Macro Photography at Wittunga

I took a walk with my macro lens yesterday. I have a lovely 60mm dedicated-macro Canon lens that fits very nicely into my Canon EOS 400D. Together we visited the flowers at the Wittunga Botanic Gardens, shooting their petals and features at all different angles. It was a good morning.

Today the sun is out and the sky is semi-blue, so I am going again, this time with Susan Adey, a fellow photographer upon Redbubble. Should you be interested, I’ll see you there at 1.00pm. Otherwise, I will show our results later tonight.

Amazing Camera Lenses You Wish You Had

Over the last two years I have bookmarked over twenty amazing lens that I’d really like to buy. Some I have been able to purchase here in Adelaide, but some will remain must-have’s for some time yet. Thankfully I have had the presence-of-mind to save them all to my delicious feed. That way I can return to them, time and time again, to remember what I enjoy most in life: Photography.

Check ‘em out:

These are the ones I WANT to get soon!

1. Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM
2. Canon 55-250mm f/4-5.6 EF-S IS
3. Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens
4. Canon Auto Focus Extension Tube EF 12 II
5. Canon EF 1.4x II Extender

And these are the many that I’d just like to try to see if they are good as they say.

1. Canon 17-40mm EF f/4L USM
2. Canon 20mm EF f/2.8 USM
3. Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L EF USM
4. Canon 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 EF USM
5. Canon 28-300mm EF f/3.5-5.6L IS USM
6. Canon 50mm EF f/1.4 USM
7. Canon 70-200mm EF F4 L USM
8. Canon 100mm f/2 EF USM
9. Canon 300mm EF f/2.8L IS USM

1. Canon 17mm & 24mm TS-E
2. Canon 24mm EF f/2.8
3. Canon 28mm EF f/2.8
4. Canon 35mm EF f/2
5. Canon 50mm EF f/1.8 II
6. Canon 65mm f/2.5 MP-E 1-5 x Macro

1. Sigma 28-300mm F3 5-6 3 DG
2. Sigma 135-400mm 4.5-5.6 DG (for Canon EF)

These were bookmarked, then I bought them.

1. Canon 60mm f/2.8 EF-S USM
2. Canon 50mm f/1.8 II EF – Now exists in various pieces on my side-table. Kept as a memento of what NOT to do with a lens.

Yes, I am a Canonite! I really don’t wish for much. Honestly, we don’t need all these lens, not even a quarter of them. But I would love to test them, though not so far that I break them…

Make a Home-Made Snoot for your Flash-Gun

I’ve had this idea for a snoot for about six months. But the issue was how to fit the square peg (flash gun) into the round white plastic (“Betty Crocker” frosting tub). A few nights ago the idea appeared before in my day-bag:

About eighteen months ago I got a Apple Touch. Within six months, it had three rows of black pixels, so I took it in for repairs. They suggested I find a way to protect it when carrying it within my day bag. The answer to that was found in my office.

A neoprene beer-bottle holder. I bet NASA are slapping the foreheads now, wishing they had been able to solve their problem similarly.

Being round, flexible and slightly stretchy, it fits perfectly over the flash, and the white plastic slides straight over the neoprene. All in all, a perfect fit. But would it still let enough light out of the flash gun whilst diffusing it?

Before I answer that last question, check out the photographs of the process:

Step 01: The best step of all … because that white tub has to be empty! It’s cake icing, so make a sponge cake and smother it all over, put a ten candles on it and give it to your niece. That’s what we did. When it is empty, remove the paper and glue. The date-stamp on the base is easily removed with the tip of a finger.

Step 02: About three years ago I was the state webmaster for Apex SA/NT. Subsequently I was on the state board and was required to attend the convention displayed on this neoprene ‘beer bottle holder’. I bought 4 of these for myself and the members of my Apex Club. But the club folded before I could blink and I was holding these and bunch of other trinkets. So now I am putting one of them to good use. Well… well, I’ll tell you how good the idea is in a minute…

Step 03: So here you can see that I have cut the base out of the neoprene-holder, plus a slight curve out of the side of the neoprene — and then pulled it over the top of my “Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash“. The idea is that this enables a rectangle to fit into a round hole.

Step 04: So here we see the round white plastic slides onto the neoprene, thus a completed idea. But the concept has its flaws. The flash lights up everything in a 360turn. I was blinded a few times. At this stage, this is a FAIL. But it is a great idea. KEEP MOVING FORWARD. (Meet the Robinsons” was on TV tonight, so I had to say it!)

Somewhere I have seen neoprene holders for large beer bottles. (We don’t like to hold our beer cold, yet we drink Coopers Beer near frozen!) Now to buy a half dozen for further designs…

So what’s next in my bag of ideas? Not sure. I’m thinking through an idea for a Mini Ring-Flash … I’ll get back to you!

Wittunga

A few months back I visited an amazing public garden in the Adelaide hills – Wittunga Botanic Gardens. This park is filled with South African plants that are suited to the South australian climate, so they flower most of the year. Thankfully the rain had abated and the cloud clover was good for overall-light, so I took the opportunity to photograph flowers and bees with my Canon 60mm Macro Lens.

After three hours I had taken around 600 photographs of many textures, leaves, flowers and other abstracts … and discovered I had walked full circle back around to the car park. I was quite happy with my load: Having a sturdy tripod with me had improved a lot of shots incredibly, stabilising my camera where shooting by hand would have been given insufficiently detailed images.

The amusing part was discovering that my wife had taken my card-reader with her on her short holiday (4 days on Kangaroo-Island), so I had to resort to alternative methods to get the JPEG’S off my camera. After a quick conversation with plurk-friends, it was suggested that I use the camera-cable. I couldn’t even recall what it looked like, yet amusingly it was the first cable I picked up from the side of my office table!

Here are a few of the photographs I have liked enough to put upon my Redbubble gallery.

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