Posts Tagged Hoya Macro Kit
March 3, 2010 – Pollination
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day, Washington State on March 3, 2010
Insect and Flower
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=985
Whoa, not sure what happened there, I completely missed yesterday. I guess I was just.. kind of busy, so I sort of.. completely forgot to post a picture. Sorry about that! I’d say “I won’t let it happen again”, but obviously I will.
I realized today that it’s been almost a month and a half since I posted a picture of a bug. How could I let this happen?? Clearly, I had to remedy that situation immediately. I don’t really know what kind of bug this is (my first guess is always “bee”, but that’s based only on the fact that it’s standing on a flower, so clearly I’m not the authority), but it was willing to hang around for pictures, so it hardly matters.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, taking pictures of bugs like this is purely an exercise in patience. Obviously, they move. A LOT. Also, you’re dealing with microscopic depths of field, so if you tend to sway back and forth when you take pictures like I do, you might think you got the perfect shot only to find out later that you accidentally got the hindquarters of the bug in focus instead of it’s head. Depending on what macro method you’re using – as in, super-expensive-macro-lens, ordinary macro lens, macro kit (like this one), reverse-mounted lens, etc – you may get a larger or smaller depth of field, but it’ll always be super small. So, to counter both of those issues, you end up just needing to take a TON of shots, and hopefully a handful of them will turn out okay. (When I got this picture, for example, I took about 40 frames, and got 5 or 6 that were decent enough to hold on to.) So don’t get discouraged, just keep shooting, and be ready to dig through piles and piles of crappy ones to get what you want.
Notes: Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-300 mm lens with Hoya Macro Kit. 1/200s, f/5.6, ISO 200. Focal length: 109mm.
Subscribe to the Picture of the Day via: Popularity: 48%
February 17, 2010 – Strange Vine revisited
Posted by Dave in Macro, Picture of the Day on February 17, 2010
Strange vine revisited
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1030
Hey again everyone, sorry for the late post today. It’s been a tough day trying to catch up on everything that I missed from yesterday (the hockey game was AWESOME! Maybe I’ll make a special post sometime with some of the results from me playing sports photographer for the day), so I’m only getting a chance to post something now. I promise, tomorrow we’ll be back on our regular schedule.
This is another take on the crazy curly vine thing that you last saw back in December. To sort of paraphrase what I said about it back then: I don’t know what it is, but I thought it was kind of cool looking. So, I took a picture. Actually, I took a lot of pictures. But this may be the last picture of it you see. Maybe not, we’ll see how I feel in April.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-300 mm lens with Hoya Macro Kit. 1/250s, f/4.0, ISO 800. Focal length: 35mm.
Popularity: 15%
February 1, 2010 – Salal Bush
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Macro, Picture of the Day, Washington State on February 1, 2010
Salal Bush
Monday, February 1, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=983
Hey everyone, welcome back! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Mine was not too bad. I spent a surprisingly large amount of time out in the snow (skiing one day, snowshoeing the next), hoping to get a decent number of potd-worthy shots. Sadly, I wasn’t as successful as I was hoping. I got a couple that have potential, we’ll see how they turn out when I look at them on the big screen.
In the meantime, here’s a picture of a salal bush from this fall. I actually had no idea what a salal bush was, but it had these little berries that were EVERYWHERE, so I asked somebody what they were, and that’s what they said. This shot (obviously) doesn’t have any berries in it, but it’s from the same bush. Mostly it’s only here because I was playing around with my macro kit (that little set of magnifying glass type things that you put on your lens like a filter), and it was handy. But as you can see, they really do work as advertised, and they can be a lot of fun to play around with. I’d post a link here to Amazon like usual, but I’ve done that a lot of times before and nobody’s every bought one. I’m feeling a bit lazy today, so I’m going to leave out that little detail.
I’ve decided that Tuesday and Thursday this week I’m going to toss up some crappy pictures just to get them out of the way, so don’t get your hopes up too much for those. I’ll try to put up something reasonably interesting on Wednesday, and I’ve got a nice one picked out for Friday. I don’t really know why I feel like Friday is the day to post nice ones, but I’ve kind of settled on that. So whatever. See you tomorrow!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-300 mm lens with Hoya macro kit. 1/400s, f/5.6, ISO 200. Focal length: 30mm.
Popularity: 23%
December 21, 2009 – Strange Vine
Posted by Dave in Macro, Picture of the Day, Washington State on December 21, 2009
Strange Vine
Monday, December 21, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1033
Welcome back everyone! As you can tell by the very fact that I did indeed post something today, my traffic looks to be improved. Still not sure what happened at the end of the last week, but it sure seemed like most of you decided to go outside and play instead of sitting inside reading my stuff like you should. But since I did kind of already mentally check out for the holidays, I’ve decided to compromise, and use this week and next week (I’ll probably only post 2 or 3 times next week) to post some pictures from the backlog that are either not really that great, or just.. kind of weird.
This one definitely falls into the weird category. I saw this vine thing on a hike one day (I’m not going to say which one, due to my aforementioned hesitation at admitting to yet another picture from the Shi Shi Beach trail – although to be fair, it’s been a month since I posted one. Well, posted one that I actually identified as being from that hike anyway.) I thought it was really cool how those two strands danced and curled around each other, but the resulting pictures were still a bit weird. As in, I felt like when I looked at the picture I started by noticing the cool, playful pattern, but then right at that moment where you’d say “Oh, cool, that’s a [whatever]! Awesome!” I instead found myself saying “Oh, cool, that’s a …. umm… uhh.. what the hell is that?”. So it felt like it had a great build up, but then a crappy, poorly thought out, meaningless ending. But this and the other couple of pictures I got of this.. thing.. are both somewhat interesting photos in my opinion, so it fit perfectly with this week’s theme. (Oh, we’re doing weekly themes now, are we?)
So, there it is. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see what crappy and/or weird picture I decide to use to take up the dead-space between now and the end of the year!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-300 mm lens with Hoya Macro Kit. 1/250s, f/5.0, ISO 800. Focal length: 50mm.
Popularity: 16%
December 17, 2009 – Insect and Flower
Posted by Dave in Macro, Picture of the Day, Washington State on December 17, 2009
Insect and Flower
Thursday, December 17, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=986
See? A bug and a flower, just like I said. Man, I’m really good at predicting stuff. It’s almost like my today self somehow sent a message back through time to my yesterday self saying exactly which picture would be posted. Almost eerie, really.
Those of you who were with me earlier this year, you know that this summer I went on a mini-odyssey of sorts, exploring several different cheapskate methods of macro photography. The extreme case was of course the reverse-mount adapter that I used to get that picture of the fly a few days ago. That one, while extremely powerful, is also extremely difficult to use. Today’s solution, while it won’t get you nearly as close, is in a lot of ways more pleasant to use. It’s a Macro Kit, which consists of a set of these magnifying-lens type filters that you attach to the front of your lens. They magnify a bit and allow you to focus more closely than you would be able to otherwise. So they get you closer than you would be able to otherwise, but with a whole new set of limitations. (Your depth of field is very small as you would expect, although not as drastic as with the reverse-mount. Also, the area outside of the in-focus range gets blurry in a weird way. I guess I’d describe it by saying it gets “foggy” rather than “blurry”. And, the longer your focal length (distance from the front of your lens to your sensor) the foggier it gets, to the point where, if you’re using a superzoom lens, and your lens is way extended, the whole frame will be foggy, even the stuff that’s in focus. It’s weird, really.)
As with any accessory though, they are well worth playing around with, despite their limitations, especially given their really low price (20-30 bucks.) Again, you’ll definitely get better results with a true macro lens, but you’ll also be paying a heck of a lot more than most of us can afford to spend on such a niche-use lens. So, if macro seems fun (it totally is), go buy one, using that link above, so that I get a kickback from Amazon. We all win! Woooo!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-300 mm lens with Hoya Macro Kit. 1/200s, f/5.6, ISO 200. Focal length: 168mm.
Popularity: 14%
September 15, 2009 – Spider
Posted by Dave in Animals, Macro, Picture of the Day on September 15, 2009
Spider
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1063
I’ll be the first to admit. Today’s picture is creeeeeepy. It’s bad enough when you see a spider at normal size. You start imagining what it would be like to have it crawling slowly up your arm and.. ugh, shivers. But now, you can add a little bit of detail to your vivid imaginings. Just imagine all of those little spindly things on its legs gently brushing against your skin. Those 15 or whatever little eyeballs checking you out. Yummy.
This little guy was backlit when I took the picture, that’s why he looks like he’s glowing. I was using the Hoya Macro Kit (Link to Amazon: http://bit.ly/2l96oL ), rather than the reverse mount lens, because that’s what I had on me at the time. It works great for most purposes, but if you’re using a big telephoto lens, as I was, and it’s at the zoomed-in side, and thus extended way out, you sort of get that weird glowy fogginess that you can kind of see. Not necessarily a bad thing, it is what it is. And, I suppose I should mention that I did cheat a tiny bit: when I took the picture, he was actually upside-down. So I rotated him right around, because I felt like I was allowed.
So, sorry in advance for any nightmares or additional reliance on other people to take care of spiders that you find in your living space. I’m sure you’ll get over it eventually. 
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-300 mm lens with Hoya macro kit. 1/200s, f/5.6, ISO 400. Focal length: 183mm.
Popularity: 17%
August 25, 2009 – Insect and Flower
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day, Washington State on August 25, 2009
Insect and Flower
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1000
Several weeks ago, when I posted an image of a bee flying over a bunch of poppies, I mentioned that bees and flowers might just become my new obsession. So, to give just a bit more evidence of that, here’s another picture of a bee (well, some kind of insect anyway) and a flower.
This one was taken on the same hike to Shi Shi Beach as yesterday’s picture. I had two new toys that day; the first was the wide angle lens that I talked about in more depth than really necessary yesterday, and the other was a macro kit that I picked up for 60 bucks or so. (They have cheaper ones, but this was supposedly a good one.)
Now, before I go into that any more, here’s a link to it on Amazon, so that you know what I’m talking about. And yes, I set up an affiliate account, so if you want to buy one, please use this link first, because then I get a 4% kickback, which is only 96% away from being totally sweet. These things screw on to the front of your lens like a filter, so MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE RIGHT SIZE!! I didn’t see a size on the product page, but I didn’t look that closely.
Hoya Macro Kit on Amazon
So, what is it exactly? It’s a set of three little filter things that you can screw on to your lens either one at a time or stacked. Each one is basically a magnifying glass of a specific strength. So it both magnifies the image you see through the lens as well as allowing you to focus much closer to the lens. Basically, it lets you get super macro closeups. As with any macro shot, the depth of field you’ll get is microscopic, although my impression was it’s even more drastic with these filters. Also, at least in my opinion, as you move away from the focal point, it doesn’t really degrade nicely. It gets kind of foggy looking and weird. Again, maybe that’s just me. Also, another interesting thing I noticed is, as you move the magnifying filter further away from the sensor, the image gets very very foggy. So if you have a really long telephoto (like the one I usually use for macro shots), at the long end it’s basically worthless. If you have a shorter lens (like my 28-300, or a prime), it looks great. I realize I’m not doing a great job of describing this stuff, it’s one of those things you just have to play around with to get a feel for. And since they’re so CHEAP (you can pick them up for 25 bucks or so!) there’s *absolutely no reason* not to.
My next experiment, which will be getting here in a day or two, is a reverse-mount attachment. Basically, it attaches to the front of your lens like a filter, but it then allows you to attach the lens to your camera backwards. Sounds really weird, right? But it works! (I think.) I was playing around a bit last night with just holding the lens to the camera body backwards, and I was shocked by how close in I could get. I was using my kit lens, which is an 18-55, and it was pretty cool. (Everything about it is backwards: the more telephoto your lens is, the further out you’ll be. So to get the CLOSEST in, use your most wide-angle lens. Weird, right?) I’ll let you all know how that goes. Those things cost about 12 bucks. Here’s one on Amazon:
Reverse lens mount on Amazon
In other news, this picture is actually the 1000th picture in Rate Dave’s Photos! I know, right?! Go click on that link and show it some love!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-300 mm lens with Hoya Macro Kit. 1/500s, f/8.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 300mm.
Popularity: 7%