Macro Photography

Went out with friends to explore the world of macro photography at the Botanical Gardens. A friend of mine (Sam) lent me his Sigma 105mm macro because I didn't have any real macro lens of my own and frankly never did macro photography. Thank you Sam, you are a generous man.

I had previously posted here result of a little macro (micro in Nikon's language) photography experiment where a 85mm prime is coupled with a 50mm prime back to front. The magnification power of that set up is approaching microscopic level (about 2.65cm diagonally in FX format). That is more than 50% more powerful than the 105mm macro lens.


Taking a macro photo of the face of a watch which is rather flat is one thing, taking a macro photo of a flower or insect is a different matter altogether, I very quickly realised.

Trying to shoot such as bees and ants, I found it extremely difficult to focus and maintain that focus handheld. Eventually, I gave up automatic focus and went manual. Using rocking motion of the body to bring the subject into focus. Boy, I felt like I was drunk! Because the depth of field was so narrow, I keep winding the aperture number up until it went all the way to f/22 (hence the dust spots) and background details.

Thanks to another friend, Bronson, a great photographer by the way, for the many tips, I think I will do better next time. Must try to catch a bee in flight!

Anyway, for the time being, this is what I have. Enjoy. :)




PS The first pic is not a macro photo, just one that is shot with a macro lens. I hear macro lens can be good for portrait, etc as well. So here you go. :)

PS Sorry, I didn't bother to remove dust spots from the pics. If you know the name of the insect on the leaf in the second pic, appreciate if you would leave a comment and let me know. Thanks a lot!

Multiple Exposures

Today is a very windy day.. even our little indoor flower is swaying in the wind.. Haha, not quite. It is a solar powered flower pot I got my wife from Malaysia originally intended for her office. You can just see the solar cell in the middle.

Taken using the built-in mutliple exposures feature of my camera. It is so much fun! Gain was set to auto.

Haven't played with custom time interval yet.. sure to be the next to explore.

Here is a single exposure. I was so lazy I didn't keep the flower from swaying before getting another frame. Thank God that the shutter speed was fast enough to freeze it. The center of the flower (stamen, pistil, etc) looks so much like the yolk of an egg. :)

It reads (on the base), "Flip Flap is a cute flower bud which moves by light. Please grow your Flip Flap in your mind and bloom your own special flower." LOL


Solar Powered Flip Flap Flower Flowerpot -Sourcingmap.com - Watch a funny movie here

More flowers

I am fustrated! Couldn't quite get the colour of the rose pedals correctly with white balance. This is about the best I can do (so far). It is exactly the same flower as the ones here so you can tell my previous attempt was pretty mediocre. :(

So fustrated, I decided to shoot other flowers, even weeds! >_<

Flowers around the house

For someone who knows so little about gardening and spent so little time taking care of the garden, I am incredibly fortunate to have some very nice flowers around the house. These little flowers look like cherry blossoms to me but they are not. They are flowers from peach tree so may be I will call them apricot blossoms. I love the bokeh in these pics. :)

Someone once said to me that rose is a weed. I don't believe that is true but the classic rose bushes in my house are so hardy they are tougher than weeds. Awesome and beautiful! The flowers are large (as big as my fists put together) with very strong thorny stems. Their thorns are big and sharp too. Thank God for my Ansell Super Gloves (suede pigskin leather palmed gloves). I can confidentally grab hold of the stems without fear. They have served me for many years and have barely shown signs of wear. So good, I bought a new pair a couple of years back and they are still sitting in the cupboard waiting to be used... :)

Stretching the truth a little bit because the flowers below are not in my garden. They are not even in my house. They are flowers my mum received for her birthday thus they are in my parents' house.