Tag Archives: macro

Dragonflies Again!!!

21 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Locations, Shooting

≈ Comments Off on Dragonflies Again!!!

Tags

, , , , , , ,

In the month of July I made a return trip to my favorite dragonfly location, Freeway Ponds Park in Albany, Oregon. I did everything the same as I did on Nature Photography Day, but since it was a little later in the summer, was able to photograph more dragonflies.

Battered dragonflies seemed to be the order of the day, I’m not precisely sure what the deal was, but it seemed that many dragonflies had spent the night down in the grasses, this isn’t necessarily unusual, but apparently when they started in the morning they started flapping their wings before they got out of the grasses and tore up their wings. This provided for the opportunity for extreme facial close-ups. I was sad to see these dragonflies self-destruct, but photographers must take advantage of the situations presented to them.

If dragonfly images were more marketable, I’d probably bore you to tears with them.

Take a closer look at the gallery of dragonflies.

Nature Photography Day Follow-Up

03 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Shooting

≈ Comments Off on Nature Photography Day Follow-Up

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Shortly after Nature Photography Day, I posted a bit here with a behind the scenes video of what I did that day. I didn’t post the still images here because I religiously register copyright images on photographs monthly. It is considerably easier to register unpublished images, so I keep them unpublished until I register them. Unfortunately, this does mean that sometimes I am dying to show you a few images here and must wait until later. For example, on Sunday I shot a bunch of Civil War reenactment photos that I really want to show you now, but must wait. (Interestingly enough, my favorite images were not at the height of the action, but at other times throughout the day.)

Anyhow, the main point of this post is to show you the still images I made that day. The above slideshow would be them or if you’d like more time to study these spiders and bees.

You probably know that I recently wrote a how-to book on Insect Photography, Insects in a Flash. These images illustrate quite well the point about going to flowers to help find insects that I talk about in the book.

Fern Ridge Wildlife Area

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Locations

≈ Comments Off on Fern Ridge Wildlife Area

Tags

, , , ,

I enjoy Fern Ridge reservoir as a photographic destination, despite the many disparaging remarks you’ll hear about the location in the Eugene area. Of course, most of these disparaging remarks are from folks who want a great place to swim and ski and the things they’re complaining about are precisely what us wildlife photographers love; namely marshy shorelines. Specifically the state wildlife areas on some of the shores make a great destination.

(Click here to see the above Fern Ridge images larger.)

I have used this location to teach the insect photography workshop I once taught.

If there is one complaint I have it is that the walking trails are primarily the dikes for water control and these are covered with large rocks. This is a minor quibble and primarily means protect your ankles while walking there because there is a decent chance of twisting them.

I have primarily made macro images there, but there are good bird opportunities also. I once saw a Peregrine Falcon feeding on a Yellowlegs there, unfortunately this took place too far away for any good images.

Please take a look at a variety of my macro wildlife images.

Experimenting in the Camera

24 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in Shooting

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

USA, North Carolina, Spiderwort ( Tradescantia virginiana) (Rick A. Brown)

Admittedly, I’m going back to ancient history here. This image is from the film days, holy cow!

Anyhow, I had been shooting the old in camera Orton effect. The effect where you take one image in focus and another out of focus making sure the out of focus image is larger. The exposure is figured such that it is additive and makes one good image.

I was also at the time doing flash macro where the subject would be properly exposed and the background would fall to black or nearly so. (Since I have pretty much stopped this, because most potential clients don’t like it, although I do personally.)

One day when I was showing a friend a bunch of these images, he suggested that I combine the two methods. Thus, this image was born. I photographed two images illuminated by flash very high contrast. One image was in focus and the other was out of focus with the out of focus image larger than the in focus image. Special effects were possible in analog photography as well, although there was a certain degree of chance to what would happen.

Take a look at some of my other macro stock images.

Homemade Macro Flash Diffusers

08 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by in Shooting

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Recently, I began experimenting with a homemade system for diffusing flash for macro photography. This system probably isn’t as good as a system you would purchase, but it does a good job for almost no cost.

I usually use two speedlights in my insect photography so I made two of these. Take frosted white, plastic, freezer containers and cut a slit in them that will allow the head of your speedlight to fit snugly inside. Rig these up on your macro flash bracket and balance the ambient light one to two stops darker. I manually set my exposure (usually) to 1/200 sec at f/16 and then vary the ISO to balance with the ambient light.

The attached image is my favorite done this way. I’d love to hear what you think.

Freeway Ponds Park, Albany, OR

04 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in Locations

≈ Comments Off on Freeway Ponds Park, Albany, OR

Tags

, , ,

Thanks to Dragonflies and Damselflies of Oregon by Cary Kerst and Steve Gordon, I found this wonderful place to photograph dragonflies.  In addition to having the information you need to id odonates in Oregon, this book also has a guide to 30 great locations for dragonflying in Oregon. Freeway Ponds Park in Albany is one of the locations. It is literally right next to I5.

There is a wide variety of dragonflies at this locale in large numbers. Town is nearby for lunch break. The only downside is that water access is a bit difficult and you will probably need to sit in pond muck to get the shots. Honestly, if you’re passionate about the photography the worst thing here is that the muck is quite slippery and keeping your balance while moving into position is quite difficult.

This spot is accessed by taking the exit for highway 20 off of I5. Then travel down Three Lakes Road until you find the spot.