I went to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens after work today, to shoot with fellow forum member Muril Robertson. The 70-180 that I evaluated last night belongs to Muril. In addition to being a nice, generous person, he is an absolutely phenomenal photographer. I've only shot with him twice, and I've learned a ton. ;-) I used Patrick's 200 micro (got to give it back tomorrow. ). I was very impressed by the results. Here are some examples. All shot with the D2H / 200 f4 micro / SB-800. Thanks for looking in.
nice pics! I am trying to photograph more than just sports and motorcycle racing now to improve and am finding a new love for photography... thanks for sharing -brett
Wow, Frank, I think it's going to be hard for you to give Patrick that lens back! These shots are great! Virginia aka beaucamera P.S. Enjoyed your Macro lens series too!
Oh my gosh Frank! These are fantastic! I swear that mantis is waving or posing in the last photo! Yep, you are definitely macro material! Can't wait to see what you can do with the 180 macro. :shock:
Got a good reason to be impressed. Besides the 85PC, this is another lens on my wish list. But I'm very reluctant at the moment to buy new lenses - it's already hard enough now to make the right choices among my line-up when I plan an outing. However, the quality of these two optical gems is a sore trial :? Cheers
Holy micro those are nice, did you use a flash to take those? and do you happen to have taken pictures of flowers?
This is an excellent series! This weekend I will try my new acquired AF Micro 70-180 /4.5-5.6 at the Rotterdam Zoo but if I see this I can only be humble. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I did use flash on these (SB-800, mounted on the camera). While I like the results, they are nowhere in the ballpark of some of our more experienced macro shooters including Klaus, Martin, Harry, and others. I believe that they could be even better given this cam / lens combo with better technique on my part. For example, I'm not using mirror lock-up, and the flash is camera mounted which caused pretty bad flares in the eyes and from other reflective surfaces. Muril was shooting with a D70, and used the on-board flash in the commander mode to fire his SB-800. When comparing his shots to mine on the cam LCD's, his seemed to be better illuminated. He also used a technique that I don't understand, where the flash speed was the determining factor in the exposure time. This resulted in much, much higher effective shutter speeds, and significantly reduced the effects of camera shake. I need to do some research on how to do that. If I can learn these procedures, then I think that I will be able to get some pretty good shots with the new Tamron 180 that I hope to buy from fellow member Crystall Pearson. Still probably won't have the detail that can be achieved using a reversed lens, but should be acceptable. 8) Thanks again,
Stunning shots Frank. This will make you think about a 200mm micro of your own. Love the way this guy is checking out your lens.
Those are sweet shots, Frank....but what Patrick hasn't told you is that you are really using "MY" lens!!! lol ;-)
Good job, Frank. The technique you talk about is simple, the flash is the light source, so you can set the camera to manual, dial in your maximum flash sync shutter speed, choose your aperture and go. That's the old simple way. The complications come when we are trying to balance our flash exposure with some level (or effect) of fill and background lighting. As for my preferences, I tend to like a fill flash, or something less harsh than full-on front flash light. If I only have the flash, I will use the diffuser, or a small folding softbox attachment. I always shoot in rear-curtain sync. I learned from a very good animal photographer that when the flash goes off at the end of the exposure, the shutter is closed if the subject reacts to the flash. I use a bracket to get the flash up a little higher. That, with the softbox, get me a more natural lighting angle. The nice thing about digital, I can play with all these variations at my leisure and not have to wait for the film to come back.....how did we ever survive the old days????
Thanks Bay. I will give that a try this weekend. I still need some way of getting the flash off of the camera as you describe though, and I hate to use a cord. Just one more thing to snag. May be the best (at least cheapest) way though. Thanks again,
What a mean looking dude you got here! Amazing sharpness and the exposure is spot on! Regards, Jonathan
