No Cropping Zone

Featured in Holy Crop!

2012-01-06T23:58:00.000-08:00

When Rikk Flohr first contacted my via a private message at Deviant Art to let me know that he was featuring my blog I had mixed reservations. But after reading a few posts at Holy Crop! I realized that Rikk was basically saying what I have (that you need to get it right with the camera) and he's not a priest in the church of "fix it in post". Go on over and give it his blog a read!

Published by AMC Outdoors

2012-01-05T04:44:00.001-08:00

Tuscany series 1-1
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

This image of a Cuckoo Bee was published by AMC Outdoors. It was a pleasure to work with their staff -very professional!

Post Moderation Part Two

2011-11-18T07:53:00.000-08:00

The latest technique that the spammers are using is to send a compliment with a link to a web site embedded in it, like this one:

"Always so interesting to visit your site. What a great info, thank you for sharing. this will help me so much in my learning.
security equipment"

Of course "security equipment" is a hyperlink to the site the spammer is trying to advertise.

*sigh*

You have my word that if you comment on a post, even if it's extremely negative, I'll approve it for publication as long as it's not spam. My intent is not to filter out any potential negativity -I learn from all of your comments. I just don't like having to go through all the comments to delete the spam.

Learn to Lie

2011-11-12T08:45:00.001-08:00

Hungry Moth at 5x
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

If you're a pretty good photographer then you're also a pretty good liar. You might not know it, or want to admit it, but it's true. By taking a photo you're taking the subject out of context and presenting it in a way that you didn't see it with your naked eye. Take the moth included with this post: I saw a water bottle with a blue label on it in the background, but you see what might look like a blue sky.

The trick to pulling off that lie was in knowing that I didn't want the background to be black, if it were then the scene might seem out of place even though most moths are nocturnal. So I deliberately placed the water bottle behind the critter to give the flash something to reflect off of. It had natural spring water in it, if that makes you feel better ;)

Once you realize that photography is a lie then you can start pushing the envelope to create "realistic" scenes. Like using a second flash to illuminate a vinyl table cloth that has a floral print on it. Is it "natural"? No, but it looks natural and that's all the matters.

Now some of you might shoot only using natural light because it looks more realistic -closer to the way that you actually viewed the scene. But how many of you used a reflector to get more of that sunlight into the subject?

Liars... :)

Macro by definition is not a natural form of photography -no one sees the world with the level of detail that we macro photographers can capture. So there's no need to constrain yourself since no matter what you do the final image really isn't natural anyway. The better you get at lying the easier it is to trick the viewer into thinking that the scene is normal, that nothing is out of place. They'll spend more time appreciating the image as a whole instead of picking it apart because it doesn't look right.

So learn to lie...

Habits and Quirks

2011-10-23T03:14:00.001-07:00

Cleaning Up I
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

It feels like spring here in southern Italy so I decided to get out and test a new diffuser that I've been working on (more on the diffuser in a future post). It was warm with plenty of sun so the critters where hyper active, and yet I managed a few shots of this Banded Eye Drone not because I'm special, or have some unique power over wild creatures.

I got close cause the Drone was busy.

Insects just don't seem to have a whole lot of "processing power" -if they are engaged in just about any activity then they aren't expending too many brain cells on predator, or photographer, avoidance. So the key to getting close to them is learning their habits and quirks.

Here's the exact same insect a few minutes later. It had taken off so I set my lens to 2x and the camera to ISO 400 (to get some detail in the background) and waited. Less than a minute later the Drone landed in the exact some spot it had been before and started cleaning itself again. Most insects move in predictable patterns that you can take advantage of...

The more you learn about the critters that you want to photograph the easier it is to get the images you want. Happy shooting folks :)

What Focal Length for Shooting Macro and Closeups

2011-10-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

Gustavo Mazzarollo (a fellow macro shooter with some mad skills) recently asked me how I would rate Canon's 300mm F4 L and how it compares to the 180mm macro. At first I wasn't going to do a blog post on it -I'm not all that and a bag of chips, and there are other sites out there that review lenses much better than I could. But I realized that I could answer Gustavo's question in a way that other sites might not. You see I spent a lot of money on Canon's 180mm macro only to realize that I couldn't really use it for any of the images that I wanted to take, and if I can save you from making the same mistake that I did then it's worth writing about.

Before I start a post where it seems like I'm bashing the 180mm macro let me start out by saying that it's an awesome lens from a technical point of view -great color, contrast, and plenty sharp. So no angry letters please :) But it does have some "limitations" that you need to be aware of...

All too often I hear people say that for bug photography you need a lot of working distance to keep from scaring the critters, and so a long focal length lens is a good choice. More experienced macro shooters either know how to get close to skittish subjects, or they know when to go looking for them when they are not so active (late evening / early morning) so working distance is a non issue. You can, with practice, get close to just about anything.

Canon 65mm F2.8 macro lens at almost 4x. Single frame (I don't focus stack).

For flash photography the increased working distance of a long lens works against you. Due to the Apparent Light Size Principle it's easier to get good diffusion the closer your diffuser is to the subject. But if you get your flash out past the end of the lens then you've just lost the gain in working distance that comes with long glass. I took most of my macro shots with the 180 L using either natural light, or a mix of natural light and flash.

For shooting closeups the 180 L just doesn't have the "reach" of a long prime like the 300mm L, and hard to reach subjects were impossible to shoot at the magnifications that I wanted to shoot them at. Also keep in mind that, shooting the same scene, the bokeh with the 300mm L (or any long focal length prime) is going to be better than the bokeh of the 180mm L because there is more distance between the lens and the subject with longer glass (so more distance between the lens and the background as well).

180mm F3.5 L

300mm F4 L (taken in the middle of the day so the light is pretty harsh)

I know this is gonna sound kinda of odd coming from a macro shooter, but I just can't recommend a long focal length macro lens. They don't work well for macro unless you want to use natural light and a tripod, and they just don't have the reach and bokeh of a long focal length prime. I currently carry a Canon MPE-65mm macro lens and the 300mm F4 L and those two cover all of the macro and closeup shooting that I do.

AhMet ozKan -Macro Video Artist

2011-10-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

Now that DSLRs can be used as video cameras macro shooters are putting them to good use producing some amazing "Discovery Channel" quality scenes. Featured here is a video from AhMet ozKan of a jumping spider -a creature that's difficult to take still images of because they like to jump.

Some serious talent behind the camera here folks...

Honey Bee Hobbyist: The Care and Keeping of Bees

2011-08-15T22:41:00.001-07:00

Freckles II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Dr. Norman Gary, a recognized expert in beekeeping, has written a book called Honey Bee Hobbyist: The Care and Keeping of Bees. Don't let the title fool you: Dr. Gary has over 30 years experience as a beekeeper so there's something in the book for everyone, even established beekeepers and it's well written, organized, and easy to understand. If you're looking to get into beekeeping then this is the very first reference you should get -and it may well be the only one you need!

The book is filled with some excellent macro and closeup images as well (I was one of the photographers who contributed photos).

You can order it from Amazon -and for the record I make no money from that link.

Finger Food Deconstruction

2011-07-27T09:19:00.001-07:00

Finger Food
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I was bored and looking to do something different so I enticed this honeybee to feed from my finger. Check out the video for a brief description :)

Post Moderation

2011-07-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the post moderation folks -I am getting too many spam messages in the comments. I will post (and have posted) every comment, good or bad, as long as it doesn't contain an advertisement.

Someone took a cheap shot at me recently, suggesting that I wouldn't post their comment because it was negative. You have every right to disagree with me, and I'll post your comments even though you're wrong... ;)

Solitary Bee on Mint Series Studio Setup

2011-07-10T09:24:00.001-07:00

Solitary Bee on Mint I
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I'll apologize now for the quality of the video -it was early in the morning and I was still nursing my first cup of coffee :)

This shot of the same bee really shows what that floral pattern on the table cloth looks like when blurred out in the background.

Want to Get Published and Paid?

2011-04-27T13:30:00.001-07:00

Tom Stack, of Tom Stack and Ass. (the agency that manages my portfolio) has been given a large list of images that are needed for an upcoming book. Tom is the reason that I've been getting paid for images by McGraw Hill for the past two years, so this is a really good opportunity! Tom's email address is tomstack(at)earthlink.net (replace the (at) with the @ symbol of course -I wrote it that way to keep his email addy from getting picked up by spam bots).

Here's is the list of photos that Tom is looking for. The customer wants North American species, but it doesn't matter what side of the pond you took the photo on (some exist everywhere):

Title: Dragonflies Deadline May 3rd

Cover (vert) & Title Page (horiz): striking closeup of a dragonfly (US only)

Chapter 1: Flying Jewels

P5 Kid looking at dragonfly

P5a Dragonfly wingspan

P5b Dragonfly life cycle- egg, larva, adult

P5c Dragonfly dipping tip of abdomen in water

P6 Closeup of needle like body

P6a Dragonfly larva or nymph & its metamorphosis

P7 Closeup of its mandibles/jaws or carrying prey

P7a Mocha Emerald or Prince Baskettail- especially show green eyes

P7b Adult dragonfly for labeling of body parts

P8 Dragon fly hovering

P8a Dragon flies migrating or in Mexico or Caribbean

Chapter 2: You are the Explorer

P9 Kids exploring in pond area or looking through binoculars

P10 Damselflies- show them holding wings up

P11 Dragonfly perched in garden or near water

P11 Elfin Skimmer

P11a Giant Darner- showing its bright color- perched on grasses or near water

P13, 15 Common Whitetail (male) (on a rock near flowers if poss)

Chapter 3: A Guide to Dragonflies

P14 Kid looking at dragonfly

P15a Skimmers: Common Whitetail, Blue Dasher, Widow Skimmer, Four-spotted Skimmer, Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Flame Skimmer, Halloween Pennant, Calico Pennant, Black Saddlebags, Yellow-legged Meadowhawk, Wandering Glider, Spot-Winged Glider

P15b Darners: Common Green Darner, Shadow Darner, Blue-eyed Darner, Variable Darner

P15c Emeralds: Mocha Emerald, Prince Baskettail, American Emerald, Common Baskettail

P15d Clubtails: Cobra Clubtail, Common Sanddragon, Russet-tipped Clubtail, Eastern Ringtail

Chapter 4: Try This! Projects You Can Do

P17 Dragonfly with mosquito prey

P17a Hine’s Emerald dragonfly

P18 Kids/person making a dragonfly pond or flower garden

P19 Dragonflies on flowers or these flowers: aster, black-eyed Susan, coneflower, daisy, lavender, fountain grass

P19a Male Calico Pennant- showing red heart-shaped marks on abdomen

P19b Dragonflies perched on tops of tall grasses or stems- or child placing sticks in garden for perches

Upcoming book titles: Beetles, Grasshoppers, Ants, Snails/Slugs & Worms

Good luck folks!!

Regards,

John

Working in a Wallflower Deconstruction

2011-04-25T03:13:00.001-07:00

Working in a Wallflower
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

If you're familiar with my other deconstructions then there isn't too much to add here: I baited this honeybee by injecting honey into some Wallflowers and waited for them to start feeding so I could get close. Then it's just a matter of holding onto the flower she's on with my left hand, brace the camera on that same hand, and take the shot. But for this image I took a short video of the "field studio" that I used -just a cheap trick to keep the background from being black.

There's no natural light in that image -it's all flash.

Update 27 Apr 2011:

I didn't go into a lot of detail on this image deconstruction since for me the way I focus the scene is routine. But I was asked about the depth in the shot and this is how I did it: Looking at that frame the curve from the proboscis all the way to the back of the eye has to be in focus, as well as that leading antenna. If any of those elements are noticeably out of focus then the shot won't work. To add insult to injury even if I did focus stack (I never stack) the honeybee is in constant motion so I have to get all of those elements in focus in a single frame. To pull it off I focused on the end of the proboscis and then locked that lower right hand corner in place. I can spin that corner on its axis, but I can't allow any vertical or horizontal movement and still keep that part of the frame in focus, or the framing where I need it to be.

With the lower right corner locked I twisted the camera so that the upper left and right corners went a little deeper into the frame. The end effect is the area of acceptable focus is over the curve that runs from the proboscis to the eye, but it's also intersecting the antenna getting everything in focus that needs to be. But because I've locked that lower right corner and twisted the camera it looks like I'm shooting parallel to the honeybee, creating the illusion that there is a lot of depth in the image when there actually isn't.

MT-24EX Diffuser Redesign

2011-04-18T10:45:00.001-07:00

Parked
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

A short and sweet video on my new diffuser design. You can see a sample of the light quality I'm getting with in the specular highlights and the texture detail in this Ladybug's shell.

Note: I cut the front of the Sto-Fen out because I'd lose a full stop of light if I didn't, and the Puffer would cause me to lose another stop. Since I'm relying on the flash duration to freeze as much motion as possible (to get sharp images at high Fstops) I didn't want to lose two full stops to the diffuser. Also I have more control over the diffusion since I can replace the diffusion plastic that I have hot glued to the flash head.

The Whole Picture

2011-03-31T05:03:00.001-07:00

Mason Bee at 5x
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

A little over a year ago I was trying to push the limits of what I could do in a single frame when I took the shot included with this post. It’s a Mason Bee portrait taken hand held at five times life size with a 40D, an MPE-65mm macro lens, and an MT-24EX macro twin flash. At the time I had three years of experience shooting macro images so I knew where the depth of field was, how thick (or thin) it was, and how to place it against the subject to make the most of it. The important bits are in focus, the out of focus bits aren’t in an area that would make them distracting, and I chose to shoot it with a black background to bring out the yellow hair. It took me a few frames to get the image I wanted, but I got it.

But after posting the shot on the Fred Miranda Macro Forum one of the other macro shooters who posts there, Phil (aka Goldenorfe -a shooter I respect for his mad skills), asked a very simple but extremely relevant question: “Why didn’t you shoot it with something in the background?”. Granted I wanted the background to be black –it’s a good contrast choice against all that yellow. But then again so is green and that’s what bothered me about Phil’s question: I could have taken that shot with just about any color in the background other than black since it was early in the morning and the critter was sleeping. From a macro shooter’s perspective I had all the time in the world to make that image and had pushed myself on all the other aspects of getting the shot except the background. I simply let the flash fall off into the abyss so the area behind the critter would be dark, in effect taking the easy way out in an area of the frame that’s just as important as any other. Not good…

One of the reasons why I shoot macro is because it is hard, and by pushing myself I end up with images that are uniquely mine. So since that late March day a year ago I’ve been working on my backgrounds and looking for ways to make them other than black. All I’m doing here is holding the twig the bee is on in front of a grape leaf -there’s no natural light in this one folks, it’s all flash:

Recently while out shooting in a vineyard (testing changes to my lighting -the subject of a future post) I stumbled upon a lethargic honeybee. I really don’t know why, but for some odd reason bees will just slow down. Low temperatures will sometimes drag solitary bees to a crawl, but it was in the upper teens C (high 60s F) so that shouldn’t have made any difference for this honeybee since they normally function well in cool weather. But for whatever reason she just sat there on a flower looking “confused” (either you understand that or you think I’m nuts). Seeing an opportunity I put some honey on the flower to keep her busy and then I picked the flower she was on because it was just too low to the ground. It was only then that I realized that I needed something to use as a backdrop. The poles that were being used to hold up the grapes looked like a decent choice, and they’d allow me to steady my left hand as well.

Important bits in focus? Check. Decent framing? Check. A pleasing background? Well, it’s not black, but it’s not that great either and that’s pretty much the feedback I got from Mark Plonsky (my mentor and the reason I shoot at the level I do today). Hindsight being what it is I should have taken the time to setup something to use as a backdrop, just in case I found a critter to shoot.

*sigh*

Still learning, still pushing myself, and I just don’t see any of that ending any time soon…

Frizzy Deconstruction

2011-03-16T03:03:00.001-07:00

Frizzy
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

The Basics

I went looking for solitary bees up in the mountains around Itri, Italy on a really cool, miserable day. The skies where party cloudy, and temps around 14C (57F) so I knew that if I found one then odds are it would be semi-active since they need the heat of the sun to help drive their metabolism in the early spring. Later on in the year I’ll still try to photograph them but it won’t be easy. I took the photo in the afternoon, later in the year I won’t get close unless I can find the critter very early in the morning or late in the evening when they bed down for the night. Don’t worry about getting stung, since only female solitary bees have stingers and most of them are too short to puncture your skin.

Working out the Light

The flower that it was on was very low to the ground with nothing behind it to reflect the flash back into the camera. So if I shot it in place I’d run into trouble with Evaluative –Through the Lens (E-TTL) metering and the background would be black: With E-TTL metering the flash fires a short pulse of light that the camera’s light meter uses to determine how long to turn the flash on for the actual exposure. With only the subject and a few flower petals most of the metering flash would not return to the lens, and the light meter would compensate by turning on the flash longer than it needs to and the image would be over exposed. You can compensate by setting the Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) to a negative value, but depending on the camera you’re using you’ll get mixed results. Even if you don’t end up over exposing the subject the background will be black since there won’t be enough natural light to correctly expose anything in the background, even on a sunny day, and people will complain that the image doesn’t look natural. It doesn’t matter that it’s not normal to see an insect’s compound eyes and individual hairs, that the detail in the photo is already making it “unnatural”. A black background is a compositional buzz kill, even though the critter is technically sleeping.

So to get a break on the exposure, and to keep the background from being black, I picked the flower and carried it over to a stone wall that my brother in law had built close to his house. I liked the color of the stone, and it has a really rough texture that I knew would do a really good job of scattering the light from the flash. A smooth surface would be too reflective –all too easy to get a hot spot in the background from the flash. Rough surfaces will also give you a smoother looking background –no detail to distract the viewer from the subject.

If the flower had been higher I could simply hold or position anything behind it that would give me a complementary color for the subject. I carry a modified carpenter’s clamp in my camera bag just in case I need a third hand to hold a back drop or a critter’s perch (see Field Studio Gear).

As a starting point I usually try to position the subject so that the background is at the same distance from the subject as the lens. So if my working distance (lens to subject) is two inches then I position the subject two inches from the background. Due to flash fall off the light coming back to the lens from the background will be two stops lower than the light that’s coming back from the subject, and in this case it was too dark so I held the flower closer to the wall to brighten up the background.

Right about now some of you are probably thinking “why not use manual flash exposure?”. As I’m shooting I’ll change the magnification, which causes the distance between the subject and the flash, and the amount of light I need for a proper exposure, to change so I’d have to constantly check the histogram and adjust the light output of the flash. To add insult to injury I can only adjust the MT-24EX macro twin flash in full stop increments –not exactly the kind of fine tuning that I’d need to get a good exposure. In E-TTL mode the camera can make small adjustments to the light output of the flash, firing it at lower levels than I can select manually. In the end it’s actually easier to let the camera control flash metering, and with the 1D MK III I get consistent exposures from frame to frame.

Final Words on Technique

I shoot hand held by placing the lens on my left hand (the same hand that’s holding the critter’s perch) and slide the lens to focus the scene and adjust the framing. That stone wall also helped me to keep things steady because I was bracing my left hand on it. With the camera and the subject on the same mount, my left hand held against the wall, it’s easy to control the amount of motion in the scene and get a sharp image. Even though it’s not as obvious as freezing a balloon in mid pop or a bullet as it punches though an apple macro is a form of flash based stop motion photography. That short burst of light coming from the flash is not only exposing the image but it’s also helping me to freeze motion. Even the slightest movement, as little as the space of a pixel, is going to affect the sharpness of a macro photo once the softening effects of diffraction are factored in. So using a diffuser that actually diffuses the light from the flash (and not just blocking it) and getting the flash as close to the subject as possible will help to give me a very fast pulse of light from the flash. That short flash pulse, along with bracing the camera and the subject’s perch, allows me to get a razor sharp image even at high Fstops and is the primary reason why I do not focus stack.

For this photo I wanted a portrait, and shooting critters is no different than taking an image of a person. I positioned the bee to the right of the frame looking into the dead space to the left, careful not to clip one of its antennas. Even though they’re out of focus they needed to be in the frame or I’d have to shoot at a high enough magnification to make the bee’s head fill the vertical space –either get the antenna all the way in the shot or all the way out. Clipping a portion of the bee’s feelers is distracting. From a low angle I moved the camera so that the bee’s pincers and eye were in focus, then I tilted the upper right corner of the camera a little deeper in the frame so the depth of field would fall flat against the slope of its head and get the back of the eye in focus. A cheap trick with the angle between the camera and the subject that makes the most of what little depth of field there is at 3x and F13. Often you’ll hear macro shooters talk about “magic angles” and it’s just an angle that makes the most out of the depth in a scene. With practice you can make your own magic angles just by tilting and twisting the camera a little. The trick is to take the area of acceptable focus, a flat thin plane, and lay it against the curve of the subject.

The end result is an image of a lounging bee that’s been described as “cute” and “cuddly”.

TL;DR: Practice, practice, practice… :)

Focus Stacking Tip

2011-03-06T23:41:00.001-08:00

First Solitary Bee of 2011
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

After a long four month break from photography I’m finally getting back into the saddle, and in my limited free time I’ve also started perusing macro related forums. I think it’s great that there are a lot of new shooters getting into the discipline, but it seems a lot of them are having trouble with focus stacking their images. So I thought I’d give you my best tip to make the technique easier to use:

Don’t focus stack.

Right about now the focus stacking community is getting ready to burn me at a stake, but before you light the match hear me out. Macro photography is one of the toughest photographic disciplines to get into and it has, without a doubt, one of the highest learning curves. Mastering focus is tough enough, but with focus stacking you have to nail it several times for what’s going to be a single frame. I’m seeing too many new shooters trying to learn macro only to get frustrated and quit because they are under the false impression that you have to focus stack. I blame the experienced photographers who are still pushing absolute image sharpness as the only measuring stick for a good macro photo.

*sigh*

I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with focus stacking, or that you shouldn’t use it –it’s just one technique of many and anyone can learn how to do it. But what I am saying is that composition, lighting, and story telling (the aspects that separate a snapshot from a photograph) are infinitely more important than getting a razor sharp image or more depth. I don’t focus stack, not because there is anything wrong with stacking but because I simply don’t think it’s necessary. Instead of taking multiple frames for a single image I’d rather spend what little time the critters give me to look for different compositions.

If you’re new to macro then learn how to properly compose and focus a single frame before you take up focus stacking, and be patient with yourself. Don’t get frustrated and quit!

Macro Photography Tips

2010-12-29T03:36:00.001-08:00

Nature's Hotel
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

National Geographic is running a Macro Photography Tips article on their web site that includes two of my images -the one pictured in this post was used as the lead image.

Another one of my images is being published in National Geographic Young Explorer magazine this January / February.

Corn Syrup

2010-09-28T11:06:00.001-07:00

Corn Syrup II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

One of the people who reads my blog, Elise, submitted this comment on my last post and I think it's important to share with everyone else:

"...I wondered if you're using high-fructose corn syrup as bee bait? I'm guessing not, but I just wanted to check, as I was a little concerned given studies that show a potentially harmful substance may form in high-fructose corn syrup that may contribute to honey bee deaths and colony collapse disorder (I use local, raw, unprocessed honey myself when baiting bees). For more info on HFCS and HMF see this article"

So there you have it -corn syrup as an attractant is a no no. Since the majority of the commercial beekeepers I talk to say that the quantities that I use as bait are too small to cause problems I'm going to go back to using honey.

Taming E-TTL

2010-08-30T05:02:00.001-07:00

Honeybee Studio Shot II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

It’s been a while since I talked about lighting in general, and one of the things I’ve struggled with the most is E-TTL flash metering. Before I dive into an explanation of E-TTL I’ll answer the one question that’s sure to come up in the comments: “Why not just use manual flash mode”. The answer is simple: I can only adjust the MT-24EX in full stop increments and it’s just not enough control. I typically end up with a shot that’s too under exposed (and under exposing leads to more image noise and less detail). Also minor changes in angle can make significant changes in the amount of reflected flash light that comes back into the lens, and I just don’t have time to make a lot of adjustments when shooting active subjects. So I’d rather use E-TTL but to make the most of it I had to figure out how it works…

When I press the shutter release on my camera the flash sends out a short burst of light that the camera’s metering system uses to determine how long the main flash pulse is going to fire. If the subject fills the frame, or there is something close behind the subject for the light to bounce off of, then odds are the light meter in the camera will be able to correctly determine how long to turn on the flash to give me a properly exposed image. But if the subject doesn’t fill the frame, and there isn’t anything close in the background for the flash to bounce off of, then the light meter is going to turn on the flash so long that I’ll probably get an over exposed image. That’s how Evaluative–Through The Lens (E-TTL) flash metering works. To get the most consistent results with E-TTL I need to get as much of the metering flash burst back into the lens as possible, and that’s what I’ve done with this field studio:

The trick is to initially bate the flowers that the bees are feeding on. Once the girls get into the habit of looking for the corn syrup (believe it or not it will take them a while) simply cut a piece of the flower petal, place it in a convenient spot close to where the bees are feeding, and set up a back drop (in this case a leaf). You’ll get better E-TTL metering since there’s a backdrop to reflect the metering pulse back into the lens, and you’ll have more time to concentrate on framing and composition because the camera is taking care of the exposure.

You can do a similar trick with dormant subjects –just cut the perch that they are using and hold it up in front of a leaf (or anything that will reflect light back into the camera and give you a pleasing background):

Footnote: The light meter in most cameras samples the frame at the same areas as the auto focus system. So a camera with more auto focus points will typically have a more accurate light meter.

Until next time, happy shooting :)

John

All Work and No Play...

2010-07-06T23:09:00.001-07:00

Feeding on Mint I
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

...is making Johnny a very dull boy. Sorry for my lack of posts -way too much Real Life getting in the way lately. Being a network engineer is fun -but replacing nearly every piece of gear in two nets that haven't been upgraded in over six years isn't ;)

After a brutal two months at the day job I took a long weekend and stayed out at my mother in law's farm. Early one morning I was out looking at the flowers I'd planted when I spotted a very lethargic solitary bee on some mint (odd for this time of year). So still in my pajamas I ran back to the house and broke out my camera. Fortunately the muscle memory that I've built up from shooting macro hand held seems to be permanent and placing the area of acceptable focus where I want it is still easy and automatic. So if you're still struggling with nailing the focus don't worry about it -you'll get the technique down soon enough. Just keep practicing!

One of the things that I do, especially for shots like the one I've included with this post, is tilt one corner of the frame a littler further in while locking one corner in place. By locking the lower left corner, and tilting the upper left into the scene a little, I can get one of those "magic angles" that makes the most of what little depth I have. Although it looks like I've got a lot of depth, or I focus stacked, because that stamen and the bee are both in focus it's just an illusion -the image is a single frame shot at 4x and F10.

The last trick was placing a sunflower leaf behind the bee so that the flash would have something to reflect off of and I could keep the background from being black. Not that I have anything against black backgrounds in macro photos -sometimes it's best to let the background go dark. But for this shot the contrast between the subject and green works, and that's the real reason why I took the time to position the critter in front of a leaf.

Until next time take care :)

John

Bee Part of It!

2010-05-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

The BBC in the UK is about to launch a project called Bee Part Of It, to help raise awareness of the plight of the UK bees and encourage people to help through education and the planting of 40,000 new bee-friendly spaces.

They're working with the National Trust, The Wildlife Trusts, various bee organizations and the project is supported by the award winning BBC2 television wildlife series Springwatch.

One of the things they're doing to help people engage is to run a Bee Part Of It group on Flickr to help aggregate bee collections from across Flickr and encourage people to submit new work to showcase these amazing insects where they live.

I've already agreed to help with the project in any way that I can, and I encourage you all to do the same!

Building Mason Bee Homes

2010-03-20T11:28:00.001-07:00

You might recognize a few of the images in this video produced by Greg Peterson :)

Set a Baseline

2010-01-19T04:38:00.001-08:00

Slurp VII
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Once you reach a point where you can make an honest analysis of your work then set a baseline for yourself. Take your best image (you can use more than one), and set it as the wallpaper on your computer (phone, PDA, etc.) and when you see it take the time to pick it apart. Look for ways that you could make it better, and then try to apply those changes to all of your future images (if possible). The goal isn't to re-shoot the exact same scene, but to find and fix mistakes that you might be repeating.

Once you take a better photo then set it as your wallpaper and start the process over again. The image included with this post is my current baseline. It's sure to change, but I may not come back and update this post.

Remember that you need to take the feedback that you're getting from other photographers with a grain of salt -both good and bad. If you start believing all of the positive things that people tell you then you might stop improving, and if you can evaluate your own work then no one should be pointing out mistakes that you're not seeing...

Extreme Macro -the Art of Patience

2010-01-15T10:38:00.001-08:00

Sleeping Mason Bee
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I recently finished my first book, Extreme Macro -the Art of Patience, and it's a coffee table book with some of my best images from 2009 as well as tips on how to shoot insects at high magnification.

Writing a book is something that I've wanted to do for a while, and I plan on getting into a regular schedule of photography through the year with a new book in the winter. I have a few ideas for the next one, but haven't settled on a single theme yet. If there is anything you'd like to see in the 2010 / 2011 edition then please let me know in the comments.

Macro Photographer of the Year

2010-01-14T04:21:00.001-08:00

Freckles II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I've been selected by Digital Photographer Magazine as their Macro Photographer of the Year for 2009. I could only enter one image for the contest, the feeding bee that I've included with this post (and in the logo here).

Considering the level of the photographers that entered the competition, and that have galleries on the Digital Photographer web site, I'm honored to have won!

The Photography 401 Scam

2009-12-28T12:03:00.000-08:00

From an email I received a while back:

"Greetings,

I'm Eric and I'm an art director in an independent agency here in Dubai, U.A.E.

I have seen some of your works here in devianart and I think they're great!

You see, we are currently working on a calendar for 2010 and we're featuring MACRO PHOTOGRAPHS with interesting colors and unexpected details of ordinary everyday objects ( or animals and humans maybe ).

I'm just wondering if you would like to be featured in this 2010 calendar.

I'll be honest with you though, We are on a very strict budget, which is basically none.

If you decide to agree, All we can offer you is your work being seen throughout the whole year in a lot of desks all over the world.

I cannot tell you which company we are doing this for at the moment because it's confidential at this point.
But we will give you a copy of the finished calendar design in pdf format before we send it out so you could see it first.

If you can reply to this asap, like now....that would be great!!

I'll be waiting for your favorable reply

Thanks and have a great day!"

So the art director gets paid, and the folks who print and distribute the calendar get paid, but the guy who took the photos (the poor SOB who's the reason why people are buying the calendar in the first place) doesn't get paid?! I sent the email to Tom Stack and Associates (Tom handles my portfolio) and I never heard from Eric again. There are so many people out there who are willing to fall for this "I can't afford to pay you even though I'm making out like a bandit" scam that they'll keep trying until they find someone who is willing to trade their work for a photo credit, and it's the reason why there's no money in photography anymore...

Footnote: The reason why the scam works is that people get all excited when someone contacts them for images. They think that because someone is asking for their work then that must mean that their photos are really good, and getting them published is a form of validation. What the photographer doesn't realize is that the publisher is phishing for people who will agree to give away their images for nothing but a photo credit -Eric's email is a prime example. He didn't know what direction he was going to take the calendar because he didn't know who would agree to give away their work. He'd just keep trying until someone said yes and then he'd use their images to develop the theme of the calendar. Target enough people and eventually you'll find someone who's willing to say yes -it's the same reason why the Nigerian 401 scams work. If the technique wasn't successful then it wouldn't be used.

Trust me when I tell you that if someone wants to use your specific images then they will pay you for them...

Ladybug Field of View

2009-12-24T13:05:00.001-08:00

A really cool directx 11 rendering of a ladybug and its environment!

Another Daily Dozen

2009-12-22T06:40:00.001-08:00

Slurp VI
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

This image of a bated honeybee feeding on a Rosemary flower was selected by National Geographic as one of the Daily Dozen for December 21st 2009 :)

Odds and Ends

2009-12-21T01:08:00.001-08:00

Miner Maintenance
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Normally I make a "Macro Resolutions" post at about this time, listing the things that I'm going to work on in the coming year. But this year I could sum up part of what I want to do with "take better photos". The rest is a little too specific to mention unless I want someone else to beat me to it so I'm gonna stay quiet :)

The photo that I'm including with this post is an example of the kind of macro that I really like to do because it tells a story. I've got nothing against shooting a critter that's too lethargic to move -there are plenty of those images in my gallery. But shooting active subjects is ultimately more interesting, and challenging, so you'll see me doing more of it in the coming year. With the way the local weather is expected to change I may be back to shooting critters in just a few weeks -way too warm for December.

Someone recently asked me about the Hama adjustable flash shoe and being the crash test dummy that I am I ordered a set. They are almost identical to the Kaiser adjustable flash shoe (minor differences). I think that the Hama has a better tension mechanism for the rocker arm, but I wouldn't hesitate recommending either one. Neither set will lock into the flash mount that comes with the MT-24EX, but that's easy to fix just by cutting a couple of notches into the base plate of the flash shoe with a Dremel tool :)

After comparing my 40D with the 7D using DXO's Image Quality Database I've lost all interest in getting a 7D -just too noisy at ISO 100 for shooting macro. IMHO the last good 1.6x crop factor camera that Canon produced was the Xti, and I keep hoping that they will roll their latest sensor improvements into a 10 MP "60D". Even a 1.3x crop factor sensor that can take EF-S lenses (using a smaller area of the sensor when an EF-S lens is connected) would be great! But I just don't see it happening until just about every Canon photographer switches to Nikon out of frustration. I'd sell all of my gear and make the switch if it wasn't for the MPE-65mm macro lens -it's the only reason why I'm still a Canon shooter...

Note to Canon: No one really needs more than 10 MP in a DSLR -they just need to be 10 million really good pixels...

I did win a photography contest, but I can't talk about it yet and it's driving me nuts! Like knowing what you're getting for Christmas but you have to wait to open the box. The 15th of January is the announcement date.

I hope you and yours have a happy and safe holiday! Take care :)

Macro Spotlight - Grzehoofr

2009-12-17T08:20:00.000-08:00

From time to time I like to bring attention to the incredible talent that exists in the amateur macro community. Unless your a member of at least a dozen different forums you'll never get a chance to see, or appreciate, their work. I ran into an extremely talented shooter from Poland over at the Juza Nature Forum, macro section named Grzehoofr that just blew me away. It's not the level of detail in his work, or his compositional skills, or his lighting -it's all of the above. In my opinion macro photographers like Grzehoofr (see his gallery over at Picasa) represent the benchmark in macro -they are the people that you'll be measured against in the not so distant future. Here's a sample that I pulled out of his gallery -it's one of many incredible photos...

Topaz Labs

2009-12-12T02:36:00.001-08:00

Slurp VII
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I put a lot of time and effort this year to improve my techniques, lighting, and composition -so much that post processing had become the weakest aspect of my shooting. I just don't have the time or patience to sit down and learn a lot about Photoshop Elements, and CS4 is just too stinkin' expensive. But something had to give because my weak post processing was really starting to impact the quality of my photography...

About a month ago one of my coworkers, and a talented pano shooter, Scott Knauss, mentioned Topaz Labs and asked me if I had tried any of their plug-ins. Being the crash test dummy that I am I downloaded a few of them and requested a temporary license key so I could test drive them (the test license is good for 30 days).

I've since registered Topaz Labs Detail, Adjust, and DeNoise. I use Detail and Denoise on my macro images now, and Adjust on my closeup and landscape images (for those few times that I actually take the MPE-65mm macro lens off of my camera). The image included with this post was processed as follows:

I first open the image in the Element's RAW editor and make any necessary changes to the exposure and white balance (usually setting the temperature of my light to 5800 K). I then open the image in the Elements main editor and use the healing brush to rub out any dust spots. I then run Topaz DeNoise and use the standard RAW preset. It takes a little while for DeNoise to analyze an image, but it's worth it -to me it does a better job of preserving detail than NoiseWare Pro.

Once I've removed the image noise I sharpen the photo with Topaz Detail using the Micro Contrast preset. With Detail I also adjust the highlights and shadows (if necessary) and add a little saturation. Once Detail is finished I create a Levels adjustment layer and set a black point.

I can not emphasize that last step enough -setting a black point will really make your photos "pop"!

All that's left is to save the image as a PSD (in case I want to go back and make any changes) and a JPG. At the risk of sounding like I've been paid to write a review: Topaz Labs has allowed me to bring my post processing to a level where it's no longer the weakest aspect of my photography. If any of you have been using Topaz Labs plug-ins and have any tips for me then please leave them in the comments!

Speed Bump Deconstruction

2009-12-02T22:54:00.001-08:00

Speed Bump
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Of all the images that I've written deconstructions on you might not think that a shot of a snail deserves its own writeup -not like it's going anywhere anytime soon right? Well there's actually a lot more going on in this shot than you might notice at first, and there are a few tricks and tips that are worth mentioning.

This is a field studio image, completely manipulated, and there is only one element that was captured by chance...

I've been seeing a lot of these snails the last few months and they're tiny -most no more than a centimeter in diameter. The plant that it's on has some large leaves that are easy to grip without ripping, and in this shot I'm holding onto the leaf and using my fingers to create the "speed bump". Pretty much a standard Left Hand Brace shot as far as keeping the camera steady goes.

The tricky part when shooting snails, damselflies, or any creature that has eyes on a stalk is getting those peepers and the main body of the critter in focus. Although it looks like I'm shooting the snail almost side on I'm really getting it head first because it started to turn. I'm holding the camera so that the top of the frame is deeper into the scene than the bottom, and that's why so much of the leaf and the snail are in focus. I'm also using my hand to turn the leaf down to get it as parallel to the plane of acceptable focus as possible. The end effect is a "magic angle" between the camera and the scene that creates the illusion that there is a lot of depth when there really isn't. I've simply shortened the front to back distance between the top of the snail's shell to the bottom of the leaf, and then angled the camera to take advantage of it. Do it often enough and it just becomes second nature.

Last, but not least, I got lucky: The snail looked right at the bump I had created in the leaf :)

No New Diffuser -Again

2009-11-30T09:57:00.000-08:00

A set of Nikon SW-11s arrived in the mail today and I after modding them to let more of the light from the MT-24EX's flash heads into the first internal reflector the Puffer set that I made is back on my flash heads. When I first tested the SW-11s (shooting one of my son's Hot Wheals cars) I was losing almost four more stops than the Puffer set, and after modding them I was only able to regain one more stop. So with the Puffers I lose one stop of light compared to the bare flash heads, and with the modded SW-11s I was losing three. The diffusion with the Puffer set was also better, but I'm not going to bother posting test shots since losing three stops of light is losing two stops too much. I can't recommend the SW-11s as a diffuser for the MT-24EX

The SW-11s use two reflectors to bounce the light from the flash into a diffusion panel. Oddly enough the first reflector looks like it's at the wrong angle and it seems to me that it's actually doing more to bounce the light from the flash right back toward it instead of bouncing it to the second reflector. One possible mod would be to change the angle of that first reflector, or replace it with something that would bounce the light in the right direction. But I didn't see enough room inside the diffuser to pull it off and I'm not sure it would make much of a difference. With every reflector I'm probably losing a stop, so at a minimum the best I'd be able to do with the SW-11s is to lose two stops. Not worth it...

I Don't Know What You Need

2009-11-19T06:02:00.001-08:00

Grumpy Old Man
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I get a lot of questions about gear, and one of the most common is "What macro lens should a beginner get?". Since it's a common question I figured it would make a good post for the blog, and I was all set to tell you my preference too. But while I was thinking of what lens and why it hit me: What I would tell you to buy is based on my experience, the way that I like to shoot, and the subjects that I chase with the camera. It's all personal preference based on a lot of trial and error and a lot of money spent trying to figure it all out.

You're not me, I'm not psychic, so I don't know what you need.

Ask a dozen macro shooters what the best piece of gear is for macro and you're likely to get a dozen different answers. None of them are necessarily wrong, it's just that each person is telling you what they would get if they knew then what they know now. Unfortunately none of it, or some of it, might be right for you.

Good luck figuring out what to choose...

I can tell you some generic things that might help you make up your own mind though, things that I've learned through trial and error and a lot of gear that's just collecting dust.

There's no such thing as a "bug lens".

From the insect's perspective there is no difference between the 3.5" working distance of Canon's EF-S 60mm macro lens and the 180mm L's 8.9" working distance. As far as the critter's concerned you're too stinkin' close. How much you know about the subject's habits and quirks, and the willingness of the subject to stay put, is going to determine if you can get close enough to take a shot and not the working distance of the lens. If you cast a shadow over the subject then odds are it's not going to stick around, and a long focal length lens can help you to keep from spooking the critter. But as long as you know that shadows are bad a short focal length lens will work just fine for shooting anything. Last a long focal length lens will give you better background blur (called "bokeh") and if you plan on shooting a lot of closeup images a shorter lens might not give you the overall image quality that you want.

It's easier to go above life size with a shorter focal length lens.

It's simple math: The magnifying effect of adding extension tubes is greater with a shorter lens than a longer one. On the surface it takes 60mm of extension to take a 60mm macro lens to 2x and 180mm of extension for a 180mm lens. But the formula breaks down in a really cool way -most macro lenses lose focal length at life size. Canon's EF-S 60mm is actually a 37mm lens when the focus ring is set to 1:1 (life size). So all it takes is 37mm of extension tubes to get to 2x -sweet! I'm not sure how much the 180 L loses at 1x, but I'm sure it's not less than 100mm and that's a lot of extension on a lens that's already long and heavy.

The best lens is the one you take with you.

I've got a lot of heavy, expensive L glass sitting in my closet. I've got an 18-55mm IS kit lens in my camera bag...

You can use any flash for macro.

With few exceptions the light source doesn't matter -but the quality of that light does. The important thing to remember is to use a good diffuser, one that actually diffuses the light and doesn't just block it, and get the flash close to what you're shooting. A lot of the macro that I do is really nothing more than a form of flash based stop motion photography. It's not as obvious as freezing the motion of an exploding balloon, but none the less I'm still using the short duration of the flash to freeze motion so that I can get sharp images. Using a good diffuser, and getting the flash close to what I'm shooting, allows me to keep the flash duration as short as possible. Although it sounds like I'm talking about flash photography from my perspective, since I hand hold the camera, I'm really not. A tripod won't stop the subject from moving. One final note on macro flashes: A ring flash, even one that allows for ratio control, is going to produce flat light when compared to a macro twin flash or a standard camera flash on a bracket. Ring flashes are great -for dental and portrait photography...

You don't need a tripod, or any tripod accessories, to shoot macro.

See the flash section above about getting sharp images by freezing motion with the flash. I typically look for ways to brace the camera, or I'll use the Left Hand Brace Technique. You can use a tripod, but the more hardware you add the more limited you'll be. There are a lot of subjects that just won't sit still and wait for you to setup a tripod, adjust a ball head, and focus the scene with a focusing rail. So if all you want to do is take static photos of dew covered critters, or other forms of still life, then get a tripod. I prefer not to be held back by a lot of gear and to go after active subjects, when they let me, so I took the training wheels off of my camera a long time ago :D

I know it's frustrating, and I really do wish there was a "go hear and do this" kind of answer for all of the people out there who want to get into the greatest photographic discipline of them all, macro. But unfortunately you're going to have to figure out a few things on your own, I can't teach you experience, and I'm not you. Sorry...

Possible Diffuser Replacement

2009-11-18T23:03:00.000-08:00

I got an idea for a new diffuser for the MT-24EX from this thread at PoTN. So I've ordered a set of Nikon SW-11 diffusers and I should be able to test them out and post about it by the 30th of November (provided I get them in the mail before Thanksgiving). I don't know how well they are going to work, or if I'll be able to use then for my style of shooting. But just in case any of you were thinking about building a set using the Puffer diffuser I wanted to let you know that I'll be testing the SW-11s. I'm hoping that they do work, since a set of SW-11s is cheaper than buying all of the material for my Puffer based diffuser, and it's easier to just attach a pre-built diffuser to the MT-24EX than to build a set from scratch. More to come...

Magic Angles

2009-11-11T23:57:00.001-08:00

Fly at 4.5x
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

From time to time you'll hear people talk about "magic angles" in macro photography. I'm not sure who originally coined the phrase, probably one of those things that's as old as photography itself. But I thought it would be a good idea to define it (since I get asked about it a lot) and to explain how I take high magnification shots with a lot of depth using a simple technique.

The area of acceptable focus is thin and flat, and unfortunately most of the critters I photograph are curved. The "trick" is to look for a way to lay a thin flat surface over a curve so that as much of it is covered as possible. The fly in the photo I've included with this post has a head that's almost triangle shaped and it should be pretty obvious that you can't shoot it head on. Placing a flat surface against the point of a triangle won't cover much, so there are some angles that just won't work for a single frame no matter how much depth you can get. Even though there are a lot of curves there are still some relatively flat areas that will allow you to make the most of what little depth you have at high magnification. It takes a little experience, but eventually you'll learn to recognize a good angle from a bad one.

The really cool aspect to magic angles is that I have yet to find one that does not work from a compositional standpoint. If I can find a magic angle I'll end up with a well composed photo that has a lot of apparent depth. Since I'm more concerned about composition than getting maximum detail I haven't gotten into focus stacking -just haven't needed to do it yet.

Now for the technique part: For this shot I moved the lens in until the left front edge of the fly was in focus. Then, with the lower left hand corner of the frame locked in place, I moved the upper right corner in until the ridge between the fly's eye and "face" came into focus. I also turned that lower left corner on its axis, kind of spinning the frame so that the upper left corner went deeper into the scene. It's a very minor tilt / twist that makes a huge difference in the amount of the subject that I can cover with the area of acceptable focus.

The result is an image that has a lot of depth simply because I'm not wasting any of it...

Nice Capture

2009-11-08T23:24:00.000-08:00

This post has been in my head for a long time, well over a year. It was going to be one of those pieces that would piss a few people off, so I sat on it while I tried to figure out how to word it. I was afraid it would come out too harsh and I'm kinda glad that I waited. You see I was gonna say that I thought it was wrong to tell someone "Nice capture" when they posted an image for critique that was, how can I put it gently...

Crap.

I was gonna say that if you have some skill and experience then you owe it to the community to give someone constructive criticism. By telling someone what they are doing right, and how they can improve, then you're not only doing the person you're responding to a favor but you're also helping everyone who reads your response. So in the end everyone wins and the macro discipline improves.

Telling someone "Nice capture" is like saying "Wow you found the shutter release!?".

But the more I post on the internet the more I've come to realize that there are a lot of people who really don't want constructive criticism. They'll post images that have some serious problems, problems that they'd have to be legally blind not to see, and what they want is for someone to tell them that they're doing great. So if anyone says anything other than "Nice capture" or "Well done" then they're opening themselves up to a wide assortment of egos, and some of them bruise like grapes. If you give honest feedback then you'll be viewed as arrogant instead of helpful -fuel for the trolls...

It's getting so bad that I've all but given up on giving constructive criticism, and not only do I now understand why some people will say "Nice capture" when a photo isn't up to par but I can also see why some have stopped teaching. The "students" don't want to be "schooled" -all they seem to want is the "diploma"...

On a semi-regular basis I hold classes on computers and networking. Every time I teach I end up learning something from the students. Either they bring fresh ideas to the discussion, or they ask questions that get me to think about a subject from a different angle. Photography is no different and healthy discussion, where people are willing to listen at least as much as they talk, is always a good thing. But unfortunately I'm just not finding much of that healthy discussion out there lately -too many egos and attitudes.

Too many trolls who only want to hear "Nice capture"...

New Diffuser Example Image

2009-11-07T22:42:00.001-08:00

My Pet Ladybug
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

We had a break in the rain yesterday so I went hunting for critters with the camera and spotted this ladybug. Initially I tried to photograph it on a flower, but I couldn't keep the foreground from being distracting -too much out of focus junk between me and the bug. While I was holding onto the flower to keep it steady the ladybug crawled onto my hand and I took the shot to the right. Even though I took the frame at close to 3x the specular highlights (the bright spots on the shell) and the level of detail are a pretty good indicator that the light is very well diffused.

I had both flash heads mounted directly to the flash mount that Canon supplies with the MT-24EX, and both pointed directly at the ladybug. To get better shadows, and to eliminate the specular highlight on the left, I could have placed the "A" flash head (the one I use as a key light) on a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe. But I was really looking for a worse case situation with the lights just to show the level of diffusion with the new diffusers.

If you need more proof then click on this image to see a 1600 pixel wide version. Take a close look at all the texture detail that I picked up in the shell, and all of the fine hairs on the legs. In the past it would look like a ladybug had a layer of clear coat on it, and very little of the detail in the shell would come out in the resulting image. Much better diffusion, and the overall quality of the light is a lot better. I'm still experimenting with ways to improve it, but if this is the light quality that I'm taking into next year then I'll be happy with it...

Know Your Gear

2009-11-06T08:49:00.001-08:00

Flash Works!
Originally uploaded by immauss.

It's early in the morning on the roof of a parking garage and with Vesuvius in the background, as well as the sun, Scott Knauss and I were trying to get two 580EX II flash heads to fire from a single STE-II controller. Due to the low angle of the sun, and the sailors of the N8 department wearing their dress blues, we needed a lot of light. So I spent entirely too much time fumbling with my flash trying to figure out how to set it as the "B" flash in a two flash group. All of the other times that Scott tripped the shutter to test the light I was holding the flash away from me, but as my luck would have it the one time I'm looking right into it it works. So what does the image demonstrate, other than I'm sometimes a dumb ass?

Know your gear.

Don't wait until your out in the field trying to setup for a shot to figure out how something works. Take the time to read the manual and practice at home, when mistakes won't cost you a once in a lifetime photo.

Don't be a dumb ass...

MT-24EX Diffuser How To

2009-11-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

This is my first video tutorial on building a diffuser for the MT-24EX, so be gentle :)

The parts list is pretty expensive, and with the exception of the Gary Fong Puffer diffusers the rest can be done with common items that you might have around the house. One word of caution: Cutting the mounting bracket that comes with the Puffer diffusers will void the warranty, and so will hot gluing the finished diffusers to your MT-24EX (you can use Gaffers tape instead of hot glue). I am not responsible for any mishaps or mistakes that you might make...

Garry Fong Puffer diffuser -you'll need two and the sticker shock is normally $39.90 USD + shipping. I ordered mine directly from Garry's E-store and the plastic that he's using now is a lot clearer than the Puffers that I ordered about a year ago. A little less diffusion, but the light isn't as warm either.

Metallic inserts for a Lumiquest Big Bounce -you'll need one set ($17.95 USD + shipping) if you want to use the same reflector material that I used to cover the top and bottom of the Puffer's.

Manfrotto Diffusion Pack -I've been using the diffusion material in this kit for a lot of projects. 12"x12" sheets of a dozen different types of diffusion plastic. $22.95 USD + shipping and handling.

Sto-Fen Diffusers -Just to use as a frame to make the finished diffuser easier to attach to the MT-24EX's flash heads. $22.95 USD + shipping.

I know, it's expensive. I tried to find a cheaper solution that worked as well but couldn't...

What I didn't mention in the videos: I made a template out of cardboard that I used to mark the Lumiquest reflector material before I cut it.

You'll notice in the second video that the reflector that goes over the MT-24EX's modeling lights has a high arch to it. I've since re-designed the diffuser by putting the top reflector onto the Puffer while the diffuser was attached to the MT-24EX's flash heads so I could get a tighter fit.

Fresh Meat Deconstruction

2009-11-03T00:56:00.001-08:00

Fresh Meat
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Sorry folks -not one of my "warm and fuzzy" insect macro shots. But it's rare that I even see a mantis around here, and even rarer still to find one feeding, so when I spotted this huge female eating a wasp I had to photograph the action.

The hardest part of shooting a predator / prey scene is getting both of the creature's eyes in the plane of acceptable focus. We are predators, and we gauge the intent of other beings by looking at their eyes -it's just instinct. The funny thing is that if the eyes are in focus the rest of the shot can be completely out of focus and the viewer won't really care. But if the entire image is in focus, but the eyes are out, then the entire image will seem out of focus. With two "subjects", the mantis and its dinner, the eyes have to be in focus on both of them.

For this shot I wanted a tight composition -the mantis is in some weeds and there is a lot of junk behind her. The lower the magnification the greater the chance that the flash is going to illuminate something in the background and I hate spending any amount of time in post cloning out junk that I shouldn't have shot in the first place. I also wanted you, the viewer, with your attention right on the action. So I kept the magnification at around 2x but framed the shot as a vertical image -shot with the camera held horizontally because it's easier for me than holding the rig vertically. All I had to do was turn the image 90 degrees in post.

Since I was almost laying on my side, and I didn't move the flash heads, the lighting was very direct and moody. I frequently shoot with my flash heads at the 11 O'clock and 2 O'clock position (relative to me) and leave them there no matter what angle I have on the subject. The end result is lighting that doesn't look the same in every shot, and if an image comes out really well it's easy enough to just look at the specular highlights to tell where my flash heads were positioned. Recreating the same effect later, for another scene, is simple. One of the things that's really improved my lighting is learning how to reverse engineer the light in any image so I can see what works, what doesn't, and how to create the light that I want. The light in this shot is no accident -I knew what it was going to look like before I pressed the shutter. Like everything else it's easy to do with a little practice...

No New Diffuser

2009-10-24T04:34:00.000-07:00

I thought I had a good plan: Order a few ABS plastic project cases from All Electronics, cut out holes on one side of the boxes for the flash heads of my MT-24EX and the other side where I'd mount a piece of diffusion plastic and presto! I'd have a brand new diffuser set. I could easily change the diffusion material just by taking the front of the case off and putting a different plastic on it (great for experimenting).

So over the course of three evenings I became one with the Universe and a Dremel Tool. There were so many plastic shavings scattered all over the kitchen it looked like I had tossed a manikin in a wood chipper. I'm a man who knows his limits so when I wanted to test two different box sizes I ordered three of each, even though the MT-24EX only has two flash heads. After completely ruining one box, and the bottom of another, I had two sets of diffusers built and I tested them against the set of Puffer diffusers that I built over a year ago. During testing I ran into one minor snag...

The new diffusers didn't work.

Well, they did "work", but I couldn't get light that was more diffused than the Gary Fong Puffers that I've been using (if you use that link to order two Puffers you'll only pay $30 USD + shipping). Looking back on it I think I'd have to build a diffuser that has at least twice the surface area of the Puffer plastic. Unfortunately the resulting diffusers would be too large to use with the flash heads connected to the flash mount that Canon supplies with the MT-24EX. I'd have to get the new diffusers further away from the lens, and it would just make hand holding the rig more difficult. So for my style of shooting the Puffer makes a better diffuser.

Here's a video showing what the Puffers look like and how I use them:

"The Bee Man"

2009-10-21T01:31:00.001-07:00

Freckles V
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

The title of this post is one of the things that I've been called this year, along with "The Bee Whisperer" and considering the number of bee photos I've taken this year I'm stunned no one has said "Dances with Bees" :D

It was really unintentional -I shoot whatever I have time for, and whatever will let me get close. I typically only have about 30 minutes a day, on average, to take photos. This year I missed about six weeks of the "macro season" between my son going into the hospital for an asthma attack (he's OK now) and my MT-24EX dieing. Sadly the flash went south during the height of the solitary bee emergence here, and I got the replacement three days after one of my best shooting locations was mowed. So I actually took fewer bee images than I could have, but still managed to fill my gallery with them. Go figure...

The only planned bee shoot that I did was toward the end of August. For three consecutive weekends I baited pumpkin flowers so I could photograph honeybees while they were feeding (like the one in the image I've used for this post). I had a few compositions stuck in my head from when I was shooting honeybees out at the farm two years ago and I wanted to see if I could get those images into the camera. Unfortunately I waited too long to track down a beekeeper to photograph honeybees on comb, but I've got that session on the list for next year.

This coming spring I plan to photograph more hoverflies, particularly Banded Eye Drones. But I really can't say what I'll definitely be able to photograph at any given time. I can say that I'm not really fixating on any one insect though, because I don't want my gallery to get repetitive and boring. It also isn't any fun for me to shoot the same critters all the time -and it needs to be fun...

I'm working on a new set of diffusers for my MT-24EX, so my light will be different in the coming year. Also I might just get my MPE-65mm macro lens back from the Canon Service Center -after almost two years of constant use it broke as well. What a year...

The Annual Charity Bazaar

2009-10-18T00:07:00.001-07:00

Bazaar Booth
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

As I write this it's Sunday morning, and I still haven't recovered from the two day charity bazaar at the NATO base here in Naples, Italy. Along with the photo at the right here's a short video clip of the area where Scott Knaust (my coworker and fellow photographer) were selling our work:

This year we paid a little extra money for an indoor spot, and with the weather turning cold and raining on Saturday it was money well spent! Setting up inside allowed us to leave everything so we didn't have to take the photos down at the end of the first day and set them back up the next morning. There were also a lot more people viewing our work this year than last, so I don't think we'll be renting an outdoor spot next year. My favorite critique came from a young girl, probably no older than my 8year old, who saw this image...

...and said "Oh now that's just gross!!". Critics one, Dalantech zero :)

One advantage to doing an event like an international bazaar is that you get to meet people from all over the world and to see the cultural differences between them. Almost to an individual the French love macro photography and think that it's an art form. If I were single I'd find a busy street corner in Paris and just sell photos for a living. I'd probably be eating peanut butter and crackers on a regular basis though :)

I took one poster sized print and one large canvas print with me just as "show pieces" -no real intention of selling them because the cost to produce them is too high. Simple economics governs every event like this one, and people just don't have the liquid capital that they use to. No matter how good your work is you still need to offer someone a quality product at an affordable, and attractive, price. But I like to take at least one large print to the bazaar just to show people how an image will look when printed poster size (lots of detail because I don't crop) and if someone wants a different photo printed large they can just send me an email and I'll give them a quote (it pays to have business cards).

I had three copies, in different sizes, of this image...

...and I thought I was taking a risk by having too many copies made. In addition to the poster sized print I had an 8"x12" and a 13"x19" and the 13"x19" was the very first image that I sold on Friday morning. The smaller copy sold that afternoon, and people were leaving the bazaar and talking about the larger image so much that the people they talked to were coming just to see it. Hind sight being what it is if I had about six more 8"x12" copies I could have sold them. I did end up bringing the poster sized version home, it was just too expensive to produce once I paid to have it framed so I couldn't sell it at an affordable price. But when I choose images to use as show pieces I pick photos that I like, so if they don't sell I can always hang them on my wall. Scott and I talked at length about the need to find a way to make poster size prints that are good quality (worth buying) and inexpensive (easy to sell)...

The pleasant surprise came from a German couple who bought the canvas print: A woman who I completely mistook for a native English speaker looked over this image several times...

...and thought her husband would enjoy it. He's a helicopter pilot and likes the way that dragonflies maneuver :)

I sold a mix of images this year, both natural light closeups and high magnification macro shots. Different images appeal to different people, and I try to bring a wide range of photos. Some get carried away by customers, and some I carry back to my car. There's no formula for figuring out what will and what won't work -I just take the images that are my strongest compositions.

Favorite moment: Several people took photos of my work -don't get me started on how low it is to take a photo of a photo. For 15 Euro the individual could have had the real thing without the plastic bag and the reflections that it will cause (one of the reasons why I bag my prints). But the real kicker was when a guy asked Scott to move out of the way so he could get a clear shot of one of Scott's images with his iPhone. It was like asking Scott to turn so it would be easier to take his wallet...

Now that it's over can I retire, sitting on a beach in the Bahamas with some tall fruity umbrella topped drink in my hand? No way! I did make enough to pay for all the new prints and to cover my half of renting the booth with a little pocket money left over. But that's not important since the real value in doing an event like the bazaar is in meeting new people, sharing what I know with new photographers (and picking up tips from them), and getting feedback on my work -both good and bad. Definitely one of those life experiences where the journey is more important than the destination...

You're about to get left behind...

2009-10-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

There is, to use an abused phrase, a paradigm shift occurring in macro. More and more people want to see well lit, well composed images. Just like any other photographic discipline it's the composition that will make or break a photo.

Cataloging insects is boring...

You might still be in a clique now, might still have people telling you that they like your work. That's because they are shooting like you are, producing centered razor sharp images or photos that don't even remotely tell a story. Most of the compliments you're getting are on your technique, instead of what you're capable of producing with it. Or they're just telling you what they think you want to hear.

Your fan club is going down with you...

Those photographers who are concentrating on composition and story telling in their work, that are constantly sweating the lighting, will be the shooters in the upper ten percent of the discipline. They'll not only have the respect of the macro community, but photographers in other disciplines will admire their skill and art. They won't be "capturing" the creatures of the small world, they'll be photographing them.

Anyone can take a poorly composed razor sharp image; people on vacation take thousands of them every day. If your macro work looks no better than the average vacation point and shoot snapshot then your images will never stand out. John Q. Public neither knows nor cares how difficult it is to take a macro photo -all he cares about is what he can see in print or on a computer monitor. There has to be something about your work that's going to get the average viewer to stop and take notice and capturing a lot of detail isn't enough.

Time to stop making excuses and step up your game before you get left behind...

Makes Me Wonder...

2009-10-15T09:50:00.001-07:00

...if they can actually think and make decisions...

Not my video -I just thought it was really interesting.

Silence of the Bees

2009-10-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

A very interesting PBS program on colony collapse disorder from 2007 Silence of the Bees.

October Bee II Deconstruction

2009-10-10T03:47:00.001-07:00

October Bee II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

One of the problems with shooting a bee that's trying to get it's metabolism going is that it will occasionally move, and more often than not it will move away from the camera. That's exactly what was happening while trying to shoot this dew covered solitary bee, but it's a problem that actually has an easy solution.

For this shot, and nearly all of my high magnification macro, I'm holding onto the object that the critter is on -in this case it's that smelly yellow thing. I'm holding onto the flower's stem, and resting the lens on that same hand, to keep everything steady. But the other benefit to using what I call the Left Hand Brace Technique is that since I have the stem between my left index finger and thumb I can rotate the flower as the subject is moving to keep it looking into the camera. I can also tilt the flower to change the angle between the camera and the subject.

Macro Spotlight - John Hallmen

2009-10-08T10:24:00.001-07:00

Test shot with Zeiss Luminar 63mm f4.5
Originally uploaded by johnhallmen.

You might know John Hallmen as morfa over at Juza Nature Forum and if you don't know him at all then you're seriously missing out on one of the top macro photographers on the web today! John's work represents what macro should be -well composed images that show the viewer what it's like to see the world from the critter's perspective. He shoots with a mix of natural light and flash, and he never harms his subjects for a photo. The image I've linked with this post is just a test shot he took while trying out a new lens.

Head on over to John's photo stream at Flickr and get educated...

Think Outside the Box

2009-10-03T12:36:00.001-07:00

Dragonfly
Originally uploaded by daveograve@.

The image I've added to this blog post isn't mine, it belongs to Dave Merrigan and I'm using it with his permission. Dave spotted this dragonfly but was pressed for time so he simply lit it with an LED flashlight off to camera right. When I first saw this photo there was only one word that came to mind:

Brilliant!

What didn't enter my mind was any silly notion that the photo doesn't look natural just because the background is dark. I appreciated the image for what it is: Well lit, well composed, a shot I'd want to print large or save to my desktop as wallpaper. An image that's art and not just another "catalog shot"...

There's this thing called a box and if you don't step out of it and think about your work and where you're going you'll just end up producing the same old run of the mill images that everyone else can, and is, taking...

Published by Environmental Graffiti

2009-10-02T23:11:00.001-07:00

Freckles IV
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

There's an interesting article at Environmental Graffiti with a few of my images in it, plus additional photos by some really talented shooters. The lead photo in the article was taken by Dixie Native and if you're not familiar with his work you owe it to yourself to check out his gallery!

Spring in September Deconstruction

2009-09-30T10:39:00.001-07:00

Spring in September
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I was packing the car to head home from a trip when I spotted this honeybee on the sidewalk. For reasons unknown to me sometimes their metabolism tanks and they slow down -this day was partly cloudy and cool so even the sun going behind the clouds could have been a problem for her.

To take this shot I picked a dandelion (I think that's what the yellow smelly thing is ;) ) and let her crawl onto it. Then I simply held the flower in my left hand and rested the lens on that same hand to take the shot. Really easy to do with a little practice once you get over your fear of getting close to them. If you're allergic to them, or you've never been stung, then I don't recommend doing this type of shooting...

Canon's EF-S 60mm -the Poor Man's MPE-65mm

2009-09-29T09:34:00.001-07:00

Spring in September IV
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

One of the good things to come out of my MPE-65mm breaking is that I was forced to dust off an EF-S 60mm and since I like shooting above life size I added extension tubes to it. The lens seems to lose a lot of focal length at life size and acts like a 37mm lens, since it only takes 37mm of extension to hit 2x. With a full set of Kenko tubes it would be closer to 3:1. IMHO it's not as sharp as the MPE-65mm, and the color and contrast isn't as good. But for the price tag it's well worth it for anyone looking for a cheaper alternative to the MPE. I also like the weight of the 60mm -even with a lot of extension the balance feels really good.

Twitter and my MPE-65mm

2009-09-15T11:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you who want to follow me on Twitter

In other news: RIP MPE-65mm macro lens. I've been getting an "Err 01" message (the camera couldn't communicate with the lens) intermittently but was shooting above life size to avoid it. Today at the lake I couldn't get the lens to work at any magnification so it's time to send the old girl in for repair...

Macro Gear

2009-09-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

A video showing the gear that I use.

Expose for the Red Channel

2009-09-12T02:02:00.001-07:00

Mileage
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Digital sensors seem to favor the color red over the other two primary colors (blue and green). Shooting digital is pretty much the electronic equivalent of shooting with Fujichrome Velvia slide film -saturated colors that saturate even more when you under expose the scene a little. Not a big problem as long as you know what to look for.

Just remember that the overall luminance histogram will lie to you...

When shooting against a yellow flower, a Violet Darter like the one I've included with this post, or anything that has a lot of red in it ignore the luminance histogram. Look only at the RGB histogram display and expose for the red channel. If the reds are all the way over to the right of the histogram then they are over exposed and you'll lose a lot of texture detail. I try to under expose the red channel by about a third of a stop (guessing at it by looking at the histogram on the camera) and in post I'll push the exposure until I'm just starting to over expose the reds. The goal is to get a well exposed image without completely blowing out the red data so that the texture in the scene is preserved.

How you light a scene will also make a big difference in how well you can expose the subject and not blow out the red channel...

Baited Honeybee Deconstruction

2009-09-09T12:36:00.001-07:00

Baited Honeybee
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Lots of patience, and a lot of deleted frames but I managed to pull off some low angel four times life size shots of a feeding honeybee. For the "how to" I shot this video:

Here's another image from the same session:

Macro Moment #2

2009-08-31T07:28:00.001-07:00

Freckles IV
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

This time I asked my wife to help me shoot a short video on baiting honeybees with corn syrup and using the left hand brace technique to control the movement in the scene. Something that I didn't mention in the video is that I take a lot of images to get the one shot that I'm looking for -just too many variables to deal with. The depth is thin, moving the area of acceptable focus just a fraction of a millimeter can change the composition, and bees are constantly moving their antennas. Frequently I'll nail every aspect of a shot only to have to deleted it because the bee moved it's antenna right as I was pressing the shutter and it's obscuring an important feature like the eye or the proboscis.

First Magazine Publishing

2009-08-28T01:42:00.001-07:00

First Magazine Publishing
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Range Magazine published four of my fly photos along with an article that I co-wrote with Tom Stack (he manages my portfolio). There are also a couple of text books that might have my images in them in the near future, but nothing that I can mention specifically yet.

I'm also working on the next "Macro Moment" video and hopefully do the filming for it this weekend. Stay tuned :)

Freckles II Deconstruction

2009-08-24T07:58:00.001-07:00

Freckles II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

My mother in law planted pumpkins again this year and fortunately I managed to get some compositions out of my head from shooting honeybees in these flowers a few years ago. In 2007 I was shooting them when they stopped to clean themselves -that pumpkin pollen irritates them pretty bad! But since they were just sitting on a leaf without much to keep them busy they wouldn't let me get very close, and I was limited by the angles that I could shoot them.

The trick was to put down some corn syrup on a flower petal and wait for the girls to find it and start feeding. I placed my left index finger directly under the bee (with the petal between us) and put my thumb on top. Then I curled the petal around my index finger to get it out of the way so I could shoot at a low angle and not get the petal in the foreground (it would have been out of focus and distracting). All that was left was to place the lens on my left hand to keep it steady, and since I was holding onto the flower I had a lot of control over the composition. I wanted the line from the eye to the end of the proboscus in focus, so I just went looking for a "magic" angle" that would make the most of the curve. It sounds complicated, but with practice it's actually pretty easy to do.

Images like this one pretty much put the last nail into the "you have to freeze them" coffin...

For those of you curious about honeybees: The pitch of their wings gets higher as they get more excited. So if you listen to the sound they make you can get a feel for when it's time to back off and leave them alone. Several times I did just that, especially when they started getting in my face instead of flying off. I was dealing with some of the same workers over the last four days, and after a while they learned that I had the corn syrup so it took less and less time for them to find it and start feeding. It also took less time for them to start competing with each other and to start getting way too close to me

This frame was taken close to 3x at F13. I was adjusting the mag based on the framing that I wanted so I wasn't at even mag markers on the MPE-65mm. I also took this shot with the camera held horizontally, but I framed it knowing that I'd turn the photo 90 degrees in post -easier than trying to hold the rig vertically.

Licking the Bowl Deconstruction

2009-07-26T01:26:00.001-07:00

Licking the Bowl
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Here's another frame of a feeding honeybee that I slowed down by injecting corn syrup into a Lavender flower with a syringe. I knew that the exposure on this setup was going to be a problem -too much contrast between the clear syrup (nothing but a specular highlight zone for the flash) and the flash falloff since there's nothing close in the background to reflect the light from the flash back into the camera. So I set the FEC to -1 2/3 to avoid having to go into manual mode since I was shooting from a lot of different angles and changing the magnification. Hind site being what it is I should have set the flash to manual mode and left the magnification at 3x (where I ended up taking the most frames anyway) -it would have been easier...

The hard part about this scene isn't keeping the critter and the camera steady: She's really into that corn syrup so grabbing the Lavender stem with my left index finger and thumb was easy, and once I had a hold on the flower all I had to do was rest the lens on that same hand and slide ti to get the focus and composition that I wanted. What's tough about a shot like this one is remembering that the area of acceptable focus is parallel to the sensor and thin, so I've got to get it as flat against the bee as I can to make the most of what little depth there is at 3x and F13. For a shot like this one the eyes have to be in focus but so does the entire length of the proboscis. Also anything that's flat, or nearly flat, in the foreground also has to be in focus or your eye will go right to it. Forget focus stacking -although I did slow the honeybee down by giving her something to eat she's still in motion, and I'm actually using my finger and thumb to rotate the flower as she's feeding to keep her looking into the lens and to give me a "magic angle" that will make the most of the depth. It would take some tricky "shotgun photography" to give me more than one frame of the exact same scene and I'd rather spend my time practicing composition and getting the most of a single frame.

At times she was actually standing on my fingers...

Macro Moment #1

2009-07-10T00:23:00.000-07:00

First off I need to apologize for the quality of this video! I'm not use to using a camera phone, but since the iPhone 3GS has a camera capable of video, and since I have it with me all the time, I thought I'd start documenting some of the techniques I use to photograph the critters. This morning at the lake seemed like a perfect opportunity -I just need to get better at using the video camera ;)

Here's the video of a sleeping solitary bee:

Here's one of the shots of that same bee:

Feeding Honeybee IV Deconstruction

2009-07-08T09:43:00.001-07:00

Feeding Honeybee IV
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I don't always get a chance to shoot the critters when they are cold and sleeping, and during the heat of the day they won't let me get close unless I give them a reason to slow down. So I bought a hypodermic syringe at a pharmacy and used it to inject corn syrup deep inside a Lavender flower. The bee was so intent on eating that it let me grab onto the flower just below it so I could use the Left Hand Brace Technique to take the shot.

Canon's 270 EX

2009-06-08T01:39:00.001-07:00

Wet Metal
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Back in the early summer of 07 I was out at Lago d'Averno (my favorite dragonfly hunting ground) shooting in +30C degree heat (high 80s to low 90s F for the metric impaired) with a Canon 20D, a 100mm macro lens + tubes, and an MT-24EX all supported on a BushHawk shoulder mount. A lot of weight to put on a camera strap, especially one that I wasn't checking on a regular basis to make sure it was still secure. I stopped to wipe the sweat from my face and let the rig dangle by the strap and as my luck would have it gravity got the best of my rig -it landed flat against the side of the BushHawk with an ugly thud...

When I first picked up my gear and brushed the dust off of it the MT-24EX didn't work. The force of the impact drove the batteries so hard against the internal contacts in the battery compartment they were flattened and no longer touching the batteries. The hot shoe on the 20D also took a lot of damage and eventually failed a few months later.

When I got home I bent the battery contacts out and managed to get the MT-24EX working again, but since that fall two years ago I knew that I was using that flash on borrowed time. About two weeks ago the "A" flash head started to intermittently fail, but because the light looked good when it did work I knew the controller was going bad. Weather due to the gravity test two years ago or shooting in wet early morning conditions this year I don't know, but the end result was the same -I couldn't rely on it anymore.

Since it failed I've been experimenting with mounting a Canon 270EX on the MT-24EX's flash mount, but with limited success. The image included with this post is a test shot, and it's pretty dark. Since I took that shot I've redesigned the flash mount so I could get a lower angle between the flash and the subject, but it's just not the same as having a dual light source. If I put the 270EX on a flash bracket, with a bigger diffuser, then the light would be a lot more even and the shadows less severe. But I don't think it's going to work mounted right at the end of my MPE-65mm -I can't make the diffuser larger without bumping the subject with it at high magnification.

So at this point my options are pretty limited: Either use the MR-14EX that's been collecting dust since I picked up the MT-24EX, use a 580EX II on a flash flash bracket (not practical for my style of shooting), or buy a new MT-24EX. That last option presents a problem: Canon has updated every flash in their lineup except the macro flashes. I've got no proof, but it just makes sense that they're going to come out with a new macro flash. I'd hate to shell out +600 USD just to see Canon announce a new unit sometime between now and next fall...

So I'm going to see what I can do with the MR-14EX, and as long as the natural light is good shoot more natural light closeups. Although I don't get as much feedback on my closeup photography as I do the high mag shots I like shooting closeups in natural light more than shooting macro.

Time to break out the gaffers tape, channel Martha Stewart, and see what I can do to reduce those half moon specular highlights that haunt the MR-14EX :)

For those of you wondering about the performance of the 270EX it's actually pretty good as far as the flash recycle time goes: Almost instantaneous all the way out to 5x and F10. The E-TTL metering with it is also a lot more accurate than the MT-24EX. So I can't discount it completely as a potential light source for macro -I just can't get it to work in the way that I want to use it...

Water Drop How To

2009-05-29T01:28:00.001-07:00

Time Slices series 1-3
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Strobist has an excellent piece on How to Photograph Water Drops with One Speedlight and there is a tutorial video embedded in the article that's excellent for beginners wanting to get into water drop shooting. There's also another video that I'm including here, some high speed motion capture of water drops that's incredible!

Early Morning Macro

2009-05-26T01:28:00.001-07:00

Sex in the Shower
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Although I'm not a fan of dew covered critter shots I seem to be taking more and more of them lately. It's easier to find willing subjects, like this pair of mating Soldier Beetles, early in the day when they are still a little lethargic and haven't had a chance to warm up and dry out. Later in the day that same pair wouldn't let me get anywhere near them.

When shooting mating pairs it's best to get both of their leading eyes in focus, so look for angles that will allow you to place the area of acceptable focus for maximum detail. In this shot I was holding onto the grass stalk just behind them with my left index finger and thumb so all I had to do was slowly rotate the stalk until I got an angle that worked. With the lens resting on my left hand it was easy to keep the scene steady and to get the sharpness I wanted even though I had the MPE-65mm stopped down to F13.

Sorry about the title of the shot -it was the first thing that popped into my head when I was looking at them through the view finder :)

Happy Accidents

2009-05-22T10:43:00.001-07:00

Staring You Down III
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

One of the things that I'm trying to do this year is shoot in different places, to not get in the habit of looking in the same spots all the time because it's a great way to shoot the same subjects... boring...

So I went to the opposite end of Lago d'Averno hoping to see something new but was walking back to my car empty handed when I spotted some mature dragonflies trying to warm up and dry off. I'm not sure where they were perching for the night, but they were definitely making their way back toward the water when I stopped to photograph the critter in this post. Concerned that it was too awake to let me cut the perch and move it, and the simple fact that I'd be cutting a flower that was part of a recent landscaping project, I decided to shoot the damselfly by holding onto the perch with my left hand and just rest the lens on that same hand to keep everything steady. But the critter was at the end of a flower stalk so I had to grab onto the stalk behind it.

Now I have a new technique to add to my bag of tricks :)

Since my fingers are behind the damselfly they acted as a reflector for the light from the flash -but because they are almost twice as far from the light as the critter they came out about a stop under exposed and the color saturated. Instead of a black background I got a nice bright one that really makes the critter stand out.

Field Studio In Action

2009-05-09T01:42:00.001-07:00

Field Studio
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I found this immature dragonfly early in the morning when it was too cold and wet to move so it was pretty easy to cut the grass it was perched on, carry it to a nearby park bench, and put it in the wood clamp for some field studio work.

The first sample image from that shoot is at F13 and 2.5x and the second is at F10 and 5x.

Field Studio Gear

2009-05-06T10:05:00.001-07:00

Wood Clamp
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

This morning I shot a dragonfly that was too cold and damp to get away from me. I started out photographing the critter where I found it but quickly realized that it just wasn't practical -there was just too much tall grass in the way and I'd be getting it in just about every frame. Plus I wanted to get some high magnification shots and it just wasn't gonna happen unless I moved the subject to another area. So I cut the grass stem that it was perched on and carried it to a stone wall close where I found it. Then, using the wood clamp pictured to the right, I secured the dragonfly's perch.

With the dragon and its perch sitting in an area where I could comfortably work it was easy to brace the lens with my left hand by putting it on the wall next to the clamp. Here are two frames from the session, the first at 3x and F13 and the second at 5x and F10:

Sharp, studio quality, images at the edge of a parking lot...

Capitilize on Opportunities

2009-05-05T05:35:00.001-07:00

Get My Good Side IV
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I take some abuse through the year from people who get tired of seeing me post a lot of the same subjects, like the solitary bee that I'm including with this post. But I don't let it get to me, and I certainly don't let it influence what I do and don't photograph. A lot of what I shoot is seasonal and transitory -if I don't photograph the critters as I find them then I'll never have any photos. It's not like I get to choose what's available...

I also used this bee to illustrate another key point: Sometimes I''l find an insect for the first time, one I've never seen before, that has just emerged and since the weather is still cool I get one or two days to photograph them before they move on to another area where I can't get to them or they tunnel into the ground and build nests. So the only time I'll see them again is when it's warm and they are hyper active. So it's now or never, and I'd rather take the photos when I can get them because there's just no way an active bee is going to let me get close enough for a four times life size shot like this one.

If I didn't capitalize on opportunities then I wouldn't have anything in my gallery...

As for the deconstruction on this photo it's really quite simple: The bee has recently emerged (I think it was the afternoon that I found it) and the temps were cool, somewhere around 14C (57F) so the critter is pretty immobile. I've got one flash head of the MT-24EX set to the 11 O' clock position relative to me acting as the key light and I'm using a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe to get it a little higher than it would normally be if I had just connected it to the Canon flash mount that comes with the MT-24EX. If I didn't elevate one of the flash heads then both lights would be hitting the subject at the same relative angle so any reflective surface is going to be twice as bright. But with one head elevated I get a break on the specular highlights and the shadows are deeper as well. If you look closely at the eyes you can see that they are actually convex and it shows up well because the light does not wrap around the lenses, or the subject, evenly due to the extending the key.

The other flash head is mounted directly to the flash mount at the 2 O 'clock position and it's acting as my fill. No ratio control (not necessary due to the position of the flash heads) and I'm diffusing the light though a modified Gary Fong Puffer diffuser. The camera is set to manual mode F10, ISO 100 (the shutter is at 1/250 but that's irrelevant since the ambient light level is too low to be recorded by the sensor). The MPE-65mm was set to 4x, and I moved the bee from were I found it sleeping in a flower to a low stone wall. Resting my left hand on the wall I held the lens with my thumb and index finger to keep it steady while I looked for an angle that would make the most of what little depth I had. I wanted a 5x shot but the bee woke up and took off before I could get it. When I went back the next day the only bees I found were deep inside the flowers and they were covered in pollen -not as "clean" looking as the one you see here. The day after that the bees were gone. Maybe next time... :)

Right Place, Right Time

2009-05-04T02:41:00.001-07:00

Get My Good Side V
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I found this honeybee sitting on a leaf of a plant that it was feeding from, not completely motionless but definitely in a daze. I think that they sometimes get a rush of sugar from the nectar that they collect and since bees seem to have a problem clearing out lactic acid from their muscles the sudden surge in sugar causes a corresponding surge in lactic acid and their metabolism tanks trying to clear it. At least that's my current theory -hopefully someone with a degree will chime in and confirm it or set me straight ;)

In any case the end result is a bee that can't seem to get away, and if I keep my movements slow and allow the bee to acclimate to me then I can get as close at I want. Close enough to hold onto the leaf she's sitting on with my left index finger and thumb, and to rest the lens on that same hand to keep everything steady for a 4.5 times life size shot. Link to a larger image -just click on the photo to make it expand.

The image is a single frame shot at F10, and I chose the angle so that I could make the most of what little depth I had by putting the area of acceptable focus as flat against the side of her face as I could.

Studio Photography in the Field

2009-04-28T00:03:00.001-07:00

The Studio
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Given the choice I'd much rather shoot active subjects because the resulting images, if I can get them, tell a story. But some critters are just too skittish to photograph when they're active, like this solitary bee (looks like a hornet but it's not). I have some ethical issues with refrigerating or freezing subjects (unless you're taking a large number of frames for a focus stack chilling a subject is lame ) so the only choice left is to shoot early in the morning on the way to work before the critters have a chance to wake up. Fortunately I found this bee snoozing and took advantage of it for a few shots.

The setup is simple: I took a flower petal and placed it on the top of a stone wall close to where I found the bee. I then got the critter to climb onto my finger and I placed it on the flower petal. Most solitary bees are not aggressive, and due to its size I'm pretty sure that this one is male and has no stinger anyway. Of course I moved slowly and I tried to be as non threatening as I could. Once I had the bee in place all I had to do was put my left hand under the lens and then rest that hand against the wall to brace the camera. Studio conditions at the edge of a parking lot. Here's one of the portraits that I took at 4x and F10:

Again I really consider this type of shooting to be some of the easiest that I do because I've got full control of the scene and plenty of time to nail the composition and focus. Weather permitting I'll be back to shooting bees actively feeding in clover between 1x and 2x soon -just don't ask me about the "keeper rate"... ;)

Diffraction and Macro Motion Blur

2009-04-24T02:03:00.001-07:00

Critter Mix for 14 Apr 09 series 1-1
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

This is, I hope, going to be a discussion about diffraction and how the effects of motion blur can be mistaken for it. But before I dive in I need to make a few things clear:

Please do not give me links to your examples of diffraction limited photos -I know that diffraction exists so there is no need to prove it...

Please read this entire post carefully, and with an open mind, before you post a comment...

When I first got into macro three years ago there were two prevailing themes: You had to use a tripod to get sharp images, and diffraction is the primary reason why you can't stop a lens down and get sharp images. I wanted to let the subject dictate how I shot it, and to go after moving targets, so I came up with the Left Hand Brace Technique for taking control of the motion in a scene so I could get the compositions and sharpness that I was looking for without using a tripod. Along the way I started to realize that what a lot of people were calling diffraction was really nothing more than a form of motion blur that I call macro motion blur. To explain how motion blur can mimic diffraction you first have to really understand what diffraction is.

The classic definition of diffraction is light bending as it passes through a small opening, and that's true. But there's a little more to it than that: The rays of light actually expand, like a cone, so that light rays that should hit a single pixel are now bleeding over into adjacent pixels. When that bleeding over reaches half way into those adjacent pixels you'll see a loss in image quality -diffraction has taken your lunch money.

But if you can wrap your head around expanding light rays causing a loss of detail then couldn't motion blur, as little as half a pixel of movement during the exposure, look like diffraction? My experience has taught me that it can.

Right about now some of you are thinking "But wait a minute Mr. Macro Motion Blur, why do my images get sharper when I decrease my Fstop?!" To answer that question we have to first determine what your real shutter speed is. At macro magnification, high Fstops, and low ISOs, the light that your flash is producing is the only significant light source in a scene. To prove it just set your camera to manual mode, F11, 1/200 of a second (or whatever your maximum flash sync speed is for your camera), ISO 100, and go out and take a photo on a bright sunny day with your macro lens set to its minimum focusing distance (life size magnification). You'll have to shoot something white or yellow to get anything to show up in the resulting image. Then turn on your flash and take the same shot -there will be a major difference in what you can see in the photo. At higher magnifications, with the flash turned off, you'll just get a completely black image. So your flash duration is really your shutter speed, since it's the major, or only, light source -the actual speed of the shutter doesn't matter...

So you set your camera to manual mode, F11, 1/200, and ISO 100. You've got a rig that will let you shoot at 2x, you take a shot hand held, and the resulting photo isn't very sharp. You then set your camera to F8, take the same shot, and this time the image is a lot sharper. See, no more diffraction! Well there's only one little problem -when you went from F11 to F8 you opened up the aperture in your lens to let twice as much light into the camera. Through The Lens (TTL) metering compensated for the increase in aperture (decreasing Fstop) by turning the flash on half as long -so your shutter speed (the flash) doubled. Did you defeat diffraction or macro motion blur?...

For me the answer is simple, since I can get sharp images at life size to three times life size at F13, and four to five times life size at F10 with Canon's MPE-65mm macro lens. The key is to get the flash as close to the subject as possible, use a diffuser that really diffuses the light (not one that just blocks the light), and look for ways to take control of the motion in the scene. Diffraction does exist, but it's not the bogyman that most people make it out to be...

Smoke and Mirrors

2009-04-20T04:39:00.001-07:00

Ladybug on Yellow II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Another post that's part image deconstruction and part technique -I think I'm gonna get into the habit of combining the two from now on since it's easier to explain the techniques by breaking down an image as an example. This shots gonna be fun cause it's totally staged.

Yup, you heard me -staged...

It was late in the day, the sun had fallen over the rim of a volcanic crater that I was shooting next to (my favorite abandoned lot) and the Ladybugs were moving slow. So it was pretty easy to approach them but they kept falling onto the ground ever time I grabbed onto the grass stems they were climbing on (had to grab on to keep the scene steady and get the angles that I wanted). I'm not sure if they were having a tough time holding on because of the temperature, or if it's a defense mechanism that kicks in when they feel threatened -drop to the ground to get away from the jerk with the camera. Either way it was pretty frustrating to line up for a shot only to watch the critter fall down and get lost in all the grass.

I really wanted to go home with a few shots since I don't have many images of these critters in my gallery and later on in the year they'll either be too active to photograph or nonexistent. So I held my hand under one of them and caught it when it fell off of its perch and placed it on that daisy (at least that's what I think it is -I'm terrible at identifying the smelly things. To me it's just a backdrop anyway ;) ). I waited for the Ladybug to settle down and when it stopped moving I grabbed onto the stem of the flower with my left hand, used the Left Hand Brace Technique to take the shot, and presto -I've got a studio quality photo even though I'm sitting in an abandoned lot playing with bugs :)

Smoke and mirrors folks, smoke and mirrors...

Difficulty and Deception

2009-04-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

This post is going to be part image deconstruction and part lesson in technique. It's also going to prove that I'd make a terrible magician since I'm giving away my secrets ;)

Let's start out with a shot of a Cuckoo Bee taken at five times life size, F10, and ISO 100:

What if I told you that taking an image like that one, hand held, is easy? Here's the setup: I found this bee on a cool, partly cloudy, day when it was just starting to get active. Since the temps and light were low it was really lethargic -so slow that I was able to cut the plant it was on with a small pair of scissors that I carry in my camera bag and move it to a shaded area on top of a stone wall (to keep it from warming up and flying off). I then clamped the stem of the plant into a small wood clamp that I also carry in my bag and I've got an instant studio. I simply rotated the plant to get the angles that I wanted and rested my arms against the wall to keep everything steady. Granted I had to nail the composition and the focus, but it's really just a matter of practice...

Same critter, but this time at 3x, F13, and ISO 100:

Notice how the background isn't black? That's because I've got the critter as close to the surface of the stone wall as I can and I'm shooting from an angle that allows me to illuminate the wall with the flash -there is no natural light in that scene. Easy to do because I'm in full control of the frame and how the elements in it are arranged. Seriously once you get past the mechanics and understand how things work then an image like that one isn't difficult -it only looks hard due to the magnification.

In contrast here's a shot at life size, F13:, and ISO 100

The background is black because it has to be: I'm shooting in an unkempt flower bed that's less than half a meter wide. The wall behind the bee is dirty and too far away to be illuminated by the flash. I could crank up the ISO or even lower the shutter speed to get some ambient light into the scene (it's almost noon on a cloudless day) but there's one little problem -the bee is hyper active. Even though it doesn't take me long to focus and shoot this little guy gave me all of three frames and he was in constant motion. The only way I could get a sharp image is to take full control of the light and freeze the motion in the scene with the short duration of the flash -to literally use the flash as my shutter. If the flash didn't fire then the only image I'd have is a little bit of that yellow flower (the bee would have been a silhouette).

The same principals hold true for this shot of a honeybee at life size, F13, and ISO 100:

The flower in the background? Well I saw it in the view finder and framed the scene to get it, but the fact that it shows up in the image is luck. It just happened to be close enough to be lit by the flash. Of the four images in this post the last two were the hardest to take since the critters in both of them are in motion.

Footnote: I intentionally left out the shutter speeds that I used for those images because the shutter only effects the amount of ambient light that makes it to the image plane and it has no effect on the flash (as long as you're shooting at or below your camera's flash sync speed). The point that I'm trying to make by not including the shutter speed is that it doesn't matter when shooting at macro magnification and high Fstops -there just isn't enough natural light making its way into the lens to have a major effect on what the camera records. Also by shooting at high Fstops and ISO 100 I'm intentionally trying to eliminate the ambient light in the scene so I can take full control of the light with the flash. So when you look at my images you're really viewing a form of stop motion photography where I'm freezing the motion in the scene with a short duration flash pulse -and now you know the secret to my sharp images... ;)

How cool is that?!

2009-04-16T06:51:00.001-07:00

I was pretty stunned today when I went to Digg.com and saw one of my photos on the first page. How cool is that?! :D

MT-24EX User's Guide

2009-02-18T01:13:00.001-08:00

Portfolio series 2008-7
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I've updated my MT-24EX User's Guide to reflect recent changes in how I'm using and diffusing the MT-24EX.

The Tao of Macro

2009-02-14T00:37:00.001-08:00

Critter Mix Feb 2009 series 1-3
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I could also use “The Tao of Photography” as a title, since what I’m about to tell you applies to every photographic discipline. But it seems that there are more people hung up on technique in macro than in any other form of photography, and I shoot macro more than anything else. So here goes…

No one cares how you, or I, take our images. The way we shoot is irrelevant.

Really –it doesn’t matter. The average viewer neither knows, nor cares, how a photo was taken. Even if you were standing right next to them explaining everything their eyes would just glaze over, they’d nod their heads and mumble “oh” or “uh huh” –in one ear and out the other…

The only thing that does count is the final image. I hate making a reference to Ansell Adams because way too many people have taken his name in vain to justify their post processing –doing things in Photoshop that they could be doing a lot faster and better with the camera when they press the shutter release. But the idea that the process isn’t important comes from Mr. Adams, and he was right. People don’t come back to look at an image because of what you did or what you used to take the photo, they come back because there’s something about the photo that draws them in. That something is the composition and not the process…

The only time the way becomes important is when you’re trying to learn photography. When I write a tutorial on some aspect of macro I do so as if I’m speaking to another macro photographer, and not someone who knows nothing at all about the discipline. Why waste time writing to the viewer when they don’t care anyway…

So why am I making this post? When I first got into macro three years ago the conventional wisdom was that you had to use a tripod and a focusing rail to shoot macro. If you didn’t then most of the established photographers in the discipline wouldn’t take you seriously. Now it’s generally accepted that a lot of macro work can be done without a lot of gear –kind of hard to argue with the +2,000 images in my Flickr gallery and I’m just one photographer of many who shoots hand held.

Today there is still a lot of emphasis being placed on absolute image sharpness, with people claiming that you have to use small Fstops and focus stacking to get sharp images. I’m hoping that it won’t take another three years for the misconceptions about sharpness to die. If you view your photos at 100% pixels you’re going to see some softness in every photo –not just macro. But since people don’t print 100% crops, or save them to their desktop as wallpaper, evaluating a photo at 100% pixels is pointless. You could take the sharpest image ever, but if the subject is centered in the frame then it’s just one more poorly composed photo –no better than the average vacation point and shoot snapshot...

Moose Peterson once talked about the “8 second clock” –that once a person turns a page in a magazine a timer starts and there has to be something about a photo that will hold the viewer’s attention in those eight seconds. In my opinion the “Wow factor” of seeing a subject at high magnification lasts about 3 seconds no matter how sharp the image is. If you want to keep someone looking at your photos, and coming back to see them again, then the composition has to good otherwise the clock runs out and the viewer moves on…

Am I telling you not to use a tripod, or a focusing rail, or not to focus stack your images? Absolutely not! If you need to use any tool to produce the images that you want to take then so be it! But don’t get it into your head that everyone else must do the same things that you are doing. Or that the only way to get a good photo is to use a certain tool or technique. Don’t get hung up on the way an image was taken –the composition of the final image is infinitely more important…

One final word: I only use a camera, a macro lens, and a flash. I keep the gear count low because I want to let the subject dictate how I shoot it –to not lock myself into a fixed, rigid style of shooting. So the way that I shoot a subject changes depending on the conditions. If I were to fixate on a particular piece of gear or technique then I’d limit what I could photograph or when I could photograph it. Currently the only thing that stops me from shooting is rain –and if I really wanted to I could find a way around it. Don’t hold your breath waiting for my “critters wet and wild” series though…

The way that I shoot is a personal choice based on what I want to do with my photography. Is it the best way to shoot macro? Yes, but only when I’m the one holding the camera –my personal Tao of Macro. Find yours…

Macro Techniques and Lighting

2009-02-05T23:48:00.000-08:00

There is an excellent discussion going on over at the Juza Nature Forum about macro techniques and lighting. If you're interested in how some of us shoot macro and how we light the small world then hit that link and have a read...

Sunpak Quantaray XLF-50

2009-02-05T01:43:00.000-08:00

I have an EF-S 60mm that I use for day trips when I don't want to carry an MPE-65mm, an MT-24EX, and spare batteries. But I wanted something better than the flash that's built into my 40D so I picked up a Sunpak Quantary XLF-50 flash. It uses 2 AA batteries and you get about 280 full power pulses out of it with a set of NiMH cells. The hot shoe rolls up into the body of the flash for storage and it sounded like a nice small flash for my day trip bag.

A few days ago I mounted it onto a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe via an off camera cord and connected it to the flash mount that comes with the MT-24EX and stuck it on the end of my MPE-65mm just to see how it would perform. I took some test shots at F11 and ISO 100 all the way out to 3x and the recycle time with a fresh pair of charged batteries was instantaneous. I haven't built any kind of diffuser for it, I just used the flip down diffusion panel that comes with the flash that I don't like (too opaque so I'm sure it's changing the temperature of the light) but the light didn't look too bad! Here's a shot at 1x, F11, and ISO 100:

Here's a similar shot with the MT-24EX:

I made some very minor changes to those images in post, but I didn't change the white balance at all. With a better diffuser I'm sure that the quality of light that's coming out of that little flash will be even better.

The really cool part about the XLF-50, other than it coming in Canon and Nikon versions (E-TTL II, and i-TTL), is the weight -only 7 ounces without batteries. It's so light even with 2 AAs that you could Gaffers tape it to the end of a lens provided you have an off camera cord. The guide number is only 66 but because it's so small and light weight it's easy to get it close to what you are shooting. The sticker shock is $99 USD + the cost of an off camera cord.

Footnote: In some markets the flash is called the Sunpak RD2000.

I've been playing around with the flash today and I've run into an irregularity that has me scratching my head: With the EF-S60mm on my 40D and the Sunpak flash mounted directly to the camera's hot shoe I can get a good exposure at F11, 1/250, and ISO 100 -cool. If I drop the Fstop down to F8, or increase the ISO to 200, I get a black frame. Either of those changes should decrease the amount of light that I need for a good exposure by a full stop and it should be easier for the flash to give me a proper exposure. Turning the flash off and then back on seems to clear the problem. I'll add more to this later as I do some more experimenting. The odd thing is that I didn't run into any issues with the flash connected to an off camera cord when I was testing it with the MPE-65mm...

Update: I connected the flash to an off camera cord and I get the same problem. Turning the flash off and then back on clears it and it starts working properly.

Nikon Stereoscope

2009-02-05T00:16:00.000-08:00

From Engadget

"Sure, we've seen homebrew digital microscopes built out of old webcams and proper digital 'scopes with USB interfaces, but if you're really serious about your closeups, Nikon's new Fabre Photo EX system is probably calling your name. The stereoscopic microscope can be fitted to a Nikon DSLR back to capture images, with max magnification based on sensor size and crop factor -- FX backs will yield 20x zoom, while a DX back will let you keep tabs on your favorite c. elegans at 45x."

Sorry Nikonians -it's pretty much a lab table piece of kit so no MPE-65mm macro lens equivalent for you. Also what Engadget says about the crop factor changing the magnification is bogus -seems like no one gets it right. Cropping an image does not change the magnification *sigh*.

Masters of Macro -Tom Hicks

2009-01-26T07:41:00.000-08:00

As the moderator of the Fred Miranda Macro Forum Mr. Tom Hicks has been a huge influence on a number of macro and closeup shooters, yours truly included. I often marvel at Tom's compositions and his use of any light source and I cherry picked the best of what I saw him doing and rolled it into my own photography. Next to Mark Plonsky I consider Tom to be one of my mentors, and I probably hold the record for the most posts at Fred's that start with "Questions for Tom". He's so talented with a wide range of macro hardware and techniques that I think if there is anyone on the planet who could cut the end off of a Coke bottle and shoot macro with it he could! So it's my great pleasure to present to you No Cropping Zone's next Master of Macro Tom Hicks!

NCZ: Who influenced you early on when you first got into macro?

Tom: My greatest influence in to the world of macro was Mark Plonsky. His was the first work that exhibited the quality level that I wanted to achieve. It also amazed me that he was able to get all that detail with the simplest of tools. Mark and I try to touch base every so often, but it has been awhile . Hope all is good my friend!

NCZ: What is it about macro that has you hooked?

Tom: Macro Photography has always held my attention. It's the smallest of details in the subject that you shoot that I find so gripping, the things that we normally don't have the opportunity to see in our every day lives. Things that we all take for granted.

NCZ: What is your favorite subject to shoot and why?

Tom: Bugs are my favorite subject but more specific, Robber Flies. I never new they existed until I got into Macro. The first image I saw of one was posted on Fred Miranda.com by my European friend and photographer Monique Bogaerts. A very fine Nature photographer in her own right, and one I have the utmost respect for. With over 4000 different species of Robber Flies there is certainly no shortage of subject matter. They are the Raptors of the insect world, and upon close study, hunt their prey just like our feathered friends do.

NCZ: If you could only have one lens what would you choose and why (assuming that you also have access to any light source you want as well)?

Tom: If I could have only one lens for Macro it would be one on the 180 to 200mm range and have a tripod foot. I learned at the very beginning that working distance is your friend. I also prefer the narrower angle of view because it can help to isolate your subject from distracting background clutter and also provide you with nice bokeh.

NCZ: What lens do you recommend for someone who's just getting into macro?

Tom: For the beginner a lens in the 90mm to 100mm range would be the best choice, both from a cost stand point and a selection standpoint.

NCZ: Do you spend a lot of time in post processing or do you like to "get it right" with the camera?

Tom: I prefer to spend as little time on the computer as possible therefore I do everything I can to get it right in camera, especially the crop. All I want to have to do is sharpen the image, and maybe add some contrast. If one will slow down and pay attention to all the things needed to get it right in camera it makes the whole process go much smoother.

NCZ: Is there any advice that you’d like to pass on to the people reading this interview? Parting thoughts?

Tom: Parting thoughts. For those thinking of taking on macro photography; find someone's work that you admire and study it, get the best equipment you can afford, keep it simple, if shooting bugs then study your subject. Shoot both natural light and flash and find out which you prefer. Practice, practice, and more practice. Learn from your mistakes and spend some time figuring things out for yourself, if that fails - then ask .

NCZ: I'd like the thank Mr. Hicks for taking time out for this interview, and for putting up with all my stupid questions when I was a newbie!

40D and MT-24EX problem -I think it's fixed!

2009-01-22T08:40:00.001-08:00

Future Flowers
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I went out into the field this afternoon with both the 40D and the 50D and I could not find any significant exposure differences shooting with the two cameras now that I've flashed the 40D's firmware to 1.1.1

Scenes that tricked the 40D's light meter also tricked the 50D, but the 40D did not fire the MT-24EX at full power and the slight over exposure would be easy to manage in post. Also if a scene caused the 40D to over expose a little using flash exposure compensation to decrease the exposure actually worked, before I upgraded the 40D's firmware changing the FEC would have little effect -the MT-24EX would just dump out full power and I'd genetically alter what I was shooting...

For now I've gone back to the 40D -the 50D's noisy sensor was driving me insane!

Playing with Solitary Bees

2009-01-21T23:38:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: If you are allergic to honeybee stings then you should avoid close contact with all bee species! Most solitary bees are nonaggressive and you’d really have to manhandle one of the females to get stung (the males don’t have stingers) , but an allergic reaction to the venom could be fatal. If you’ve never been stung before then you’re at risk –you could be allergic and not know it…

As soon as the temperatures in the early spring hit 14C (~57F) for a few days then go looking for solitary bees. They are already starting to emerge here in Naples, Italy and with the cool weather they’re not as hyper active as they will be in the summer months. I found one recently feeding on flowers that were partially closed, so I’d grab onto the flower’s stem with my left index finger and thumb, brace the MPE-65mm macro lens on my hand (dialed in to 3x), and wait for the critter to stick its head out. I’d get about two or three seconds to frame and fire…

Bee in a Cup by =dalantech on deviant ART

Bee in a Cup II by =dalantech on deviant ART

…before the bee would either feel or see the heat coming off of my hand and crawl onto it to warm up.

My Pet Solitary Bee 09-1 by =dalantech on deviant ART

My Pet Solitary Bee 09-2 by =dalantech on deviant ART

All solitary bees will do a little cleaning up before moving from one flower to the next, and this one would brush pollen off of its eyes and antenna before leaving the warmth of my hand to go to the next flower. I must have played with this little 6mm long bee for a good 20 minutes. I didn’t get many keepers because it was constantly in motion, but I did get some valuable experience on their habits :)

Turn to the Dark Side

2009-01-17T09:31:00.001-08:00

A Cup of Blue
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

From time to time I see people argue about the backgrounds in macro images, and about how dark backgrounds don’t look natural –whatever the heck that means. Seriously what’s natural about macro photography? Do you see all the detail in a bee’s compound eye or the tiny “hairs” that cover most leaves without the aid of some sort of magnifier?

Nope…

Light, and even the absence of it, is a compositional tool –and if you don’t view light as a compositional tool and learn to manipulate it then there are going to be some extreme limits to your growth as a photographer. Light is the most powerful compositional tool that you have, and learning how to modify it to give you the effect that you want in your images is one of the biggest challenges that you’ll face –but it’s also the most rewarding…

Take the photo with this post: I could have increased the ISO or decreased the shutter speed to get more of the ambient light into the scene, so that I could record the foliage behind that flower. But the junk in the background would just distract your attention from the subject –by setting the camera so that the flash was the only significant light source I made the subject stand out. Your eyes have no choice but to go straight to the flower and that’s exactly what I want them to do. The only thing that you have to do to really pull the effect off is to set a black point when you post process the image: A solid black point will keep the image from looking washed out.

More and more you're going to see me post about light and composition because it will make or break you as a photographer...

Keep it Simple

2009-01-03T04:49:00.001-08:00

Portfolio series 2008-4
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Lately people have been asking me how I get the images that I have, and I’ve written several tutorials on technique (tutorial section at Deviant Art). But one of the things that I don’t mention much is why I shoot the way that I do –what’s the method to my madness…

When I first got into insect macro, three years ago, there were a few photographers that I really admired –shooters who knew how to use the light and the aperture to paint the scene. But they all had one thing in common: They were limited in what they could shoot and / or when they could shoot it because of the gear that they used. I have nothing against tripods, or the people who use them, but a tripod is just too slow –there’s no way to effectively photograph active insects with a tripod. The best analogy I can think of is sports photography: How many sport photographers use a tripod? When was the last time you saw someone shooting candid photos with a tripod? There’s just no way to capture a scene that’s changing quickly with your rig on training wheels…

So I decided to keep it simple; instead of letting my gear dictate what I could shoot and when I could shoot it I decided to let the subject determine what I would use. I studied the habits of the critters that I wanted to photograph and took advantage of their quirks to get close, and I pushed my luck. I also completely ignored the conventional wisdom at the time and didn’t use a tripod or stay home when it’s windy. Instead I looked for ways to brace the camera, to take control of the motion in the scene, and I keep the duration of my flash as insanely short as possible since it’s acting as my shutter. Now, after three years of shooting, I’m convinced that macro is a form of stop motion photography –there’s no difference between getting sharp details in an insect’s compound eye and freezing the motion of an exploding balloon…

So what gear do you need to shoot above life size? A camera (preferably one made by Canon since they have the best macro glass), a lens (doesn’t need to be a macro lens, you can always reverse a standard lens to get above life size) and a flash (can be any flash, but due to my shooting style I prefer the balance of the MT-24EX), something to diffuse your flash, spare batteries for your camera and flash, and memory cards. That’s about it –the rest is technique, experience, and opportunity.

The photo I’ve included with this post is one my images from 2008 that’s really the end result of all the work I’ve put into technique: A fly actively feeding on pollen shot at four times life size with a Canon 40D, an MPE-65mm macro lens, and an MT-24EX macro twin flash with a modified set of Sto-Fen diffusers. Since it was windy it was easier to grab onto the flower with my left hand without scaring the critter off –it could not tell the difference between the vibration induced by the wind and the vibration induced by me. Once I pinch the stem of that flower between my index finger and thumb I can slowly rotate the flower and tilt it to keep the subject at the angle that I want to shoot, and by resting the lens on my left hand I can keep everything on the same “platform” –if one hand moves then they both move. Focusing is just a matter of sliding the lens on my hand, and since the depth of field is really narrow I refocus the scene for every shot and then choose the one I like best later when I get the images on my computer. The working distance from the front of the lens to the subject was 1.7 inches (4.3 centimeters) and the scene is about 5.6mm wide x 3.6mm high. It’s tough to put that into perspective, but a millimeter is about the thickness of a U.S. dime.

Keep it simple…

Wrap your Sto-Fen diffusers

2009-01-01T11:10:00.001-08:00

Portfolio series 2008-26
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I do a lot of things with my light that some of you might not want to do, or care to. Taking a hot glue gun to your MT-24EX will void it's warranty, and I've cut the glue off of my flash heads so I could try something new to diffuse them so many times that I'm stunned they haven't fallen appart...

The easiest way to get good light from the MT-24EX and at the same time do no damage to the flash heads is to simply wrap the outside of a set of Sto-Fen diffusers with Gaffers tape. The tape serves two purposes: To keep the Sto-Fens on your flash heads better than the shallow indent on the flash heads that the diffusers clip onto, and to force more of the light from the flash heads out the front of the diffusers to give you a shorter flash duration (less glare, easier to freeze motion, etc.).

A simple modification that will make a big difference in the quality of the light that you'll get from the MT-24EX. The photo included with this post was taken with a wrapped set of Sto-Fens. Granted I've got a 1/8 CTO gel and a heavy frost diffusion plastic hot glued directly to the flash head, but the tests that I did with just a wrapped set of Sto-Fens looked really good and won't void your warranty...

Macro Video

2008-12-29T07:32:00.001-08:00

Here's a collection of some of my favorite images from 2008.

Macro Resolutions for 2009

2008-12-27T09:44:00.001-08:00

Female Drone Hoverfly II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

It’s that time of year again –time to take a subjective look at my photos and decide where I need to improve, and the direction I want to take my work in the New Year.

Composition is King: I need to continue to work on my compositional skills, and along with that my lighting since the light is a compositional tool. I made a lot of progress in 2008, but I need to keep pushing myself on this one…

Get Better at Post Processing: I’m already working on this one since my poor post processing “skills” need a lot of improvement. There’s just no sense in spending a lot of time and effort on all the things that I need to do before I press the shutter release only to shoot myself in the foot during post…

Let Conditions Dictate How I Shoot: If there is very little wind and the natural light is good then shoot close-ups. If the natural light is poor but the wind is calm then shoot at life size and use the flash as the primary light source. Last if it’s windy then shoot at 2x and higher since it’s easier to grab onto the flower a critter is feeding on when there is a breeze –they can’t tell the difference between the wind and me touching the flower and once I grab onto the stem the wind becomes a non issue. Continue to work on my technique…

Use Magnification as a Compositional Tool: I started to do this one, but kinda fell out of it. There are some magnifications that just don’t work for some subjects –like shooting a dragonfly at life size. There’s no way I can get the entire critter into the frame, and once I start clipping the wings and the tail I might as well go up to 2x or 3x and just take a portrait. I really need to get out of the habit of shooting on even magnifications –another thing that I started to do and fell out of…

Practice Until it Hurts: Then practice some more…

Hitler rants about Nikon

2008-12-26T14:47:00.000-08:00

I caught a link to this one over at Macro Art in Nature -ROFLMAO!

Portfolio Series 2008 Part 6

2008-12-26T04:07:00.000-08:00

Sixth and final set of macro images:

Mantis Maintenance by =dalantech on deviant ART

Bee Portrait IV by =dalantech on deviant ART

Drone Hoverfy at 3x by =dalantech on deviant ART

Blowing Bubbles II by =dalantech on deviant ART

Om Nom Nom IV by =dalantech on deviant ART

Now it's time to get ready for 2009 :)

Portfolio Series 2008 Part 5

2008-12-26T01:01:00.000-08:00

Fifth set:

Miner Bee at 5x by =dalantech on deviant ART

Wild Honeybee III by =dalantech on deviant ART

Everything is Hairy by =dalantech on deviant ART

Guard Dog by =dalantech on deviant ART

Hungry Hoverfly I by =dalantech on deviant ART

Portfolio Series 2008 Part 4

2008-12-26T00:56:00.000-08:00

Fourth set:

Banded Eye Drone at 2x I by =dalantech on deviant ART

Robber Fly at 3x I by =dalantech on deviant ART

Wasp Reflection I by =dalantech on deviant ART

Making Honey by =dalantech on deviant ART

Making the Fly with Four Wings by =dalantech on deviant ART

Portfolio Series 2008 Part 3

2008-12-26T00:45:00.000-08:00

Third set:

Room with a View II by =dalantech on deviant ART

Room with a View by =dalantech on deviant ART

Dog Pile by =dalantech on deviant ART

Wevil at 1.5x by =dalantech on deviant ART

After the Rain by =dalantech on deviant ART

Portfolio Series 2008 Part 2

2008-12-20T00:20:00.000-08:00

Here's the second set:

Ant at 3x by =dalantech on deviant ART

Miner Bee Profile by =dalantech on deviant ART

It's My Flower by =dalantech on deviant ART

September Dragon XIII by =dalantech on deviant ART

Finger Licking Good V by =dalantech on deviant ART

Portfolio Series 2008 Part 1

2008-12-18T13:06:00.000-08:00

I'm going through my portfolio and re-editing my best images of 2008. Here is the first set -more to come. If you click on a photo you'll get my page at Deviant Art that has the image, and if you click on the image on that page you can see a 1280 pixel wide version of the shot.

Scraping out the Pollen by =dalantech on deviant ART

Hungry Hoverfly VI by =dalantech on deviant ART

Sleeping Solitary II by =dalantech on deviant ART

Dragon in Flight by =dalantech on deviant ART

Honeybee on Sunflower I by =dalantech on deviant ART

Living Pixels Temporarily Down

2008-12-15T02:40:00.000-08:00

From Allan Melsen, site owner & administrator of livingpixels.org:

"As many of you have noticed, Living Pixels (www.livingpixels.org) has been down for some days now.

Followed by a series of accidents; modifications screwing up the database and configuration was the first problem. During this, I fiddled back and forth and couldn't make it work...

So I decided to just delete the setup and restore a backup from the day before... Easier said than done. I accessed the control panel at the hosting center and clicked restore... chose the newest restore which was only 1 day old... after waiting 45 minutes, my data still wasn't back - so I opened a support case with the hosting center...

I asked in the mail how long this normally takes because I had waited for 45 minutes and still couldn't see my data having been restored, and got the following reply:

------------------------------------------------------
"Generally, this should not take long at all. I gave it a bit more time,
just in case it had a lot of data to restore. When I noticed nothing had
been restored two hours later, I went ahead and had an admin look further
into it for you. It looks like the problem is that, unfortunately, there
aren't any backups to restore it to."

"I'm very sorry about that! Although we don't guarantee backups, we do try
to provide them, and we are looking into why the backups weren't
performed in the first place. Your best bet, at this point, is to just
re-upload the files."

"Again, I apologize for the problems this caused you."
-----------------------------------------------------

So basically, this means everything from the last month and a half is GONE.

So, therefor I quit the hosting company and are getting a refund from the money I spend with them... Not that thats a comfort.

To make things even worse, I've had to put my beloved dog of 4 years to sleep after he tore a ligament on his right hind leg. Our family has been in deep sorrow after losing this family member, and those of you who have a dog will know how attached you can get to them. This also put a bit of strain on my motivation and desire to work on this error...

Things are looking brighter now though... and I'm now working on finalizing a new server setup, and hope to have the site up and running early january...

I'm terribly sorry about all this fuss... hopefully Living Pixels will be back in an even stronger form than before... "

Ignore the man behind the cutain...

2008-12-14T04:49:00.000-08:00

This blog has been in dire need of an overhaul for far too long, and I'm finally getting around to using a random header image so that when you come to the site, click on a link, or refresh the page the logo at the top changes.

Picture Style Support!

2008-12-13T06:16:00.001-08:00

This is so cool!
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

I just installed Adobe Camera RAW 5.2 and found this jewel on the Camera Calibration tab -Thanks Adobe!