mike’s “Up Close”

Oops… nearly didn’t make it this month! Not cos I didn’t know what to do… I did, practically from when I first saw what Markie-boy had set for the theme. But cos I’ve been swamped with doing other stuff.

Busy.

And if there’s one thing I detest more than… well… more than all the other things I detest, its busy. Being busy. Not having a chance to slob around and just do my own thing (which principally consists of nothing much at all, and drinking coffee, and smoking fags, and a lot more of nothing else at all; just sorta “chilling out”).

Dammit.

Anyway, here we are. And now a few words about my humble offering. Or, more accurately (cos there ain’t really a lot to say about my little piccy this month), about this month’s theme.

Hmm. Where to start?

Well, best thing I s’pose is to just trot you through my thought processes (um… risky undertaking) that led to this shot. Here we go then…

So the theme for this month is “up close” is it? Clarified in the announcement by talk of macro shots and such. Cos “up close” could of course have entirely different connotations. Er… possibly more suited to a porno site

So, “up close” as in “close-up” as in photography then?

Up close? up CLOSE?! UP BLOODY CLOSE?!!!

[Brief interlude whilst a bit of a quiet fume goes on for a while]

Whaddya call that then? What happened to all our lofty ideals and aspirations at the start? You know… thinking outside the box; stretching ourselves; working outside the comfort zone; expanding our horizons?

Have we not all already done loads of close-up type stuff? Um… slight amendment to that maybe… have not most of us all etc etc. Huh. Talk about standards slipping. Hmph!

Well, ok, that’s the theme. So be it. Next thing is, what the hell can I do with it that’s gonna be a tad different? How can I interpret it in a new and novel way (hmm… wasn’t that another one of our aspirations… the quest to interpret things somewhat differently)?

“So what scope is there in this theme for novel interpretation?” thinks I.
Aha… I wonder what all the other themers will have done? Prob’ly close-ups and macro shots of stuff (if anyone’s got a 1:1 lens that is; I know I haven’t; nor has pain in the arse Darren).
But close-ups… well, bugger that. They’re pretty much my staple diet anyway. In any given batch of my shots there’s almost certain to be a few where I’m “up close”. Gotta put a twist to this somehow.

Ok. Question to self. “How close can one get?” Um. “How close can the camera get?”

So here we are. My shot for the month. A camera up really close to an (almost empty) bottle of whisky! So there!

And of course I personally got so “up close” to the whisky that its actually inside me! Luvverly. Hic!

A further word or two of explanation…

Penned these little accompanying notes (well, drafted them in my head at least) before taking the piss pic.
And… um… the bottle was practically empty (as you see it in the pic) before I… er… drafted these notes. If you get my drift. It’ll be a bloody miracle if there aren’t any typos in fact. Heh heh.

Now of course its time for me to see what my compatriots have done for the theme (cos I’ve developed this routine of trying to not check out the theme pics from anyone else for a given month until I’ve done mine cos I don’t wanna be, even submilinally sublimininiily subliminlimminlim unwittingly, influenced in my approach).
And knowing my luck I’ll prob’ly find all you wonderful people have come up with imaginative and innovative approaches that blow most of my earlier remarks right out the water. Sod it!

Anyway, I do believe that its my turn to select the theme for May. So all you scurvy knaves had best start brushing off the old thinking caps! Heh heh.

[Insane giggles as he finally collapses in a heap on the floor]

Close Up

The theme for this month stumped me good and proper, not having a Macro lens for the Pentax,
I did think about dusting off the old point and shoot, as it has a fairly decent Macro function but having got a DSLR it would have felt like going backwards,  so I decide to stick with the Pentax and see what I can do with that,  I have had some success with close up shots using it in the past.

The next problem, what to actually shoot. The obvious thing to do as it’s spring and the weather has been pretty good up to now, is flowers or trees but I decide to go a different route and shoot something else, something more me, so here is a close up of one of the speakers for the computer, came out better than I thought it would, given the subject matter and lighting (it’s not too bright in the computer room).

and another

I do not have a proper macro lens…however my kit lens has a macro feature. Soon I’ll get a proper macro, until then, I’m happy with what I have. Imagine what I could do with a proper macro lens.

Lucky me

In my backyard this morning.

This really isn’t an “up close” photo but one to prove it really is a 4 leaf clover.

Getting close sometimes means getting wet…

I try not to be one to wait until too late in any given month to shoot pictures for our theme, but this month has proven a bit more difficult than usual. I was fairly busy early in the month working on…well…work for my little home business and then the past week or so have been very rain-filled, thus making outdoor photography rather difficult if not downright impossible.

But never let it be said that I’m not willing to suffer for my Art!

The lovely, and “close up” water droplets you see aren’t actually rain, but early morning dew that had not yet burned off in the morning’s rising sun. It was one of the most dew-covered mornings I had seen since probably last fall and when Mother Nature (obviously in a more charitable mood than usual) opted to provide such bounty, who was I to not take advantage?

While I love the single droplet clinging precariously to the tip of the blade of grass in the first image, I’m more fond of the above image. It is neat, clean, simple and linear; all qualities I appreciate. I also think it’s cool how, when viewed large (via Flickr), one can clearly make out both the trees in my lawn as well as my next door neighbor’s house through the prism that is the water droplet.

I confess that I was becoming concerned that I might not find another opportunity to shot out-of-doors as the rain was coming frequently and readily over the past ten or so days. While shooting indoors wasn’t necessarily an issue for me, I much prefer to be outside. However, I also recognize that I’m not exactly breaking any new ground here photography-wise. Pictures of rain or dew drops aren’t cutting edge photography, are they? Nope. But one must start somewhere and my new Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM macro lens does take a bit of getting used to.

Take the above image for example…I’m pretty certain I could have used a fair bit more light to make better use of the lens. I mean, macro lenses always have a rather shallow depth of field, but if one wants to increase the depth of field one must crank up the aperture, which, all other things being equal, means one needs a lot more light to help keep shutter speeds up. This particular image was shot after a rain and on a particularly cloudy day. I would have been able to increase the depth of field and managed to get more of the image in focus than I have done here. This would be particularly true of the image below:

I have two versions of this image (both are on Flickr, but only this one here): one with the focus on the foreground and the other with the focus on the background. Had I sufficient light I believe I would have been able to get more droplets in focus and perhaps have created a better image overall. Of course, I’d like to see all three samples first before rendering a final opinion.

For me this month’s theme has worked very well. Then again…I picked it, so I hope I would have gained something from it. Here is what I have learned thus far about close-up/macro photography: (1) strong lighting is key for extending your depth of field (if you want that), (2) processed macro shots MUST be looked at on Flickr at their largest available size, (3) motion blur as a result of subject movement is considerably more noticeable with close-up/macro photography so one must keep up shutter speeds (thus again reiterating the need for strong lighting under some circumstances), and (4) laying on one’s dew-covered lawn while sporting a camera does lead to folks driving by just a little bit slower than usual.

up close and personal with bees

Have I told you how much I love bees? Well, I do!

Bees have never scared me.

A friend of ours raises honey bees. I LOVE them. Matter of fact, we have video of me next to a hive playing with a bee. The bee is walking/roaming all over my hand and arm. I think I’ve only been stung 3 times in my entire life.

Anyway, I won’t bore you with my love of bees.

When Mark, forkboy, photons announced “up close” as the theme, I jumped with joy. Okay, not literally, but I jumped on the inside. HA! Spring is perfect for up close flower pics.

Now, I admit, I am not really that close to the bee I photographed. I opted to use my 70-300 mm lens to shoot the little lady. I was afraid if I got too close, I’d scare her away.

So, here is my first entry for this month’s theme! Yes, I said first! I am not done yet!

Up close and personal…

I’ve been wanting to take the plunge and purchase a macro lens almost as soon as I had purchased my Canon 40D. But other wants and needs interfered with that particular desire and so I relegated my want and desire to the proverbial rear burner.

Fifteen months later I realize that the various taxing authorities owe us a fair chunk of change from fiscal year 2008. And so our spending spree began with the acquisition of various items that we needed, primarily, and wanted, secondary. While not part of the original calculations additional money became available and so the put-off acquisition of a macro lens was thrust upon the front burner and damn near burned my hand! So without further ado…

I concede that my very first use of the lens was for the March group project theme Flux, but this wan’t the real purpose I had in mind for the lens, so I prefer to just ignore that original usage.

I found the experience both very gratifying and satisfying. It is clear that there is more to be made of changing the aperture in macro photography in relation to the changes in depth-of-field. However, there is a minor downside to the entire experience: wind. When one shoots outdoors any movement by the subject is amplified via the camera’s viewfinder. Thus waiting for stillness or shooting in burst mode is about the only way to deal with a breeze.

Still, I look quite forward to taking further advantage of the addition to my arsenal of lenses.