Anybody into macro / nature photography? (pictures)

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 3:28 pm

Here's some of my stuff...

Zea mays ssp. mays (Maize)

Lamium purpureum (Purple Deadnettle)

Nelumbo nucifera (Sacred Lotus)

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 4:15 pm

Do you have any super clear 1600x1200 shots you could share? I need some new backgrounds at work.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 4:25 pm

Well, without doing too much digging on my hard drive, here's a nice 1600x1200 lotus leaf with water droplets...

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/4167 ... 6001ya.jpg

I'll look through some files, see what else I can come up with.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 4:49 pm

Nice...

Are you taking these using a traditional set up, or digital?

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 6:50 pm

Digital...just an old Canon 3 megapixel, with a persnickety home-built macro attachment.

A few more 1600x1200 shots...

Ebony Jewelwing damselfly:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/9667 ... 6004hc.jpg

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail feeding on tall ironweed:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/2857 ... 6004no.jpg

Goldenrod Crab Spider perched on a purple coneflower:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/2690 ... 6007km.jpg

Lithops helmutii, a rock-mimic succulent from south Africa:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/4210 ... 6009qk.jpg

JigsawMan · Post by **JigsawMan** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 7:25 pm

Accutron wrote:Here's some of my stuff...

Excellent shots! I have been dabbling with macro for a little while. It's way way harder than I figured it would be as depth of field is just so small.

Here's a couple from a month or two ago from when I went to Italy. Shot with my trusty Canon 20D and 100mm f2.8 macro. Images have been downsized to make viewing a little easier.

Those pesky wasps were a nightmare to photograph as they just moved so quick. I must have taken a hundred pics and only five of them were decent enough - but hey, I had fun doing it so it doesn't matter.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 9:12 pm

Those pics are fantastic...way better than mine

BTW, they're European paper wasps, Polistes dominulus. Invasive in the US, and fairly aggressive for a paper wasp.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 10:27 pm

Man, those are nice. I need to go walking around and take some pictures. I only have two right now w/ my new Canon IXY. A spider, in his web, but the light isn't right and it's mainly a sillouhette. The other is some cigarette butts in an ash tray.

7.1 Megapixel camera, so they are in stupid high resolution 3000+x something.

Post by **Icarus** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:05 pm

Good stuff. Macro photography is fascinating to look at, and reminds me of a little known branch of digital artistry called "scanography". Having a good camera is definitely a must for dabbling in macro, as you can capture more detail.

Sadly my digicam is only a 3.2megapixel, otherwise I'd be taking some snaps myself (not that there's much to look at in the UK) -_-

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 1:13 am

Thanks Accutron.

Samudra · Post by **Samudra** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 7:05 pm

Accutron wrote:Digital...just an old Canon 3 megapixel, with a persnickety home-built macro attachment.

A few more 1600x1200 shots...

Ebony Jewelwing damselfly:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/9667 ... 6004hc.jpg

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail feeding on tall ironweed:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/2857 ... 6004no.jpg

Goldenrod Crab Spider perched on a purple coneflower:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/2690 ... 6007km.jpg

Lithops helmutii, a rock-mimic succulent from south Africa:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/4210 ... 6009qk.jpg

Thanks for sharing!

I love insects and those are kinds not living in the part of the world I live in.

JigsawMan · Post by **JigsawMan** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 8:55 pm

Here's a bigger one of the paper wasp.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ferris/waspbig2512.jpg

I'd love to get my hands on a full frame Canon 5D, but that's just too much money for me. Maybe after a couple more years I'll have enough saved up for its successor.

Finding Macro things to take pictures of in the UK is a nightmare. I can never seem to find much in the way of wildlife and when I do its just way to windy and the wildlife gets blown about too much and won;t stay still for me to take pictures of. Pictures of dead stuff is gross so I can't do that either.

Anyone got any another macro photo ideas?

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 9:44 pm

If I were in the UK taking macros, I'd be getting pics of isopods (woodlice, pillbugs, sowbugs). The UK is terrestrial isopod heaven, and they're one of my main biological interests.

Samudra · Post by **Samudra** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:00 pm

May I ask if your occupation/study is related to this interest in lifeforms or is this simply a hobby?

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:54 pm

I'm an artist. Logos, fonts, 3D, typesetting etc., but I'm formally educated as a biologist. My main areas of study are arthropods (Isopoda and Hymenoptera mostly) and grain domestication. My wife is also a biologist (freshwater ecology). Nature photography is just a hobby that sort of crosses my fields of interest. It started with me needing a way to get magnified flower and seed photos, and a friend showed me how to rig up a macro lens to my old Canon.

Zweihander · Post by **Zweihander** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:58 am

You guys should seriously seek careers for National geographic or something. O_O

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:17 pm

Really nice work, Accutron.

PFG 9000 · Post by **PFG 9000** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 2:49 pm

Hey, those are really nice! I have a few along the same line, but I won't be able to post them until next week. How do you guys get such close-up shots without everything going all blurry? I know next to nothing about photography, but my digital camera makes it somewhat difficult to take close-ups that are so....close up.

Even with the Macro feature turned on.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 2:56 pm

My Canon has a macro mode, but it only works from at least 10-12" away from the subject, and at no more than about 2/3 maximum zoom. The trick to using a crappy built-in macro mode with autofocus is to make sure that the camera is focusing on the subject, not on something larger in the background. It's usually pretty hit-or-miss for me, so I'll take several shots in the hope that at least some come out non-blurry. To get super closeup like the corn pic I took, I have to attach a little home-made rig to the camera, made from a telescope lens.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 11:02 pm

This is a big ass moth that flew into my garage last week. It planted itself on a plug, plugged into the ceiling. It was there the next morning so I decided to snap a picture of it standing on the running board of my car. Didn't turn out too bad for using 1 hand held at about 9-10 feet in the air standing on a car

Doesn't hold a candle to the previous pictures, but a cool looking moth none the less.

1600x1200:
http://home.comcast.net/~landshark9/Garage_Moth.jpg

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 11:42 pm

landshark wrote:This is a big ass moth that flew into my garage last week.

That's a White-lined Sphinx, Hyles lineata. Here's one we have around this area, the Virginia-creeper Sphinx:

mrMagenta · Post by **mrMagenta** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:10 am

that´s a really cool moth. wonder what privilige it gets from that wing shape.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:35 am

Sphinx moths can hover in place, feeding from trumpet-shaped flowers, and are often mistaken for hummingbirds.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:05 am

Accutron wrote:
landshark wrote:This is a big ass moth that flew into my garage last week.
That's a White-lined Sphinx, Hyles lineata. Here's one we have around this area, the Virginia-creeper Sphinx:

Sweet! You know the name of it? Now I can rename the photo

Thanks!

I occasionally get some interesting insects in my garage when I'm working late on my car (trouble light and garage light are the only sources). If I spot anymore I'll grab some more photos.

Lots of weird spiders in Indiana too. If I can remember my camera...

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:52 am

Reminds me of Mothra

PFG 9000 · Post by **PFG 9000** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:59 pm

Wow, these look far better on the camera display. There were a few I wanted to post here, but they look fairly blurry on the computer screen.

Okay, so this isn't exactly nature...it's a drop of milk that spilled on the counter one day. It splashed so perfectly, I had to take a picture.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 10:01 pm

I really like this thread.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:06 am

PFG 9000 wrote:Wow, these look far better on the camera display. There were a few I wanted to post here, but they look fairly blurry on the computer screen.

Cool pics. The dragonfly is probably in the genus Libellula, but I don't recognize the species. That beetle is strange...looks kinda like a milkweed leaf beetle, but the color is all wrong.

I found this pic the other day...Echinacea paradoxa, from my garden, summer 2004.

and a 1600x1200...

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/6020/e ... 6006ek.jpg

Also found these, some fossil pics...

Flexicalymene meeki, an enrolling trilobite from Ohio, late Ordovician period (~450 Mya):

Stem fragments of Cincinnaticrinus, a late Ordovician crinoid:

Stefan_L · Post by **Stefan_L** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:28 pm

I use an Minolta Dimage 7i... it don't really have an good macro function, the closest i can get with the camera is 15cm so using the zoom is a must when trying to do macrophoto.

Samudra · Post by **Samudra** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:57 pm

Those are beautiful Stefan! I like cats just as much as insects.

shmups.system11.org

Anybody into macro / nature photography? (pictures)

Anybody into macro / nature photography? (pictures)

Re: Anybody into macro / nature photography? (pictures)