Category: Macro/Closeup

Day 86 – Viola Tricolor

Viola

My mom always called these Johnny Jump-ups. I can see why they are called that as I had a pot full of pansies last year and these came up volunteer all over my yard this year. I never had the heart to pull them up but they are getting pretty scraggly so I decided to make a little bouquet of the flowers that were left and take them out. Then of course I had to photograph it. This one needed a little exposure adjustment. I added a high pass filter and toned down the saturation just a little. Shot with the 22mm macro on the M3.

Day 85 – Echinacea

Echinacea

I’m liking this Macro workshop. I do my homework in the afternoon and then I have something to post the next morning. Yesterday’s lesson was on a technique called free lensing, which basically means taking the lens off your camera and turning it around and holding onto it while you shoot. You loose all the automatic controls so you just have to find your focus by moving back and forth. Out of about 30 shots this was the only one that turned out. I had stopped by Home Depot since it was on my path yesterday and picked up a couple of new plants to play with including this fresh echinacea since the ones in my garden have about given up the ghost. I used the M3 with it’s 22 mm macro lens but you can do this with any lens to get more magnification…not sure about the zooms. But, it’s all about experimentation. In post I added a high pass filter and a lightroom preset that helped to brighten up the colors.

Day 84 – Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum

I’ve got a crazy busy day today so I wanted to post something first thing this morning so I don’t forget. I shot this one yesterday afternoon when I was experimenting with the 28mm macro lens I have for the M3. I would like it better if the center was just a little sharper but I really love all the crazy blur and bokah on the left. I had to do a lot of spot healing on the flower which I think has some ash residue making for a lot of white spots. I didn’t get them all but I got most of them. Then I added a high pass filter and that’s all.

Day 82 – Zinnia

Zinnia

I stopped by North Mountain park again today. It is a little surprising how much things change from week to week. The Morning Glories and Sunflowers are starting to fade but the Zinnia’s and Marigolds are still going strong. The milkweed pods are also bursting forth. They are fun to photograph but are not a flower so you won’t get to see them here. For this one I decided to get out the big girl camera for a change. Shot with the Canon 7D  and a 180mm macro lens on a tripod. Once again I tweaked the exposure, added a high pass filter and a texture. This was another one where I thought, “Oh, it doesn’t need a texture” but once I got it on there and did the eye Dr. test (No. 1 or No. 2) I had to go with number 2.

Day 78 – Sunflower

Sunflower

I found this boquet of Sunflowers at Fred Meyer this morning. They were a bit past prime but only $5.00 for the bunch so I decided to take them home a play in the studio. It is kind of nice to be able to photograph without wind or bees in the wrong place or sunflowers that are taller than me. This one was shot with the M3 and one of the lensbabies… the Sweet 50 I think. I used both and forgot to make a note of when I switched. On this one I opened the shadows and added a high pass filter and a texture. I think there was one spot that needed healing as well.

Day 76 – Echinacea

Echinecea

For today I decided to go back into the files to see if there were any worthy images that got passed over. I found this one from early August in North Mountain Park. The cone flowers are so photogenic when they are at peak. Right now they are all looking pretty bedraggled. This was shot with one of the Lensbaby lenses on the 7D. I just added a high pass filter and touched up some pollen with the spot healing brush. I tried a couple of filters but finally decided this one stands well on it’s own.

Day 74 – Marigold

Marigold

It’s a good thing I got lots of good pictures at  North Mountain Park yesterday because my life just got crazy busy, at least if feels that way after little or no activity since I got back from vacation. But I shall persevere and carry the camera around in case I see any interesting flowers.  This one was also shot with the Sol45 on the M3. High pass filter and one texture added.

Day 73 – Cosmo with Bee

CosmowBee

The thing about these Lensbaby lenses I’ve been using is it is really, really hard to find that sweet spot of focus and you have to try several shots and hope you got one right. But when you nail it, as I did (completely by accident) on this image it is almost jaw droppingly sharp. And the bee showed up at just the right time too. This was taken at North Mountain Park with the Sol 45 on the Canon M3. I added a high pass filter and a texture in post processing.