Macro Flowers Plus | Bright Day Lilies

Macro Flowers Plus | Bright Day Lilies

Macro Flowers Plus | Bright Day Lilies  Daylilies love to be in the sun and can grow from one to four feet high.  They establish quickly, grow vigorously, and easily survive winters.  Daylilies have been cultivated for over 2,500 years and include over 80,000 different flowers.  For the whole story with all images, see Macro Flowers Plus | a 7 Image Story.

Macro Flowers Plus | a 7 Image Story

Macro Flowers Plus | Fly on a DaisyMacro Flowers Plus | a 7 Image Story   Macro photography is all about getting closer to the subject and making that subject bigger.  It allows for very close focusing and magnification.  Macro photography is still relatively new to me.  My Nikon gear for these images consists of a Nikon 1 V3 attached to a MOVO 21mm extension tube and a Nikon AF 135mm f2D, AF-S 50mm f1.4G, or 1 VR 10-30mm f/3.4-5.6 PD-Zoom lens.  The 135mm lens is a manual focus lens on the V3; not a big deal for macro images.  Hopefully, a macro lens will be in my future.  These images came from a short walkabout.

Fly on a Daisy   Capturing this image with a fly in focus was more luck than skill.  Utilizing f/8 helped, of course!  Still hand holding the lens really close to the flower, waiting for the fly to stop for a second or two, continual auto-focusing, and clicking requires patience and a bit of skill.

Pollen Pollen Everywhere   In macro photography, f/8 does not yield the depth of field you might imagine.  Still, it’s a bees paradise viewed from a bee’s perspective.

Hairy Green  It’s hard to notice all the hairs on this plant unless you get really close.  Even at f/13 the depth of field is fairly small with the extension tube attached.  This plant is not very impressive at a normal distance, but up close its interesting.

Hibiscus Parts  The Hibiscus is a big flower.  Even close up, it looks like a big flower.  Notice how f/8 gives a decent depth of field with a 21mm extension tube mounted on a 135mm lens.  And, the lens is manually focused on the V3.  The high ISO kept the shutter speed faster for a handheld shot.

Droplets on a Leaf   A few drops of water an make a big difference in a macro image.  Notice the magnification effect of the water drops.

Bright Day Lilies  Daylilies love to be in the sun and can grow from one to four feet high.  They establish quickly, grow vigorously, and easily survive winters.  Daylilies have been cultivated for over 2,500 years and include over 80,000 different flowers. 

Bee on a Flower   Bees are among the most necessary species on the planet.  Hand holding the lens very close to the flower while continually clicking and auto-focusing and waiting for the bee to stop for a sub second requires patience and a bit of skill.

Each image will be posted individually this week with a bit more narrative under category Macro Flowers Plus.

Click any image below for a slide show.

Spring 2020 Hodgepodge | a 7 Image Story

Spring 2020 Hodgepodge | Rough RoseSpring 2020 Hodgepodge | a 7 Image Story  This year’s spring was wetter than normal.  The flowers as well as the weeds seemed to grow sooner, faster, and higher. These images were all captured on my daily walkabouts. The big change this spring is my use of extension tubes to photograph flowers and greenery.  They allow the camera to focus closer to the subject allowing more detail in the image.

Rough Rose  This extension tube macro image captures the weather wear of this hybrid tea rose.   Rose-breasted Grosbeak  The rose-breasted grosbeak is a large seed-eating bird in the cardinal family.  They have a lifespan of  about 7 years in the wild and up to 24 years in captivity.   Tiger Lily  Although the Nikon AF DC 135mm f2D coupled to 10mm extension tube is a manual focus lens on the Nikon 1 V3 camera, it can produce a very nice detailed image like this Tiger Lily.   Blue Jay  The Blue Jay is a common songbird in northern Illinois They mainly feed on nuts and seeds so they show up every day to the bird feeder.  They are very aggressive and sometimes attack other birds.  When they arrive at the bird feeder, all the other birds leave.   Orange Lily  Lilies of various types are common to northern Illinois.  Macro photography allows us to get a closer look.  And, of course, sometimes a lucky shot captures a sweat bee in flight.   Painted Turtle  The Painted Turtle is the most widespread native turtle of North America.  It likes to live in slow-moving fresh waters.  Fossils show that the painted turtle existed 15 million years ago. Must be a tough little critter!  This female is laying her eggs in some nice dirt along a grassy edge.   Green Leaf  Again, macro photography reveals interesting shapes.  Not sure what type of plant has been captured in this image!  Macro photography seems to force a very thin depth of field regardless of the f-stop used.  In this image, keeping the leaf tips and the stem in sharp focus seemed virtually impossible.

Each image will be posted individually this week with a bit more narrative under category Spring 2020 Hodgepodge.

Click any image below for a slide show.