My No.1 Rule
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If you pass something more than once and it continues to catch your eye take a photograph. There is something there and as a photographer the job is to show an audience what it is.
Forked
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This photograph was born of an idea to try something influenced by Busby Berkeley’s amazing cinema choreography (worth a look up on You Tube). Inspiration is a wonderful thing.
Patina of a Medal (Two Photographs)
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The medal here is from 1918 Union of Former Soldiers founded by President Clemenceau. I picked it up years ago in a flea market. Close-up it’s just another abstract.
Spooky Button (Two Photographs)
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As I was on sewing theme I thought about buttons and came across this one. With motorized focus stacking you have a choice to mount the apparatus horizontally or vertically, a change that requires rebuilding the stage (another hour or so in the process). I did this one both ways, with vertical being the winner. Vertical stages are more prone to shake, a passing truck can make the difference. There’s a way to compensate but it adds time and exposures to the stack.
Spool of Thread (Two Photographs)b
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This was an exercise in trying to figure out what caused the colour shift. It has not occurred with any other focus stack. I took this one twice with different exposures, checking the colour style in camera only to have the same issue. Not that I don’t like the result its just nice to know how it got there.
Thimbles (Three Photographs)
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Thimbles turned out to be quite interesting especially with all the wear and tear. These are easily 40 years old and have seen a lot of use. I will be coming back to these for some different angles. By the way each of the close up photos takes over an hour to shoot and sometimes more. Getting the exposure right, setting up the focus stack, building the stage for the thimble to stand on etc. etc. and then the processing of 40-100 shots depending on depth wanted can add another hour.
Thread (Two Photographs)
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Thread is made up of smaller and smaller strands making for interesting compositions, with the caveat that close up there can also be a lot of fuzz.
A Screwdriver (Two Photographs)
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With extreme macros it’s unlikely that your audience will be able to guess the subject, all they see is your composition. So I have made it easy, this is a close-up of the wooden portion of the screwdriver shown below.
Not a meteor
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Actually it’s the head of match. I’d have lit it but was worried about my gear, instead I went for dramatic lighting.
More Pop Art
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I am still working at perfecting my 5x life macro skills, and of course flat objects are easier than objects with depth that require focus stacking. These are from some tea packaging and a Kleenex box.
Not Graffiti (Two Photographs)
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The designs on most coloured cardboard packaging like Kleenex boxes are dot matrix, up close it’s just dots and ink bleeds. I thought it would make good modern abstract art.
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Wood (Two Photographs)
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This is a continuation of my work at 5:1 (at that magnification light and sharpness are a challenge). The first photo is of a pencil shaving and the second is of a scratch in a wooden spatula.
Abstract Macro (Three Photographs)
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At a magnification of 5x on a cropped sensor many things look abstract. The Jackson Pollack type abstract is attractive. But with macro at this level you almost always have to tell your audience what they are seeing. In order: toilet paper, paper towel, Kleenex.
Colour Bubbles No.3
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I have seen better photos of a space station but this seems to have come close. I was shooting against a black background, so the colour is entirely due to the soap.
Bubble Cheat
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I found a way to avoid most of the fuss and bother with bubbles. Using a macro lens, and a bottle of dish soap shaken not stirred, I got some interesting bubble photos. If I had removed the label I might have been able to avoid the use of a macro lens.
Colour Bubbles No.2
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When the bubbles break up there can be some spillage, I used plastic petri dishes with the lid under the main dish but I still had some splash over.
Black and White Bubbles No. 2
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When photographing bubbles, the colours are sometimes a little strange, however bubbles make nice black and white photos. I used flash in all of this week’s bubble shots, and while not a studio flash head, the Godox 200 (200watts) was just enough power for the work. I know others use 300 and 400 watts of power or very bright window light.
Black and white Bubbles Bubbles No.1
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This a shot of some former bubbles and their remains.
PPAH (Pandemic Photography at Home)
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On YouTube there are several do it at home photography projects. Some interesting, some not so much. This week I am looking at bubbles. Six parts water, two parts glycerine, two parts dish soap and a straw. Messy and frustrating. You wait for the colour to emerge, hope the bubbles don’t burst before you shoot and depth of field is a devil. Hint: No.1: When working with bubble photography, the longer the bubble lasts the more colour.
Reflection No.1 (Two photographs)
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Normally when I talk about reflections it’s about a bird on the water, but it’s a bit too cold for that now. So a scotch tasting glass made for an interesting subject. Even alone the glass looked great, but stacked on top of another similar glass you would think that a mirror was causing the effect.
Putting Things Together (Two Photographs)
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The pandemic has lead my wife and I to do some table-top photography with flash. It’s been a long time since I have so I am relearning old skills, putting it all together so to speak. See the second photo.
Beetle with Flower
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I say beetle with flower but it could just easily be flower with beetle. Moreover a close look at the flower appears to show some strange looking faces looking back at you (or so it seems to me). Combined it’s an odd but interesting combination that breaks a few of my photographic guidelines but still has potential to create some interest.
Needles and Chilis To Beat the Pandemic Boredom (Two Photographs)b
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My efforts at true macro continue, finding subjects to photograph can be challenging. I began by pinning the chili to cork so it was held in mid air. After several hours of fiddling with lights I got a shot of the chili, and then more time was spent in Photoshop erasing the pins and learning more about how to fix backgrounds. The needle also took the larger part of the day. I have great close up vision but had a hard time seeing the hole in the needle to centre it on the camera. Both of these photographs are efforts at learning what works and doesn’t in true macro. It’s early days.
How much magnification? (Two Photographs)
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I am told that to get to 10x life size, a microscope and loan from the Government is required. 3-5x life size is a fairly good extreme to begin with. My bellows with a 50mm enlarger lens, and a 24mm extension tube can manage about 4:1. To get some context, here are details of Canadian and US dimes. Specifically the Queen’s profile and Roosevelt’s ear.
