Natural Light

I got in to a habit of using my flash and 2x teleconverter for macro photography, so I thought I'd remove both and go for some natural light (which I prefer - but it has its drawbacks).

Common Blue Butterfly
f/4



Ladybird
f/4



Not sure what this is!
f/4

Flash!

I've made more of an effort to do some macro photography of late, utilising an old 2x teleconverter (circa 1998!) and my flashgun (mounted off camera and diffused). The teleconverter allows up to around 2x magnification in macro terms, the flash helps with better shutter speeds and smaller apertures.

Annoyingly while doing this I have noticed that my camera's sensor is really dusty, to the extent I'm removing 20-30 specs in post processing.... rather tedious. Unfortunately it means sending to someone to get it cleaned professional which  = ££££

In any case, some recent favourites

Ladybird

Damselfly


Clematis


Pansy Petal


Flower Bug

Macro

Over the past couple of weeks I've been making more of an effort to use my macro lens, the weather has helped as has the abundance of subject matter.

All of these photos are naturally lit, getting back in to macro photography has reminded me that use of a mounted off camera flash is useful, so I will get that hooked back up again hopefully in time for my next trip out.

In an effort to get 'closer' to the subject, I attached an old 2x teleconverter to my macro lens. Essentially this means that instead of the 1:1 zoom (i.e. life size) magnification my lens is capable of, I could get 2:1 magnification (2x life size).

Not easy given that it was my first attempt, the light was poor and it was a little windy. But here is one of the few 'keepers'.

Mayfly

A Mayfly in some grass along the River Avon between Chippenham and Lacock in Wiltshire.

I can't even recall seeing a Mayfly before, but there were hundreds out yesterday. Pretty pleased I'd decided to take the macro lens out for the day, it also reminded me just how much I enjoy macro photography.

Bluebells

I always seem to struggle with white balance on bluebells, managed to rein it in a bit on this without making the image dull - but still a bit saturated.

Niece and Nephew

Sophie and James both happy to pose a bit for the camera this past weekend.

Sigma ART 35mm f/1.4

I recently invested in a 35mm lens, something I'd been looking at for some time. I like the idea of being restricted to that focal length due to the natural need to think more about compositions. We're hoping to visit New York in the not too distant future, and I wanted to be armed with a decent 'urban' lens for that trip too.

After a lot of reading and consideration I settled on the Sigma ART 35mm f/1.4. The first one went back, care of Sigma's usual poor quality control (focus issues as with a number of its lenses) but the second one is a lot better. Not perfect, but I'm willing to accept some inadequacies (minor focus issues, purple fringing at f/1.4 to name a couple) for its strengths.

It's quite a big lens, on camera it feels almost like a telephoto - but with such a wide aperture I guess that's what you'd expect.

Still learning how to use this lens properly, but here are a few recent captures.

I've always liked pylons, not sure why - this particular one taken at Lydiard Park in Swindon. The mono-conversion helps bring out the details and make for a more contrasted photo in my opinion.




Always a fan of macro work, though I've not done much of late - really impressed by the short minimum focus length on this lens.



Some bluebells at West Woods near Marlborough, Wiltshire.




Some more bluebells at West Woods - pretty annoyed I shot this wide open instead of using a smaller aperture to get more of the scene in focus - you live and learn.




My girlfriend Alex isn't the most willing model, so it was nice to get a pretty candid shot of her doing her make-up. The Sigma makes for a pretty good portrait lens too.