The world is my small abstract oyster

I usually hate to wake up and open the blinds only to find condensation on the window but on this particular day it gave me a subject/reason to use the macro lens again.

Condensation is not a pretty sight.

Very abstract. Without being told i think it would be quite difficult to work out what this was.

Mission accomplished.

My first attempts at Macro photography

I recently purchased a Canon FD mount 50mm 1.8 Prime lens in order to reverse mount on to my 450D DSLR.

I got the adapter in the post yesterday after waiting 10days for delivery from Hong Kong. I didn't think 10 days was too bad considering the distance travelled and especially considering the adapter cost less than 2GBP including postage.

To say i was excited about using the lens and adapter combo and experimenting with Macro photography was an understatement.

Wikipedia decibes macro photography;
'Macro photography  is extreme close up photography, usually of very small subjects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size.'

Reverse mounting a lens onto a camera is the cheapest way to get started in macro photography. Cheap has to best with me due to saving for a wedding, lets hope my fiance reads this to prove i do tell people im getting married.

When reverse mounted the lens and camera looks like this.

The first think that struck me is the incredibly small depth of field (the amount of image that's in focus) which doesn't seem to be adjustable.

Secondly due to the DOF (depth of field) and because its reverse mounted the focus distance is also very short; the lens has to be approx 5-10cm from the subject in order to achieve focus.

Good job i have a tripod.

The third issue is the small amount of light that passes through the lens either means long exposures (the time the shutter stays open ) or high ISO (how sensitive the camera is too light) are needed.

The following are examples of what can be achieved after 5 minutes of playing around with the set up.

Laura's engagement ring. This is the first photo i took.

A trophy that my car won at a car show.

Spider. I like how you can see hairs on the legs.

I really like this photo because of the colour and how well the the subject fills the frame, this photo has not been cropped.

Moisture on a weed which reminds me i need to get some Round Up.

Please feel free to comment.

My nephew gets high at the weekend

I wanted to play with my new Nissin Flashgun while at the same time keeping my niece and nephew occupied.

Ive already realised i love taking photos of people jumping, so lets kill 3 birds with 1 camera shaped stone.

If done again i would lower the output of the flash as there are some harsh shadows even though i was bouncing the flash of the ceiling.

It seems that Harriet, my 9 year old niece, likes photography too as she always wants to have a go with my camera;

Well done Harriet, nice one!

Leaf it out

Everytime i've journeyed home from work over the past week i have been confronted with a blanket of leaves on the green opposite my house and i thought, 'perfect place for an autumn photo'.

Armed with both my 50mm and 55-200mm lenses i went over and started snapping.

Ive always read how focal length can affect depth of field (how much is in focus) but have never experimented.

The first photo was taken at 50mm with an aperture of f/1.8.

The 2nd photo was taken at 200mm f/5.6 and although the composition is slightly different and the image is edited differently colour wise, the red leaf is roughly the same size in both images and and the depth of field is shallow and similar in both images.

Lesson over for today...................dare i say LOL!

Hide and Seek

Saturday afternoon i decided i wanted to go to the woods to capture some autumn leaves and scenes. It turns out the trees in the particular woodland area don't shed there leaves......gutted!

Not to make it a wasted walk we decided to take some Hide and Seek pictures.
There wasn't a lot of natural light available as it was approaching 5.30pm and the sun was setting fast. I bumped up the ISO to 1600 and set my aperture at F1.8 to allow as much light in as possible.

Loads of light at f1.8.

When heading back out, the sun was then going behind the horizon, the colour was brilliant as it shown through the woodlands. One tree stood out as the sun's rays were projected onto it.

The loving mans bench

Taken with my canon 450D and 50mm 1.8 lens at the Grand designs live show 2012 at London Excel.

If only I had enough money to buy the items there, it was like a millionaire's paradise.