Wallpaper Wednesday - Black and White Water Drop

Download the 16x9 Format

This week's wallpaper is a gorgeous abstract macro of a water drop at the center of the leaves of a plant. This is only available in the 16x9 (wide-screen) format.

The World within the World

While out chasing waterfalls, it starting raining. I found a leaf with the right reflective light and a beautiful reflection.

So I changed my lens got in close and captured the world within the world.

It is important to keep an open mind when shooting, so you don't miss an opportunity because you are focused on one thing.

The Land of Macro

Welcome to the land of macro. This is where busy backgrounds go to die.

Milk and honey meet pink petals of sensual delight.

Drew drops become little diamonds on the pink flesh of a delicate flower.

The closer one gets, the more intimate the portrait becomes.

Welcome to the land of macro. Where the viewer might just ask, "What the Fuck?"

The value of free????

I know it's supposed to be Free Wallpaper Wednesday, but I am running a little behind in my posts and don't know if the wallpapers are even really delivering anything of value to my readers.

The above image of a dandelion was shot using a 50mm F/1.8 lens attached to a set of extension tubes.

I would like to know from you, my readers, what type of content is most valuable to you. Do you like the photography posts [about photography]? Do you like and use the free stuff like textures and wallpapers? Is there something else that you would like me to post about? Leave a comment below and let me know.

Macro Differences

200mm Macro Lens

Not all macro tools are created equal. The proof is in the examples in this post.

I have two primary tools for macro photography. The photo on the left was shot with a 200mm macro. It is a decent close up photo, but it isn't truly a macro.

A true macro will lend itself to abstraction of the subject. The 200mm lens won't focus close enough to a subject to abstract the subject.

50mm with Extension Tubes

This is where a tool like extension tubes or macro filters come in handy.

Using extension tubes and a 50mm f/1.8 lens I can get closer. I can abstract. A $15 set of macro tubes can do more to abstract than a $450 macro lens.

Give it a test yourself and see just how close you can get for $15.

Free Wallpaper Wednesday - Purple Macro

Download 16x9

This week's free Wallpaper is a stunning macro of a flower. There are two versions offered, one is a standard 4x3 for monitors (800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x1024) and the other is for 16x9 widescreen monitors (1600x900).

Download Standard 4x3

Experimenting with New Extension Tubes

During my photo group's annual swap meet, held each February, I picked up a new to me set of extension tubes. I attached my 50mm f/1.8 lens and set to work on a CD with water drops. I am extremely happy with the results. 

As a comparison I am including a similar image that I shot using a 40mm lens and Hoya 1+, +2, +4 diopter macro filters.

40mm Lens and the +1, +2, +4 Marco Filters

50mm Lens and the Extension Tunes

50mm Lens and the Extension Tunes

50mm Lens and the Extension Tunes

Photography Retreat Part 3

Amy - Camp Staffer

The Salem Digital Photo Group held their first annual photography retreat this fall. The retreat was held on the beautiful Oregon coast at the wonderful Camp Magruder, near Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

To recap, the first day started down on the beach for some beach scenes followed by an amazing sunset. Then late at night we went out to attempt a one hour exposure, which ended in a bust a little before 1:00 AM.

We were up at 6:00 AM on day two and headed down to the lake for some early morning light photography followed by breakfast with the Camp Staff.

The Campers

 After breakfast we posed for a couple of group shots. A motley crew we were, but everyone was in such a good mood following breakfast. It was time for some of us to head into the woods, while a few headed to the beach.







I chose the woods...

Dream

As we headed into the woods a light mist was hanging in the trees allowing for strong sunbeams to creep in through the trees.

I shot a few frames here to capture the image on the left.


Then I moved on, shot a frame or two, moved on again, rinse and repeat.

Enchantment

Beams

Strength

Beach Grass

 As we made our ways through the woods we took time to shoot things other than Sunbeams.

My friend and fellow photographer even let me use his 60mm Macro Lens. This is one of the additional benefits of shooting with friends outside of the wonderful company; sharing equipment.

The world of macros is always ripe with opportunity for you and your camera.

Blade

Pine Cone

Miniature World

Tune in next week for part four of this blog series. It was a beautiful weekend.

Old is new again; old is revitalized

Color Abstraction

I am always amazed where a journey can lead me. Even a painful journey through thorns and thistles can lead to a beautiful meadow of wondrous delight.
 
I have officially left Posterous. And while I won't shut it down for technical reasons, I won't post new content there any longer.

I moved my site to Posterous almost two years ago, for two reasons; as a part of my brand re-imaging and because of the native social media plugins for marketing. It was commonly believed, by me at least, that a professional photographer couldn't market him or herself using a free blogging tool with such limited capacity. So I made the switch to a free blogging tool with more capacity in some aspect and more limited in others.

Well, I am not marketing myself any longer, at least not for the wedding/portrait/product photography business plan I was planning two years ago. In the course of the last two years I learned several profound things, well at least profound to me. First; I am an artist. I am not just a photographer. I am a painter. I am a poet. I am a writer. I am a photographer. I am an artist. Second; I can't market myself to save a fledgling career. There was a lot of self sabotage in the marketing arena, a huge chip on my shoulder that prevented me from excelling and a Titanic quantity of baggage from my past left buried that surfaced. There was some obstacles I was unable to overcome by myself, such as how to get past the local market's desire to get everything they can for free, or next at least next to nothing as well.

Oregon Summer

So after much postulating, I posed myself this question; Why are you staying with Posterous? I didn't have an answer. Rather than beat Posterous about the head and shoulders let me explain my move back to Google's blog engine in a positive manner. I have more creative control over the content, layout and general look and feel of the site using the Google blogging engine. Notice the varying alignment of the images in this posting? I wasn't able to figure out how to do that using Posterous without editing the HTML of each post and wanted to focus more on content than writing HTML code to make it work. Google makes layout so simple. A click here, a click there and boom; done.  

To be honest, I have missed Google since leaving, which is why I never shut this down. I am a control freak when it comes to displaying my work and Google lets my freak fly like no other.

Another change that has happened recently is that my 300mm macro lens bit the dust. I was sad as hell about that. But, never fear. Mike out at Focal Point in Dallas, Oregon hooked a brother up. I got this old, heavy, 100% metal Vivitar lens that is 100% manual (focus and aperture), but I could not be happier with the lens or the service Mike always gives. Thank Mike for being simply the best!

The lens is a 70-200mm macro. And just to prove it's image quality, the three images in this post were made with this lens tonight. Photographed at 6:20 PM in the waning, overcast light of a dreary day (hence the raindrops over everything).

So there you have it; old is new again. My blogging site of choice is Goggle and it is good to be back home. Old is revitalized. My new-to-me 1980s Vivitar lens is finding new life after being stored in a bin for who knows how long.

It is good to be home again, making art like I did in the old days; circa 2010.