Tag: Macro Moments

Macro Moments Challenge #39 - Black and White

#MacroMoments Macro Moments was created by avid macro photographer, Susan Gutterman, to share the beauty of macro photography and learn from others photographers. A new challenge begins on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. The winner’s photo may be featured on her blog and used as the banner in the announcement for the next challenge.

I had no clue how I was going to approach this challenge. I don't often shoot in black and white. I see in colour. We all do. The real world is full of colour. It's hard for me to imagine how something might look black in white before I shoot it. However, sometimes I'll take a colour image and apply a black and white filter and experiment.

I dropped my son off at his summer job at the Montgomery Friends Farmers' Market and came home get Bhavna. The night before, she had stated that she wanted to visit the Farmers' Market with me. She wanted to see what produce was available. She was still sleeping when I got home. She slept until 10 AM.

While I waited for Bhavna to awaken, I brainstormed ideas for the macro challenge. I noticed the dozens of Asian lilies1 blooming in the garden in the house next door. The house has been unoccupied for several months. The owners bought the house at the high end of our neighbourhood housing market, and when they moved out a few years ago, the market was softer. The house has been rented twice over the last few years, but the most recent tenants vacated a few months ago. The house is currently up for sale.

I set up my tripod, camera, and Nikon with Kenko extension tubes attached to the AF-S Nikkor DX 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6. The sky was overcast all weekend with occasional downpours of rain. Getting everything in focus in the low light of the day was a challenge, but fortunately, there was very little wind. I lowered the aperture to f/22 and even lower — f/32 and bumped up the ISO to 6400.

I fired off a few shots but did not feel what the photos would look like in black and white. I played around with the macro setting and effects settings on the Nikon D5100. I found one setting that simulates "night vision ". That produced black and white JPEG images. I continued shooting, but when I imported it to Adobe Lightroom for processing, I preferred the night vision image's look more than any others.

The only processing is applying a Fuji Neopan 100 Acros film preset. I think it's interesting how the film preset pushed the Lilly to a stark white.

Macro Moments was created by an avid macro photographer Susan Gutterman to share the beauty of macro photography and learn from other photographers. A new challenge begins on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month.

  1. True lilies belong to the genus Lilium and grow from plump scaly bulbs. Asian lilies are true lilies. Daylilies, canna lilies and peace lilies are not lilies. ↩

Macro Moments Challenge #38 - Catkins

Macro Moments was created by avid macro photographer, Susan Gutterman, to share the beauty of macro photography and learn from others photographers. A new challenge begins on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. The winner’s photo may be featured on her blog and used as the banner in the announcement for the next challenge. #MacroMoments

Originally I was going to pass on this macro challenge. I didn't think I could find a catkin. But worse, I didn't know what a catkin was. But even with a Wikipedia and Google image search, I still could not think of where to find these. So I asked what a catkin was, and Susan answered. But still, where would I find these things. I had recalled seeing things that looked like catkins, but where?

I used Google and Flickr, and after a few hours, I thought I might be able to find some at the Rutgers University garden. I’m driving my son to campus for a meeting with his freshman academic advisor. He's been invited to attend the Honors College and spend much of his summer planning for the fall. The Cook College campus is about a forty-five-minute drive from home. Visiting the gardens will give me something to do while he meets.

It rained in the morning. I parked the car, set up the camera and walked around. I got wet. So did the camera. The gardens are beautiful, but I can imagine it is even more so when it's not raining. After about thirty minutes of walking around, I was ready to give up and walk home. I felt like a wildlife photographer looking for the elusive Yeti. Then I found my first catkin.

If you would like to test your patience, try shooting catkins in the rain with a macro lens with a slight breeze. After twenty minutes of that, I gave up. I found a pine tree with some catkins, but I found focusing on these conditions challenging. I also found lots of catkins under my feet. They had fallen from the trees above. Too high to climb (and not permissible in the gardens). I photographed the decaying catkins at my feet.

I looked at my images after importing them to Adobe Lightroom. They were mostly shit. Garbage. Many were blurry from the wind blowing them around. Others were full of ISO noise from having to shoot at high ISO. I deleted them all except for this one. It's the best of the best of them. It's not a sharp image. But I was fortunate to have a sliver of focus between the catkin and the leaf because the composition angle was mostly flat.

Macro Moments was created by avid macro photographer Susan Gutterman to share the beauty of macro photography and learn from other photographers. A new challenge begins on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. The winner’s photo may be featured on her blog and used as the banner in the announcement for the next challenge.

Water - Macro Moments Challenge #37

Macro Moments was created by avid macro photographer, Susan Gutterman, to share the beauty of macro photography and learn from others photographers. A new challenge begins on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. The winner’s photo may be featured on her blog and used as the banner in the announcement for the next challenge. #MacroMoments

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My original vision was to create a macro shot of some object reflected in a water drop. We had a lot of rainfall in May and it seemed fitting to attempt to capture water. However, I soon discovered how difficult it is to shoot water drops. Shooting handheld down at the level of leaves was challenging. I was soon exhausted from bending over leaves and holding my breath to reduce camera shake. The slightest movement and the images are blurred.

I then tried using a tripod. This improved stability but presented a new challenge. Water drops on leaves are delicate things. Positioning the lens in the right spot for optimal focus often meant accidentally disturbing the foliage. In some cases, I lost the drop of water. It would fall off the leaf. Capturing a set of useable images was an exercise in patience with much trial and error.

Macro Moments was created by avid macro photographer, Susan Gutterman, to share the beauty of macro photography and learn from others photographers. A new challenge begins on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. The winner’s photo may be featured on her blog and used as the banner in the announcement for the next challenge.