A few pictures in Montreal and Laval

[Nerri1029]

Very Nice !!!

I got out a few weeks ago at Point au Roche and shot some macro stuff.

Was with the whole family so there was little to no time shoot carefully.

I love DSLR and macros

 

[tarcan]

Mike,

Where are the pictures then?

He he, I can only imagine, I was with Amanda, who is supposed to be a grown up and she was really getting anowed of me spending 15 minutes per bug!

Take care

Martin

 

[tarcan]

Live View can be a very useful tool, especially if you want precise focus when going beyond the magnification of 2-3x.

mea culpa!

Been messing a around with it and I think I got it...

at f8 (hand held of course, I never carry a tripod), same shot progressively more savagely cropped

at f4, more challending, but still nice results I think.

 

[tarcan]

a few more of the day

last one, I put it there since I find it funny. The fly took off while I was taking the picture. Looks like it decided to lay down and go to bed!

 

[pato_chacoana]

Very cool macro work Martin! Excellent photos. I never carry the tripod either But I still have to work out lighting issues... Do you use a special flash?

Here the maximum close I can get with the 60mm lens: (without using flash)

And crop:

Cheers,
Pato

 

[tarcan]

Pato,

Thank you for the nice comment.

I always use the camera built in flash! For some people it is pure heresy, I find I get good enough results. On that last series of pictures, I have been using my newly aquired diffuser on the built in flash, when I get home I will send you the link where you can buy it if you wish. Although I am sure you can build something similar easily, I am just not so crafty to build things unless it involves putting back a human body together after a car accident!

I have the ring flash, I really do not like it. I tried to fiddle with it numerous time, but I am always dissapointed. I try to justify the expense, but I never could! I would like to try to twin light, but it is quite pricy just to try!

Also, I try to limit the weight of the gear, as you know in the jungle, I prefer to carry an extra bottle of water then to have all kinds of fancy equipment. That is why I want to try the 60 mm which is about half the weight of the 100 mm. I can rent here, so my expense will be minimal to try it. My biggest worry right now with that lense is that since I will need to get closer to the subject, that I will not be able to use the built in flash anymore (light might miss the subject), so if I need to add another flash, then the weight saving is nullified. Will see what the results are.

Martin

 

[Dreamslave]

Awesome pics Martin. Your new camera is really paying off! Good job! I will create a picture thread for my multiple field trips at mont St-Bruno and Iles de Boucherville soon!

 

[fartkowski]

Hi Martin
Very nice fly shots
I was thinking about the ring flash as well but have not heard too many good things about it.

 

[pato_chacoana]

Hi Martin,

Indeed, I know what you mean about the weight when in the field! I always try to limit it to the minimum too. After hours of walking in a hot jungle, fresh drinkable water is never enough!

About the 60mm, I have the problem of proximity to the object that you mention. I can't get the best of it (I mean getting the max close focus) because I make a shadow to the object that the built in flash can't hit. But what is more tricky in the field with mine is that it doesn't have auto-focus (it's an old lense), and sometimes it's hard to do manual in the dark jungle! I ended up using the crappy 18-55 mm that came with the camera most of the times because of this...

I think that an extra flash could be of great use in the field, not only for macros. But anyway it will have to wait as they are quite pricy over here. And recently I bought my new toy, a new 40x stereoscopic lenses so I'm broke hehe. And now I'm getting the adapter to take pics!!

Oh, and about the diffuser, that is very interesting, I'll have to look it up!

Cheers,
Pato

 

[Osprey]

Wow those are absolutely gorgeous...!

 

[Spider-Spazz]

ROLLIE POLLIES
I love those little things!

 

[tarcan]

Amanda and I went camping this weekend, in the Rimouski area which is about 5 to 6 hours drive here close to the St. Lawrence river. It is my birthplace and I always enjoy going back there, I miss the river!

No exceptionnal subjects, but still a few interesting pictures I think.

First, some ducks, they are called Eider à Duvet in french, unfortunatly, I do not know their name in english. Was a bit limited as I only have a 300 mm which is not enough for birding I find. I had to massively crop those pictures so that we see anything.

I did not get any decent shots of any males, there were very few.

Martin

 

[tarcan]

my only decent macro of the trip, the wind is incerdible close to the river, so the conditions are really not good for this type of photograpy

in the morning, there were quite a few jack rabbits, so I managed to take a few pictures

 

[tarcan]

a snake

 

[tarcan]

and finally some water falls, they are all the same falls at different levels, there were 300 steps to go at the buttom.

 

[Anthony Straus]

I love this shot Martin! Looks pro!

 

[tarcan]

I love this shot Martin! Looks pro!

Thanks for the comment!

Martin

 

[pato_chacoana]

Indeed! great photo Martin! Did you take it with a tripod? Also do you take your pics with RAW format?

Cheers,
Pato

 

[tarcan]

Pato,

Yes,*no choice for the tripod for slow shutter speed pictures like the ones for the fall.

I have switched to RAW when I got my new camera and never looked back... I regret not doing it earlier.

Take care and thank you for the nice comments.

Martin

 

[pato_chacoana]

Hey Martin,

Indeed, I regret not doing it sooner too! Not too much difference in size of files...and best quality for macro and tele shots. When converted to TIFF they are BIG though. I guess like with everything else, we learn as we do it! and always learn new things.
For my trip to Amazonas didn't shot in RAW and I regret it a lot! Oh... well, next time (I'm hoping in some months) I'll make another Amazon trip with even more pics haha.
I love your pics, keep it up

Cheers,
Pato