It took a while to track down the identification of the tiny black beetles which arrived on the sunflowers in large numbers:
The pollen beetle, probably Meligethes aeneus, is particularly attracted to almost any yellow object and can be found on oil seed rape and sunflowers amongst others.
Friday, 16 August 2013
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Preening Hoverfly - Video
A bit more practice with macro video making:
A different lens combination used this time.
Canon 50D running Magic Lantern software, Canon 70-200mm USM lens fitted with Raynox DCR-150 macro close-up lens:
Also I remembered to check the ISO which had been at 800 but I reduced that to 200. As the wind was blowing a bit even small movements can put things out of focus at macro ranges. I used a retort stand and clamp to gently steady the Sunflower as much as I could:
The Japanese made Raynox conversion lenses have very good reviews. The DCR-150 works well with the 70-200mm lens where the zoom can be used to frame the subject and has a reasonable range of focus. Also I don't have to be very close, well not the few cm needed with the Nikon but 20cm+ for this combination. There is also a DCR 250 which would magnify even more but would need very steady subjects and I think would be hard to use 'in the field'. The Raynox is designed to use on the front of a telephoto lens, has a 43mm fitting but also comes with an adaptor which will fit 52-67mm threads by the use of two sprung clips built into it. The clips are grooved so they hold tight in the filter threads.
Details of Raynox lenses can be found here.
A different lens combination used this time.
Canon 50D running Magic Lantern software, Canon 70-200mm USM lens fitted with Raynox DCR-150 macro close-up lens:
Also I remembered to check the ISO which had been at 800 but I reduced that to 200. As the wind was blowing a bit even small movements can put things out of focus at macro ranges. I used a retort stand and clamp to gently steady the Sunflower as much as I could:
The Japanese made Raynox conversion lenses have very good reviews. The DCR-150 works well with the 70-200mm lens where the zoom can be used to frame the subject and has a reasonable range of focus. Also I don't have to be very close, well not the few cm needed with the Nikon but 20cm+ for this combination. There is also a DCR 250 which would magnify even more but would need very steady subjects and I think would be hard to use 'in the field'. The Raynox is designed to use on the front of a telephoto lens, has a 43mm fitting but also comes with an adaptor which will fit 52-67mm threads by the use of two sprung clips built into it. The clips are grooved so they hold tight in the filter threads.
Details of Raynox lenses can be found here.
Monday, 12 August 2013
Macro on Monday - Guess What
Congratulations and the virtual gold star to Keith, Adrian, Sue Garrett, TexWisGirl and Ragged Robin for identifying the Shield Bug in last week's scrambled photo:
Another scrambled photo for this week
Guess what is going on here:
Answers left in the comments and the answer will be revealed next Monday.
No prizes - just for fun.
Sunday, 11 August 2013
Grow Your Own Seed + Itsy Bitsy Spider
Sunflowers growing from seed missed by the birds:
Grand-daddy of them all. Has about 15 flower heads. The large flower which has nearly finished now was where I took most of the macro shots and video.
Spot the spider - close up taken with the Nikon:
To help here is a close crop of that photo:
Must be one of the smallest spiders I have ever seen. About 5mm including the legs. It was only the tiny blob of moving pale green which caught my attention while I was fighting a losing battle with the weeds in the front garden. It is probably a Green Orb Spider - araneus.
Grand-daddy of them all. Has about 15 flower heads. The large flower which has nearly finished now was where I took most of the macro shots and video.
Spot the spider - close up taken with the Nikon:
To help here is a close crop of that photo:
Must be one of the smallest spiders I have ever seen. About 5mm including the legs. It was only the tiny blob of moving pale green which caught my attention while I was fighting a losing battle with the weeds in the front garden. It is probably a Green Orb Spider - araneus.
Saturday, 10 August 2013
Macro Session
After an exchange of ideas with Adrian I had a hunt round to see what lenses I had acquired and forgotten about over the years. One thing I found was a cheap set of add on macro lenses. Fortunately these fit the Sigma 28-80mm macro lens so I decided to try out the +10. I'm sure I had a play with it when I first got the set but for some reason was disappointed with the results. Probably trying hand held, which is not a good idea for macro shots.
First a 'full frame' photo of a Hoverfly using the above combination:
All the rest will have been cropped to a greater or lesser extent:
Finally a couple of stacked photos:
3 stacked shots of a small daisy flower:
5 stacked shots of a ripening miniature bullrush.
No apologies for yet another Bee on Sunflower short video but I was more than a bit chuffed with the result using the extra +10 lens:
Considering how little I paid for the fox Macro +10 add on lens the results were very pleasing to me. The plants were held in 'helping hands' and given extra illumination from an LED ring flash kept on continuous light.
First a 'full frame' photo of a Hoverfly using the above combination:
All the rest will have been cropped to a greater or lesser extent:
Finally a couple of stacked photos:
3 stacked shots of a small daisy flower:
5 stacked shots of a ripening miniature bullrush.
No apologies for yet another Bee on Sunflower short video but I was more than a bit chuffed with the result using the extra +10 lens:
Considering how little I paid for the fox Macro +10 add on lens the results were very pleasing to me. The plants were held in 'helping hands' and given extra illumination from an LED ring flash kept on continuous light.
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