Signs of Spring

[flar]

Last week I was back home in Southwestern Ontario enjoying some early spring weather. A welcome change from all the snow and cold and a chance to really try out some macro photography.

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[glowrock]

Amazing insect shots, flar! I must say, it's somehow comforting to see that macro photography literally makes it impossible to capture the entire frame in perfect focus because of the extraordinarly shallow depth of field, though. Makes my photos seem a bit better than I thought they were!

Back to your photos, how the heck did you manage to not bother the bee while photographing it? Do you have extension tubes to let you stay a bit further back from the subject than is otherwise possible?

Aaron (Glowrock)

[flar]

The bees didn't pay any attention to me at all, and the lens was only a couple inches away. Extension tubes do just the opposite of what you say: they let you focus closer. Put another way, they make the lens's minimum focus distance shorter, and thus your working distance shorter. I used extension tubes for some of the insects because my 90mm macro lens only lets me get to 1:2 (half life size). With an extension tube I can focus closer and get life size or more with that lens (all except four of these shots were taken with my 90mm macro).

To get a longer working distance, you need a longer lens. A lot of insect photographers use 150 or 200mm lenses so they can be a couple feet away and still fill the frame without scaring the bugs.

As for depth of field, it becomes very shallow in macro photography. An eighth of an inch can make a big difference. It can be quite a challenge and I'm still a beginner at this type of photography. I hope to work on it some more in a few weeks or so when Ottawa finally has flowers and insects.

[toyota74]

Ahh springtime,,,nice one.

[flar]

I put some more description of how I took the insect shots on my website:
http://blog.metroperspectives.com/20...hy-with-flash/

[sonysnob]

great shots! It's nice to see some colour returning to the world again.

[arkitekte]

Nice photos. I've been out taking photos of all of the flowers and new life. I wish I had a macro lens though.

[bulliver]

Those bees covered in pollen are great. I am jealous of the weather. Our snow was as much as gone until we got a fresh 10cm dump on Thursday. No spring for us yet.

[flar]

We're still nowhere near this far along in Ottawa either, we're about a month behind southern Ontario.

[toyota74]

Thats a great macro tut. I have to say...clear and simple,sometimes when im learning off the net if the tuts aren't step by step I get a bit lost.The flash visual helps big time.