Macro Nature Photography

Nutball

TreeHouser
Joined
Apr 4, 2015
Messages
4,083
Location
Mt. Juliet, TN
Anyone else into pictures of small stuff? I think it's the coolest since you get to see things you normally wouldn't. Here's some I took. The flower was on a lawn weed, it's smaller than 1cm, maybe .5cm

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  • #5
$

I've collected somewhere over 500 of these pictures this year. Now if I could just find a way to make money off them :/: But I guess that's how it goes with most hobbies. Making money off a hobby might take the fun out of it because then it's more like work. I'd have to be more critical on the quality instead of being pleasantly surprised at what I find.

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I take lots of pics of plants. All Macro work. I notice some of your shots are in the realm of Micro-photography. Depth of field can be a problem there, unless you do focus stacking. There's times I'd like to shoot smaller things but I really don't have the lens for it, or much need. Apertures f 16-22 usually. For true macro it keeps the subject sharp and blurs the background.

I'm compiling a list of native flora, close to 2,000 species photographed, and as many pages of descriptions. It keeps me pretty busy going places to find the plants, and when I get home I catalog the pics and work on writing the descriptions. Been earnestly on the project for 3 years now, going on 4. I think I can see the light.

I'll skip on the botanical names

Bristly Ox Tongue
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Sand Aster
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Pussy Paws
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Knap Thistle
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Hop Clover
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Brodia
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California Stream Orchid
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Milk Maid
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Mini Forgetmenot the scorpiod is about penny size
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  • #7
Really cool!

That's a whole other step there identifying everything. I've wanted to do it, but that's a lot more work when I'm just enjoying the images for now.

Maybe you'll have another book out in the next few years??

Anyway I've been getting away with using my Sony DSC-WX220 which surprisingly has way better image quality than the newer HX80, which I keep kicking myself for buying because of how terrible the image quality is, and the WX220 has an f16 capable aperture while the HX80 and most other cameras that size only go to f8. I rarely go smaller than f5 because the automatic nature of the camera requires me to increase the ISO to cause it to use a smaller aperture, but the noise increases very quickly with this small of a sensor. I've found that at ISO100 this little camera captures great low noise images, plus the very small lens allows it to see through a 35mm prime lens I use as a macro coupled lens far more easily than a 35mm camera lens could. But if I had a 35mm camera I might as well have a one piece macro lens. I'm shooting through a 50mm f1.7 lens with around 500 lumens of LEDs, the 4.5oz weight of my camera allows me to somewhat easily freehand it without a tripod. I can't get worth while image quality beyond 5-6x magnification except by cropping, but as you pointed out, that is getting into the micro realm.


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Yard weed flowers. About 3mm wide These are actually some of my very first attempts:

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It's amazing the resolution power of the digital camera. I started shooting 35mm in the 1960's. But film was so expensive I could never reach the point of creativity I dreamed of. Now with digital I can, as well everybody. It's so cool
 
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  • #11
Hopefully by then they have a direct readout from the human eye.

Cool frog eyes GP. I got some of those today actually. I found it when trimming my plantain trees

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  • #17
I found some fungus today, it's been raining all weekend.

I think this is bird's nest fungus. It's about 1/4" in size.

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This appears to be some sort of puffball with a center that is still liquid.

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Amazing thread...just found this thread. Share whenever you can...you guys have some wonderful pictures. You are showing us another world around us but mostly unseen.
 
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  • #22
I looked at your pics, Jerry, a few times already since you posted them, and just now realized the Milk Maid "cutting" appears to be hovering unnaturally. I then looked back at the Sand Aster that had got me thinking the first time I saw it; how the leaves could have the strength to support the plant by your hand outside of the frame, and still look so natural. But this time I looked for anything else out of the ordinary. It appears you did some very good editing to hide what supported those flowers? I see signs of a coverup under the Sand Aster. It's always fun to try to pic out the subtleties in pictures, its good practice too. I used to not be able to tell the difference between a picture from my WX220 and a Cannon 6Ds.

I know I tried to fix one of my pictures with just Paint to remove the darkened corners of the image where the round shape of my macro lens cut it off. It turned out good enough.

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After
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I wouldn't normally share so big a copy of this one. It's easy to overlook the poor editing when it's smaller than 600x600
 
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  • #23
Another rainy day. I hoped to go mushroom hunting in the woods while taking pictures, but I didn't make it far past the wood chip pile before it started raining again. I was sure I had a several hour window in the rain. I also had a few more failed shots than usual, not the best I've taken, but a few turned out well. The tiny mushrooms tend to be the most interesting.

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This was one heck of a tiny flower, maybe 2mm at the most, and I did not expect to find a bug inside it.

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I have found a lot of insects with these parasites on them. I haven't figured out what they are, and I can't zoom in far enough to get a good picture.
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You can almost see the pores in this fungus
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