Bee and Flower

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Umm. Wow. Been awhile, huh? Well, here’s one to hold you over until I decide to start blogging again.

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Yellow Rose

Monday, July 18, 2011

Man, I really thought I had already posted this picture before, but my rudimentary method for keeping track of this stuff suggests that I haven’t. So, maybe it’s a re-post, maybe not. Doesn’t really matter, I’m sure even if it is, you don’t remember it from last time. In fact, I could probably replay the first 250 pictures that I posted and nobody would say a thing. Perhaps I’ll do that someday. But not today. No sir, this is not that day.

This is a rose. It’s yellow. Thus, the title of the post. I took it on a cloudy day last year, in the rose garden at Woodland Park. I’ve found that cloudy days work a lot better for rose pictures than sunny days, because you get a truer representation of the color than when you’ve got bright sunshine everywhere. It can be a bit challenging because of the lack of light, but it can make for some nice shots.

This one was taken with my Minolta-mount Kiron 105 macro that I found on eBay. If you’re the kind of person that likes to scour eBay for old lenses, I *highly* recommend trying to track one of these guys down. I’m always amazed at how nice the shots come out of this guy. It’s been awhile since I’ve busted it out, probably since around the time I took this picture. Man, I gotta get on that.

Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Kiron 105mm macro (Minolta mount). 1/160s, ISO 200. Aperture unknown.

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Ladybug

Friday, June 24, 2011

http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2533

So, here’s a ladybug. I used my Tamron 90mm macro lens that I picked up used at Glazer’s a year or two ago. The more I use it, the more I’m convinced that it doesn’t result in quite as nice of images as my Minolta-mount Kiron 105 that I got on Ebay. But, it’s a heck of a lot easier to use. That’s because it’s actually a modern, electronic lens that is designed for working with a Canon body, as opposed to an old, physically actuated lens that was designed for a mount that I’m not even sure they make anymore. The reason that makes a difference in usability primarily comes down to the aperture. With modern lenses, the aperture is held wide open as you’re focusing and composing, then it’s closed down to the desired size when you hit the shutter button. The minolta-mount lens has the same idea, but it’s done physically – meaning there’s a little spring-loaded rod in the mount that, when moved to the side, holds open the aperture. When you hit the shutter button on a camera that uses that mount, it then moves something out of the way that was previously holding that rod in place, thus the spring that I mentioned then closes down the aperture. But obviously, a modern Canon-mount camera doesn’t support that.

So, the upshot of all that is that when you’re using the Kiron lens, you have to close down the aperture before taking the shot. Which means that you’re restricting the amount of light that you have to focus with, sometimes severely so. And, to make matters worse, you’re enlarging your depth of field at the same time. So it becomes extremely difficult to tell if you’re focused on just the spot you want, particularly so when you’re taking macro shots, where being off by a millimeter or less can ruin the shot. Yeah, it’s hard. So, that’s what I mean when I say the Tamron is easier to use, because you can use the wide open aperture to focus, and it’ll automatically step down when you take the shot. But the images aren’t as nice. So it goes.

Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 90mm macro lens with Opteka extension tube and Phoenix macro ring flash. 1/160s, f/16, ISO 100.

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Bee and Poppy

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2515

Well hello there, folks. Looks like Tuesday never happened, huh? That’s too bad. This is the picture I was planning to post, before the day just kind of got away from me. Remember on Monday how I was talking about taking pictures of bugs that were flying? Yeah, turns out it’s hard.

The focus is really the hardest part. I mean, sure, you could just zoom way out and all that. But (in case you didn’t notice) I have a bit of a macro obsession. I want to get in close. I want to be able to see the little hairs on the bug’s body. I want to see the romantic bits of flowers. Actually, that’s jumping ahead a little bit. But since it’s done, I’ll go ahead and mention that: I figured the only way it would be even kind of possible is by hanging out near flowers. That is, hanging out near places where there’s a good chance they’ll be landing and/or taking off. Then you can at least try to just focus on the flower, and then be quick on the shutter when a bug flies by. There’s still a good chance that the focus will be a bit too close or far, but then you at least stand a chance. But it’s still tough, because bees like to go to where there are hundreds of flowers. Meaning, if you decide to just focus in on one in particular, you’ll probably be sitting there all day while they land on every single flower there except for the one you’re focused on. It’s annoying.

So, I compromised a bit. I didn’t get in as close as I’d like to, because then it would have been just plain impossible. I zoomed out a bit, and then I just took lots and lots of frames. And then a couple of them turned out okay. It was also annoying that the sun which I had been counting on disappeared behind the clouds as soon as I went outside. Meaning, I had to crank the ISO a bit in order to keep the shutter speeds fast enough. (That’s another problem. Those suckers are MOVING – so if you’re using anything less than like 1/1000s, you’ll get motion blur.)

So, right. It’s hard. Here ya go.

Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. 1/1250s, f/5.0, ISO 400. Focal length: duh, 90mm.

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Ant on Lupine

Friday, June 10, 2011

http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1733

Hey, lookie here, this is the 5th post this week! I actually did it – I actually posted one picture here per day on, umm, the picture of the day. I think I deserve a pretty serious pat on the back for that one. Also, I’ll probably over-compensate now by not posting anything else for a month and a half. Hmm.

These are lupine flowers. You see them a bunch up in the mountains here in Washington. That’s an ant. You see them a bunch just about everywhere in the world I’ve ever been. Okay, that’s all I’ve got.

Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm VC lens. 1/200s, f/6.3, ISO 200. Focal length: 300mm.

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Spider

Monday, June 6, 2011

http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2020

Just a quick post today to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about you all. I mean, I almost forgot about you all. But I kind of just barely remembered you when I was grabbing a cup of coffee. So in some respects I *did* forget about you all, just… not permanently. But don’t worry! I still love you all! As much as I ever loved you all. Which I guess means that I still … umm … don’t actively dislike you all. Umm… here’s a spider.

Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 90mm macro lens with Phoenix macro ring flash. 1/160s, f/20.0, ISO 100.

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Bee and Flower

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1961

Let’s go with this one today. It’s (yet another) bee with (yet another) flower. But it’s Wednesday, and this makes me 3 for 3. I think these are lavender flowers or something? Hmm, whatever, not important. They’re nice enough to look at.

Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. 1/200s, f/5.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 90mm.

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Pink Flower

Thursday, May 12, 2011

http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2326

Hey, I’m back! Sorry I missed the past couple days, I was out of town for work. Here’s a flower to make up for it. As usual, I don’t know what type of flower it is, anybody got any suggestions? I feel bad because I haven’t yet worked up the motivation to go out and take any flower or bug pictures yet this spring. There are definitely things blooming, I just haven’t felt like taking any pictures, kind of sad really. We’ll see if that changes anytime soon I guess.

Also, I can’t remember what lens I took this with. I’m fairly sure I used my old (Minolta mount) Kiron 105mm macro. The EXIF data (which I usually use to remind myself what I used) claims a focal length of 50mm and f/1.4. I’m pretty sure that’s what my camera tosses in there by default if you’re using a lens that doesn’t communicate that kind of information, and that’s the only lens I have that doesn’t communicate that information, so I think it’s a pretty good guess. But I’m still not sure. (And, to be fair, that’s also the result I’d get if I either used extension tubes or my reverse-mount, so it’s not quite as much of a slam dunk as I made it sound.. But if I was using either the tubes or the reverse mount, I’d be quite a bit closer in.. so…

Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Kiron 105mm macro (I think). 1/160s, aperture unknown, focal length unknown. ISO 100.

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Bee and Flowers

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2013

Don’t worry, I’ll inundate you guys soon with a bunch of Hawaii pictures, it’s definitely coming. In the meantime though, I’m just going to toss out a few more shots from the archive. Like this one. And no, this one isn’t from this year. I haven’t yet started going outside to take bug pictures this year, I think it’s still a bit too cold for them (the bugs, not the pictures), and besides, the flowers haven’t really started blooming yet. (Although some of the trees have…)

Obviously, I used a flash in this picture. The fact that it’s so obvious is actually one thing I don’t really like about it. The bee’s “skin” was just too reflective, so I got that crazy shine. I mean, in some ways it’s neat, because you can really see all the little grains of pollen stuck to his head, but using artificial light like that almost feels like cheating. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll get over it.

In other news, I believe the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival has started. Meaning, I’m pretty sure it officially goes from basically the beginning of to the end of April. I haven’t actually put any effort in to see if any tulips are actually blooming yet (although there are some daffodils blooming locally, so those are probably in full effect up there), but it’s probably time to start looking for a nice weekend day to head up there. If you’re a photographer, and you’re at least somewhat in the area (BC counts!) it’s totally worth checking out, you can have a lot of fun playing around with lots of different theme ideas. I’m tentatively planning on making it up there sooner or later, so maybe I’ll see you up there?

Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro lens. 1/160s, f/16.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 90mm.

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Rose

Friday, March 11, 2011

http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1590

Wow, busy week, what can I say? Here’s a shot of a rose, in just under the wire on Friday.

Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Kiron 105mm Macro lens. 1/250s, aperture unknown, ISO 200.

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