Amazing shot. Did you train those larvae to eat in formation?

I have the Cosina/Vivitar 100mm f/3.5 macro, which is plastic and lightweight (270g), small enough to forget about and takes fine shots at 1:2 (1:1 with included adapter which I don't use). This is one of my default "out for a walk" lenses.

Example shot. Click on this for all my photos tagged with that lens:




Also obtained the Vivitar Series 1 105mm f/2.5 macro, which is metal and weighs far more (656g). Bigger too. But very sharp and magnifies to 1:1. This is the macro I use when I have the luxury, but I did not take it on holidays. (Though next time I might.)




I would heartily recommend either of these.

I have also reversed a 28mm lens on the kit, for super-magnification. Pretty well impossible to control except in studio with macro rails etc. So not for me.

Nice stuff there. Macro is so fun.

Yeah I find the exposure off here... underexposed not only in the sea but almost anywhere there isn't a giant sun.

The railing leads me out of the picture and is rather too much. I would have shot with the railing out of frame, but I'm not much of an expert. There is some nice detail in the sand.

Perhaps a portrait crop of just the left side of the image?

If you have the luxury of a fairly stopped down aperture then I think one could set focus near to (not at) infinity and be sure that everything from there out was in focus. But I think often that luxury is not there, since shutter speed has to be fast enough to freeze action. So in that case one has to nail the focus... not easy.

I think this shot is fine, BTW. Not sure how it could be better in the circumstances.

Exactly! I often wonder why people recommend wide angle immediately when someone says the word "landscape". If you want to carefully frame images with strong foreground detail then maybe. You know, the typical "big rock in foreground looking menacing while little rocks called mountains in the background fade into the distance" type composition. If that's what you want (or for cityscapes and church interiors, etc.) the 10-20mm produces great results. But if you are taking sweeping vistas a wide angle often yields unimpressive blandness.

Very commonly used -- that translates to a 18mm on the 1.5x crop sensor. For this reason I recommend the DA16-45. It is sharp side to side (something not so common) and has a very usable range of focal lengths for landscapes. You might be surprised to find yourself using the 68mm equivalent end of the zoom... and even wanting more tele to capture landscape detail.

If you want a very wide vista result think about stitching together images into a panorama.

And the kit Mk. II is very similar.

Me, I want a 14-35 f/4 as an upgrade to the 16-45. The portrait range is well covered by the limiteds or the DA* zoom for those that prefer it.

Just wondering: is that a known fact or speculation? Even if it is replaced, the DA16-45 will be around forever on the used market. As I said elsewhere, this new lens fills no niche for me. I'd rather have an extra 1mm on the wide end than 25mm extra in the portrait range at an unusable f/4.

This is a lens desperately looking for a market and I don't think it will find one. There are faster, wider or cheaper alternatives already. Though not with SDM.

Oh yes, the guy who did those amazing Bronx zoo photos. For fun you can check out his Leica M4 -- now there is a used camera!

I'm not sure this guy is trying to be Winogrand unless that's meant in the sense of shooting off a dozen rolls a day in a vague hope of getting something interesting. Winogrand's best shots (for me) have a sense of composition that is perfectly realised. He often had something askew in the frame, but also cared about balance between disparate elements.

That JFK space centre photo with the people pointing and aiming with binoculars out of the frame. Perfection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkIWW6vwrvM

Good clip. This guy gets away with it because he's got more attitude than those who would threaten him. Hear how aggressive he is to anyone who challenges him. This is the stray dog mentality so typical of New York. I'll bite you before you bite me. It is profoundly antisocial.

Personally I think Bruce Gilden is a good photographer but not my style. The picture look like exactly what they are... a threat to his victims -- I mean subjects. He is documenting the streets as though it was a wild kingdom of competing animals. His attitude and method of photography creates the conditions for the images he captures. In fact documenting is totally the wrong word. He is reshaping his environment in his own image. And he's been doing the same thing for decades. Bruce Gilden is an artist. An antisocial aggressive monomaniacal artist.