot to shoot the moon rise with My Mom and an old neighbor. The first place that came to mind was a dud. The second however turned out perfectly. Except the fact that I had forgoteen to bring My tripod. Even so, I broke out the 70-200mm and applied a 2x multiplier, so I was shooting at 140-400mm, on a cropped image sensor. Which is roughly 220-600mm in terms of a 35mm camera. Not something I would suggest in a hand-held scenerio. It was VERY hard to get a shot that wasn’t terribly blurry. With all that zoom range, I still had to crop all of the images here, I think You can only get good close, detailed shots of the moon with a telescope.. Unlike most people, we went out the day after the moon was full. Which was kind of stupid, since the day before was clear and the day I was shooting on was cloudy! We waited, missing the actual rising from the horizon, due to the clouds. After more waiting, there were a couple of gaps that revealed our lovely Luna. Here are all five of the 131 pictures I took, that weren’t a pathetic blur. Next time, I will not forget a tripod…
July 19, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: 2014, beautiful, blood, body, celestial, close, cloud, clouds, color, colored, contrast, crater, craters, evening, gibbous, glow, glowing, gorgeous, horizon, huge, images, july, laden, looking, looks, lookup, luna, middle america, midwest, minnesota, moon, night, of, orange, orbit, orbiting, orbitting, peek, photo, photography, photos, pics, picture, red, rise, rising, saint paul, satellite, skies, sky, st paul, stp, super, supermoon, the, view, viewing, waning, yellow, zoom | Leave a comment
July 6, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: afternoon, bloom, blooming, blooms, blossom, blossoms, bold, bright, close, close-up, deck, dog, dogs, double, female, flower, flowers, focus, friendly, garden, green, grey, layers, macro, middle america, midwest, minn, minnesota, mn, patio, petal, petals, photo, photographer, photography, picture, pictures, pig, pigglestein, piggums, pink, pit, pit bull, pitbull, plant, plants, pollen, potted, range, red, summer, sunny, two-tone, up, yard, yellow, zinnia, zinnias, zoom | Leave a comment
June 21, 2014 | Categories: Automotive Photography | Tags: 20's, 2014, 30's, 40's, 50s, 60's, a lot, america, american, archer, area, auburn, auto, automobiles, autos, back to the, backtothe50s, backtothefifties, base model, beautiful, bel air, best, big, biggest, biscaine, bling, blue sky, body, boss 302, bright, btt50s, buick, cadillac, car, car show, cars, carshow, chevrolet, chevy, chrome, classic, clean, clear sky, close, closeup, collector, color, continental, convertible, corvette, crowd, crowded, curves, custom, customized, day, decal, decals, deco, decorative, destination, detail, details, display, door, doors, eight, end, event, exhaust, fab, fabrication, fair, fair grounds, fender, fenders, fifties, fixture, flake, flashy, ford, from, front, galleries, gallery, garfield, gathering, glitter, gorgeous, great, grill, grills, grumpy, gryphon, hard top, hood, hot, hot rod, housing, huge, hydraulics, impala, jag, jaguar, light, lights, limo, lincoln, lines, lot, lots, low rider, lowrider, luxury, maintained, massive, mercury, metal, midway, midwest, mini, minn, minnesota, mn, mustang, of, old, older, oldies, olds, oldsmobile, opel, open, openned, ornament, packard, paint, painted, panel, panels, parked, parking lot, part, pearl, people, pic, pics, picture, pictures, pipes, pix, profile, rat rod, rear, rebuilt, restored, retro, rod, rolls, rolls royce, round, rows, saint paul, section, shiny, shot, shots, SHOW, show off, side, sky, spare, sparkle, sparkling, special, spokes, st paul, sticker, style, summer, sunny, super, super charged, super charger, super eight, supercharged, supercharger, swan, taste, thousands, tire, ton, top, towncar, truck, trucks, trunk, turbo, twin cities, variety, vehicle, vehicles, vette, victoria, view, vintage, wheel, wheel well, wheels, window, windows, woody | Leave a comment
This beautiful hawk was clearly not happy about the amount of people stopping and walking toward it. I was more than happy to disturb it’s meal, considering it was on the side of a road. It was an intersection too, most of the people who drove by, turned around and came back. We spotted it and stopped immediately. Hastefully removing the wide angle lens from My camera and applying the hefty Sigma 70-200 2.8, since I did not think the bird would let us go near it. This large bird, which I believe is a ‘red tailed’ hawk, let Me within 15 feet or so before jumping up and perching in a nearby tree for a moment. I could feel a strong swirl of wind from the roughly 5 foot wing span as it took flight. Staying nearby as We humans went on our way, I assume it was going to swoop right back down on it’s kill. I admit the Mallard duck that it slayed looked quite delicious to Me as well, enjoy that fat meal bird. I hope no one hits it while it is feasting.. I see two or three of these birds of prey daily, never so close up though. They are much larger than one might think from seeing them perched atop a light pole on the side of the highway. What a magnificent semi-urban predator.
February 24, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: 2014, afternoon, angry, angrybirds, avian, awesome, beak, bird, birdofprey, birdonbirdviolence, birds, brown, claws, close, close-up, curb, curbside, day, dead, deep, dinner, duck, dusk, eat, eaten, evening, feathered, feathers, february, fridley, grip, guarding, hate, how it should be, image, images, intersection, kill, killed, large, late, mallard, meal, mess, midwest, minnesota, mound, natural, nature, near, perch, perched, photo, photograph, pic, pics, picture, pictures, pile, pix, predator, predators, prey, rare, red, region, road, roadkill, selection, sharp, shooting, shot, shots, side, snow, span, street, sun, suprise, tail, twin cities, urban, way of the world, white, wild, wing, wings, winter | Leave a comment
I’m not even sure what variety of rose this is. It was given to Me by My Mom, late in the season last year. Hard to go wrong with $1 plants from the nursery.. Unlike My Lavender Lace Mini rose, this one is truely tiny. It stands a lofty 5 inches high, giving these nice pale pink blooms with fair petal layering. I put it in the attic with all My citrus trees for the winter, it seems happy.
March 17, 2013 | Categories: Photography | Tags: bloom, blossom, bush, close, flower, grown, indoor, light, mini, pale, picture, pink, pretty, rose, shrub, small, spring, tea, winter | Leave a comment
January 12, 2013 | Categories: Photography | Tags: blooming, blossoming, buds, close, flower, flowers, orchid, orchids, present, white, xmas, yellow | Leave a comment
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