Longwood June 2012

Back in June a friend of mine from work Karyn and I took a trip to Longwood on a weeknight after work.  She had just gotten a new macro lens for her Sony mirrorless camera and wanted to test it out.  As cool as those cameras are, watching her use it for macros made me really glad for my big bulky DSLR.  Hard as it is to nail focus with macros, it's much easier with a DSLR.

We mostly focused on shooting outside to start, I rarely get to be there in the evening and I wanted to play with the light. 






I didn't even notice the little bug on this while I was shooting!






I was really excited to get to play with a longer lens with the waterlilies! Though I need to go back earlier in the day when there will be more light.


Eventually I had to switch from my 180L to my old standby 100L (thank goodness for IS) as we were losing light, I just couldn't keep shooting at 1/400 and f/4!








The new light installation they have going on for the summer had just started up that week and it looked amazing! I can't wait to go back in August with Amanda and shoot that at night!

Longwood: Bees and Wizards

One of the last things we shot outside at Longwood (and I have already shown you what we shot after this) was this bank of blue flowers (that I forgot to take a photo of the name of) that had bees ALL over them. They just loved them.

All 5dm2, 100L macro, and I used some of the tubes as well.




Bees are really hard to shoot, I kept getting bee sides and bee butts.



Next up is the wizard part, while we were sitting there shooting the bees, I thought I would break out my flash and my new pocket wizards and play around (which I had also done earlier in the day, but the results weren't stellar).









I am not really in love with any of those. But it was fun to practice something new. And I did learn some things, like I definitely need a light stand, or an assistant (any volunteers?) to hold the flash for me where I want it, or I need to grow an extra arm (which would look odd, but it could be very handy, ha ha).

Longwood: More outside flowers

And a few more flowers from outside.






I loved the color of these purple berries, and the little cups they left behind when they dropped.

Longwood: Pink Dahlia

This was one of the last flowers we shot outside, but totally one of my favorites (and it looks like the ones I bought at home are finally ready to bloom I hope the frost doesn't get them!).




(I used my LR preset on this one that adds some blue to the lowlights and yellow to the highlights)



I love pink flowers, pretty appropriate for October huh?

Longwood: Purple & a Cactus

A few more Longwood photos. These are the rest of the ones I took while we were inside the conservatory.











I had the larger extension tube on for all of these I believe.

Longwood: Testing Out My Tubes

After we went inside from the water lilies I decided it was time to work on my second goal of the day (I had four 1) test out Kelly Moore Hobo bag, 2) Waterlilies 3) Test out tubes, 4) test out pocket wizards), there will be posts to cover the remaining two next week!

Back in July Mike got me a set of Kenko Extension Tubes that I can pair with my macro lens (though I can use them with any of my lenses) to get even larger than 1:1 magnification. They took a bit of getting used to, but they worked well with how I tend to shoot macros (dialing in to the focus/magnification I want and then moving the camera back and forth to place the focus where I want, like how focusing rails work). Here are my first few shots of some of the smaller flowers with I think just the largest tube (how I wish it recorded that info in your EXIF data).











I spent most of the rest of the day with at least one tube on, sometimes I put on all of them (that made things a bit awkward). My friend Amanda who I met up with again that day at Longwood has a set of Pro Optic Budget Extension Tubes that she uses for all of her macros (with a 35mm or 50mm non-macro lens) and we also took the chance to compare the sets. It does seem, at least to me, that the extra cost for the Kenko tubes is worth it, they have metal mounts, feel much sturdier, are lined on the inside (on the pro optic ones you can see the metal rods that make the electrical connections between the camera and the lens) etc. They both seem to function about the same though if you can only afford the less expensive ones. Overall though, I am really happy with the tubes, it is fun to be able to get in even closer to things. I might have to save up for that Macro Photo MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Manual Focus Lens sooner than I thought!

Pink Anemone

At least I think this flower was the same as the one I showed you back in June, just in a different color. There was no sign that we could find at Longwood. This is also the same flower as yesterday, just a couple of new shots.

Longwood: Waterlilies

When I saw that the waterlilies were in full bloom still at Longwood and that it was going to be a nice day (last visit they were blooming but it was raining) I was thrilled, I have been dying to shoot them for a LONG time now. All shot with my 100L and 5Dm2, and let me tell you, I was WISHING I had a longer lens, this might finally be a reason for the 70-200!
















This is maybe my favorite

Photography Tips 13: Review of 100mm f/2.8 macro versus 100mm f/2.8L macro IS

I have had my new macro lens for a while now, put it through it's paces and my old lens has gone to a new home. Sounds like it is time to do a round up of my thoughts on the new lens and how it compares to the old.

I adore the L version of the macro lens. The focus is much faster, it feels better balanced to me and the IS makes it much easier to handhold at lower shutter speeds.

I haven't really seen a big difference in image quality. I think the bokeh might be a little smoother but it was so smooth from the non-L that it is a really small change. For me there is no question it was worth the upgrade considering this is possibly my most used lens, and I use it even more now that I have the L version.

As for the auto-focus the L lens still hunts a LITTLE bit in certain situations but it is light years better than the non-L version. On the L you have three options, 0.3-0.5m, 0.5-infinity and full, for limiting your focus range. I love having the option to just keep it in the shorter distances, great for macro shots. There is no similar option on the non-L version only the 0.31-infinity (which is the same as full) and 0.48-infinity which is similar to the 0.5 to infinity. This little improvement has been huge for me.

It is at least as sharp as the non-L, maybe even a little sharper.

The IS is really useful as well. I couldn't really hand-hold at 1/100 with the old version and get tack sharp images 100% of the time, I can with the IS if the subject is still.

Overall I am 100% happy that I upgraded.

And because I hate to post without a photo, one of my newest favorites:

Before and After Monday: Blur

This shot was a bit of an accident this weekend at Longwood Gardens, but I loved it when I saw it come up in LR. I thought since it was already a bit different I could go a little farther in the processing.





LR Edit Details:
WB as shot
Brightness +25
Clarity +40
Vibrance +10
Saturation +5
Tone Curve
Highlights +43
Darks -9
Shadows -9
Point Curve: Strong Contrast

What do you think? Too much?