My first images with the 100mm Macro

Hi Amin,
Prices for houses are very reasonable around here, A very Beautiful area between the river Wye and the Severn, lots of trees, millions of them, but not much in the way of work, plenty of wildlife, my garden backs into the forest, I am trying to get some shots of the Goshawks that I sometimes see and many other birds of prey.
We even have wild boar in the forest now ,they are causing problems digging up road side verges .
I just wish I was more mobile, I would then be able to enjoy it even more.
I have to use a Mobility scooter to get around in the woods so I am limited to where I can go, mind the scooter I have for that is not a “granny mobile ” more like a quad bike, so as long as the gap is wide enough I go.

You better stop it, or else you might end up with an extra member in the community.

Let me comb down the aspects here: "Prices for houses are very reasonable around here, A very Beautiful area between the river Wye and the Severn, lots of trees, millions of them"
just what the doctor perscribed

"plenty of wildlife, my garden backs into the forest, I am trying to get some shots of the Goshawks that I sometimes see and many other birds of prey" Just what the keen learner in photography in me wants ha

"but not much in the way of work" I run my own business and work from home. I travel to West London once in a blue moon to meet clients or supervise work that my staff does, but other than that I spend time at home (I run a multiscreen desktop here and since the arrival of my K20D and the discovery of this great forum one of my screen has permanently the forum site on ) so you must have noticed me constantly around the forum .

And lastly and perhaps the most important even the wife might love the idea. I love the country site and miss the greens of Africa where my infancy and childhood time was spent hehehe Forest of Dean you are a temptress hehe,

Oh and if local people around there are friendly and welcoming like you, reserve me a spot, who knows ... hehehhe

Hi, No problem Amin, My Son lives in Gloucester a catches a train to London at least once a week but he is based on the outskirts of Bristol, so every where is accessible from here although the two bridges across the Severn are closed today, ice falling of the structure and smashing windscreens on cars.
Loads of people come to the area to retire, some do not like the quite life and go back to the city.
Even Richard Hammond (Top Gear) lived just up the road from me, he has since moved and bought a converted castle.
I did have a large cottage, but moved to a bungalow now far easier on upkeep.
Was your time in Africa, South? or in one of the more troubled areas?
I was in Kenya many years ago when in the Royal Air Force.

When were you in Kenya Richard? If it was in the 70s then it must have been pretty good time.

I was born and in Mozambique, in a cosy little place called Inhambane link just about 300 miles from the South African border with Mozambique. Lived there through the first few years of civil war then was forced out of the country after been given just 24 hours to leave along with parents and siblings. I was 13 then. And the reason? Haa, because dad had decided we wanted to stick with our birth citizenship, portuguese. So new communist party decided to chuck away everyone who was born in the country but holding foreign passports .

Well, long story after that, after a few travels around some asian and european countries through teenage years here I am, good old London, this is home now for the past 18 years and feeling more and more like this is where I always belonged.

And now Forest of Dean kind of locations are becoming tempting, I guess you can take a jungle boy out of the woods but you cant take the woods out of the jungle boy ha . I miss the open fields and the closeness with the nature.

Hi Amin,
It was the mid 60s I was on the "oil" air lift crew and based in Mombassa, that was way before they turned it into a resort, raw beauty then.
I was later in the Yemen (Aden) and used to fly over to Somalia for fresh fruit and veg and that was on the last Dakota in the RAF.
But I got injured in Aden, caught in a mortar blast, they missed the aircraft and got me, waste of ammunition! They called them dissidents, now you would call them terrorists.
And that was then the end of my time in the RAF, kicked out on a medical discharge.
I still have my memories and a good time when i was young.
I did finally have to have spinal surgery, big mistake, so now retired and trying to enjoy life.
Life in the forest is ok in the winter but far better in the spring/summer and even the autumn.
One of my favouite places is the Wye valley where the Peregrine falcons are, you may have seen it on many of the wild life programs on TV.
At the moment here Snow and ice, temperatures may drop to -6.
I am going to hibernate till spring.

Richard,

2hrs and 45 mins drive mostly on A40 on a nice spring day sounds just what the doctor prescribed to me . I do enjoy long drives if its not under pressure or stress for meetings or trying to reach on a specific time. I could easily program my TomTom traffic to warn me ahead of hotspots and avoid them and its a peaceful drive for a nice day walk along those woods and watch and photograph some of those wildlife you write about, and meeting you of course. Hope by that time I have improved a little my techniques and ability to not embarrass myself.

Would be great meeting you and talk about the 60s in Africa, because that's the part I missed as I was born in the middle of that decade .

So did your interest in photography start from your time in Africa inspired by raw beauty of the sorroundings or you took it up later in life?

Amin

Hi Amin,
I can't really Remember when I started with photography but I really have done more of it since my disability.
I do remember buying my first semi auto camera it was an EMI k 35mm, A very short lived brand.
I bought that in Aden for just a couple of pounds. I also bought a Seiko Oyster watch that was shock proof etc, but dropping out of a Beverly transport plane at 5000 feet did not do it any good.
As to wildlife around here we have Sir Peter Scott’s “Waterfowl and wetlands trust” Slimbridge, that is just across the river Severn , also the Westonbert arboretum near by, The national birds of prey centre at Newent an Owl Trust Centre at Gloucester, and on the Wye valley The beautiful ruins of Tintern abbey and not forgetting the butterfly farm .
We have lots of people using the forest tracks for mountain biking, walking etc.
Being part of the “Forestry Commission” it’s now called Forest Enterprises ?
They have many areas for bird watching , hides etc.
And if you are energetic there are the Welsh hills and mountains not far away.
I nearly forgot the sheep that wander throughout the forest area , and all over the roads even in gardens if gates are left open.
One of the best times to see the forest is when the Blue Bells flower, carpets of them through out the woods, and on a warm day the scent is, well I will leave that to your imagination.

Another attempt with macro, this time got rid of the flash. But I still struggle with the balance of aperture and getting overall sharpness. When I open up the aperture parts of the flower become blur, so when I attempt to get an overall sharpness by lowering the stop the background sharpens a little as well.

Comments suggestions and advice are greatly welcome. Kept in mind what you all suggested yesterday while taking the shots this time .




Thanks

Amin

I think that's a huge improvement Amin - the natural light just looks so much more, well, natural!

Getting the subject sharp and the background blurred can sometimes take a little pre-planning. Sometimes it can be quite pleasing to just have part of the flower (for example) in focus in which case you'll use a wide aperture and the blurriness will take care of itself. By stopping down the lens you are *progressively* bringing elements in front of and behind the point of focus into focus themselves, so to mitigate this and blur these elements you can try moving your subject away from its background and/or moving the lens closer to the subject.

Rome wasn't built in a day (as the old saying goes) but compare the picture above to the ones you posted at the start of this thread and see how far your technique has come in such a short space of time!

Agreed, big improvement here.

Try taking this lily out of the arrangement and shoot it by itself or with a few leaves, against the solid background shown here. You'll be able to get that flower focused the way you want, and satisfaction with a nice shot. Keep the natural light!

You could set up the shot slightly differently to get the effect I think you are after.

Remove the specimen from the arrangement and put it in a separate vase.
Setup the specimen and your camera so the image is as you would like.
Place the remainder of the arrangement behind the specimen and adjust the distance between the two vases to get the background as you'd like.

You may have to use a reflector or additional lighting to illuminate both parts of the scene properly.

Hefty, you mean like this?

Thanks everyone for all your help. I definitely am getting the feel for it and hope to improve as time goes by and with your great input and help.

I would love also to try my 50mm f1/4 lens with the reversing ring but I seem to have difficulty using the manual focus. I do use the manual aperture from the ring and turn the Focus to Manual in the camera. The setting in the C menu also to allow the shutter release when using setting other than "A" in the aperture also is set properly.

The only way I am able to focus is just by moving the camera forward and backwards, and when I turn the focus ring in the lens itself nothing seems to happen.

Am I missing something here?

Thank you very much

Amin

Hi Amin best thing to do is get a cheap Manual lens for that, so you can adjust the aperture manualy.

The lens I have has a manual aperture setting also. And I can make use of it..