Subject Matter:

That is the question, what is the subject here, the leaf, or the bug? I could have made the bug stand out more, but I think I like the confusion. It was completely lit from underneath the leaf with my 580EX off camera, of course. Some people will think I didn’t do a good job on the bug, when I meant it to be a questionable image. It is questionable since most shots of bugs are obviously intended to be, well bug shots. This one is more open to interpretation. The leafs is bright and detailed and the bug is less so, unless viewed at 100%, but you are not seeing that. This is a full frame shot, just reduced to 2400x1600px. It was fun to play with, and is an interesting if not perfect image.

I may remove that post in the future, if I become less pleased with it. I do have a traditional bug shot of this baby. But it is not really an interesting bug, the leaf underlit was. So I guess it is up to you, good , bad, or just not well done.

James Longster, © 2014

Subject Matter

Aracnide Transparency

Well, I am continuing with my experimentation with my new equipment, and my off camera flashing for macro work. This Spider was, I thought, a cast off chitin shell from a molt, until it started moving. I got pretty busy then, as it was about to start raining (I got an alert from my phone). This is once again a hand head flash macro shot, I am finding that dealing with the flash, focus, and camera angle would do an octopus credit.

The last post and this post were both shot at the same place: The “Celery Bog”, the last remnants of a huge inland wetlands that used to cover about four counties North of Lafayette, IN. This wetlands has about 200 recorded bird species that have been spotted there, unfortunately with my largest lens being a 200mm I have not been able to get any really good shots of these birds,

Bugs and flowers, now that is a different tail. Plenty of all of those. I saw today the largest Mantis I have ever seen, 100% of my sensor at 3 feet with a 100mm macro, but he/she was losing so fast from plant to plant and the wind was buffeting the plant life so badly that I never did get a good shot of it . . . . DAMN.

So here is the spider I caught, for your enjoyment, or not, personally i like spiders, as long as they stay outside! Not my idea of an Ideal bed mate, if you get my drift . . . .

James Longster, © 2014

Aracnide Transparency

Purple Haze

Well it has been a month or better since I wrote/posted in the "Darker Image”, this is mainly because I have been a bit disappointed in my results over the last several years, not in all aspects, just mainly in the Macro end of my shooting. This summer while Roger and Helene, our dear friends from the cold lands to our North (Quebec to be exact) were visiting Roger and I got a little more serious with my Canon 100mm Macro

NEW BODY: The 5Ds R was the first step, increase the pixels available, get a deeper crop (larger subject that is). Got it! It IS worth the money, and that is a fact. Either one of them is a monster of tries in a small(ish) bag.

NEW TRIPOD HEAD Next, my tripod: the legs are good strong enough and ridged enough, the head, well that was another matter, hard to use, sags with my 70-200mm Zoom on it, and just generally lame. So, more money 22lb Monfrotto ball head, smooth and ridged, an absolute necessity for macro work.

RAIL FOCUSER: I did a bit of studying, as my macro work is a self taught thing, Were there any tricks out there that Roger had not showed me, or that even he did not know? Enter the rail focuser, I did not buy the most expensive, but I bought a decent one. Why a rail focus tool? Well I found that under certain kinds of conditions a rail focuser can really bring the tack sharp aspects of an image. The trick is to set our camera at the 1 to 1 ratio that the lens is capable of, then go manual focus and use the rail to move the camera in and out to adjust the sharpness of the exact part of the object that you are shooting. For instance you know that the “In focuser plane is approximately 1/3 in front of the plane of focus, and 2/3rds behind. so you focus on the eyes of the bug and you wast part of your DOF on air in front of your subject. With the rail focuser you can take the focus point and move it a mm behind the eyes and get the eyes AND more of the body behind. It is also an excellent tool for precise Focus Staking.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Lens: L glass, always a good bet. Well, one of the few exceptions to that IS the 100mm Macro standard lens, that is an awesome lens, if you did not get a bad copy, like I did. So, anyway, I got the new lens to replace the old lens, and in this case the “New Boss is NOT the same as the old Boss” looking good so far.

The weather has been way to windy and I was not going to go out after work and try to do some good work, fighting for the last of the good light, and hoping to to get a lull in the wind. So I went out today: Lousy light VERY overcast, and still 15+ mile per hour winds, but hey I had the time to sit there and just shoot (Live view), so I did.

All of this is by way of introduction to the first Macro shot I am putting up for your viewing pleasure, it defiantly qualifies as a Darker Image. Called simply, “Purple Haze”.

James Longster, © 2014

Purple Haze: