Photo Friday - Week 7

Last Saturday I was giving some Private Tuition to a lady named Sarah at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, and she was particularly interested in macro photography, as she'd just bought herself a Nikon D5100 and a Nikon 105mm Macro Lens, so we were exploring the gardens there, which are a huge source of subjects.

We came to a nice patch of Snowdrops, and after a few variations with composition Sarah decided to try shooting upwards into the flower, making use of Liveview and the articulated screen on the D5100.  I liked the image that she'd made, and suggested we could also tackle it slightly differently by using a wide angle lens and an extension tube, and the photo below is one of my results.  This gives a different perspective to the longer focal length of the macro lens, but you do end up just millimetres from the subject, so not so good for insects!


Pentax K-5, Pentax DA*16-45mm f/4 lens + 13mm extension tube @ f/6.7, 1/45s, +1.5EV, ISO80, handheld.

Whilst looking through my photos to pick ones out for my upcoming 'Know The Basics' workshops, I came across this one, taken in the summer, which nicely illustrates how a high ISO can result in a faster shutter speed, which can then freeze the movement of your subject, in this case, the fountain in the Scout's Garden at Hylands.  The newer cameras handle high ISOs much better than previous models (my last camera didn't even go to ISO 3200), so poorer image quality isn't such an issue these days.


Pentax K-5, Sigma EX 105mm f/2.8 Macro lens @ f/5.6, 1/3000s, ISO3200, tripod.