good stuff, macro is almost as much fun as telephoto.

Scotty88 said...

Why is it called macro when it looks like it is veiwed with a microscope ?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrophotography

What is the lens and camera, awesome shots

No business being on your chilli plants!

Noice pics too

FlySurfer said...

rod_bunny said...

No business being on your chilli plants!

Yeah, I'm trying to get rid of them naturally... it's kind of an experiment, not having much luck though.

Lizards, Spiders, Mantis and Wasps do a pretty lack lustre job of pest control (haven't found any Ladybugs to help out).

Wasps are the most effective, but they only help out with tall plants.

Try some Chilli spray. Boil up some chillis in water and add a bit of olive oil, spray on plants when cool.

FlySurfer said...

rod_bunny said...

No business being on your chilli plants!

Yeah, I'm trying to get rid of them naturally... it's kind of an experiment, not having much luck though.

Lizards, Spiders, Mantis and Wasps do a pretty lack lustre job of pest control (haven't found any Ladybugs to help out).

Wasps are the most effective, but they only help out with tall plants.

Spray them with water, lots of water. Use a fine mist spray bottle and really bomb it on. See how you go

How did you light your first two fly shots? Looks like you used a big apeture on the red eyes & mantis, but the first two shots have really good depth of field.

whatthe said...

How did you light your first two fly shots? Looks like you used a big apeture on the red eyes & mantis, but the first two shots have really good depth of field.

Dead Fly shots where 3 images focus stacked f/11 with no lighting, ISO was quite high (3200-6400) and they were quite noisy... I had to clean them up a little in Lightroom, and lost some detail.

Fly face: f/5, ISO 400, 1/30... it was in doors.
Aphids: f/13, ISO 1600, 1/15
Mantis: f/10, ISO 800, 1/30
I keep forgetting to disable auto ISO

It's really hard getting everything in focus outside... what seems like no wind, actually moves things + the bugs move.

And focus stacking living bugs outside is neigh on impossible their antennas move, legs move, they move, the plant moves.
I still haven't got my technique nailed... these were just my first attempts.

d1 said...
Just wondering - have you tried using this nice piece of L glass for portraiture? Looks like it might work well in this role, if the bokeh is soft enough...

Bokehlicious, but a bit too tele on a crop sensor... my preferred portrait focal length on the APS-C is 50mm (FF 80mm) @ f2.

I really like the 100mm L, I borrowed 1 from work 2 weeks ago, then bought my own.

On Amazon it's the 2nd top rated lens, after also my favourite the 70-200mm IS II... http://www.amazon.com/gp/top-rated/photo/562261011/

FlySurfer said...

doggie said...
Spray them with water, lots of water. Use a fine mist spray bottle and really bomb it on. See how you go

There are a number of ways to rid the plant of Aphids, I'm looking for a completely natural way... ie I don't get involved, no spraying, nada.

The idea is to plant and forget... mono-crops need lots of pesticide... I tried planting Lantana with Chillis.

Chilli spray is quite an effective deterrent... like Pepper spray ... but again u need to spray regularly.
Milk is supposed to work... but I don't have cows spraying.

The tricky thing is some plants have Aphids, some have mysterious holes (caterpiller, slug), and some are completely healthy and they're all next to each other.
Next season I'm going to try decoy plants (Nasturtium).

Get yo'self some some Ladybugs, they'll clean up the Aphids - plant a few plants that lure the ladybugs or buy some (and plant a couple of 'home' plants for them - google is your friend) and lay off the pesticides as you've mentioned.

Nice pics too!

Neat. Is that the eye of the moth in the previous photo?

Great snaps FS , was that last one some kind of mozzie ?

The newly weds were tinny ~1-2mm

Took this a while ago with my Fuji S5700, not bad for a $200 camera.