Too Close, part 3

So why do I say it’s too close?

Well, at this magnification, the depth of field is really too small to get much in the way of usable shots with moving subjects (e.g. flowers,  under the influence of a gentle breeze).

With patience (and a tiny bit of something akin to a spray-and-pray-type approach to the craft), some beauty may be achieved, but it’s fleeting, and not quite what I’m after for general macro use.

That said, here are a couple of nice ones. Enjoy.

One more Too Close series post to go (for this round, anyway), and then I’ll be moving on to test my new Petzval lens from Lomography. InshaAllah, it will be fun times ahead, and look forward to some shots and maybe a review in the coming months (again, InshaAllah). Continue reading “Too Close, part 3”

Too Close, part 1: Hair Studies (2)

The mamiya/sekor 50mm is a wonderful lens, and it’s great for just about any macro situation, what with its excellent sharpness, luscious bokeh, and general ease of use. But I wanted to try something different for a bit…

Enter the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8, a wonderful lens in its own right, quite a nice angle of view (36mm on the crop sensor), and a great length for a walk-around lens. But how would it do for a walk-around macro lens?

The title of this series says it all…

First up: Hair. I got a few hairs in focus, and the softness is there, but there is a bit of harshness to the bokeh that is far removed from the mamiya/sekor (see this post).

It’s fine for this (and wait till you see Wednesday’s shot…), but still a bit of a bother.

That’s not to say that I’m disappointed with these: I quite like the subtlety of a couple of them, but it was way harder to get from the original RAW file to something worth sharing than it usually is with the mamiya/sekor (or the Zomb-E, or the Vivitar 70-210).

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai, reversed. ISO400, 1/250th, f/2.8, pop-up flash, popped up at 1/80th, loads of post work (probably 6 or 7 minutes per shot).

Blast from the Past, part 3

Continuing on with the Blast from the Past series…

I found an outtake from the series from which I shared a PictureShow-edited shot back in July, 2011 and ran it through Lightroom 5.

Which one do you like better, and why?

BlastFromThePast|3|©JamesECockroft-20110712-20140323

iPhone 4. Shot in July 2011, edited in Lightroom 5, March 2014.

InshaAllah I’ll make more time to shoot this coming week: it’s much easier to edit/share current work than to find shots worth editing from the archives.

Continue reading “Blast from the Past, part 3”

Blast from the Past, part 1

I ran short on shooting time this week due to a schedule change at work and duties around the new house (and general laziness), and so went back into the Aperture library to see what I could see…

In a project titled 75-150 Reversed – Random,” I found two pics—this one, and another that will appear on Wednesday, neither of them shared before—that struck my fancy, exported the originals, and processed them in Lightroom 5. Fun times.

BlastFromThePast|1|©JamesECockroft-20120310-20140323

D7000. Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 E-Series (back before it became the Zomb-E Series). Originally shot March 10, 2012; processed in Lightroom 5, March 23, 2014.

Continue reading “Blast from the Past, part 1”