About Me

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Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, United Kingdom
Bit of a long tooth IT Manager - been and had a few hobbies, as for the title, I make glass beads, its Called Lampwork, I brew my own Beer, its called fun and I take photos, thats the oldest hobby, since I was 16 or so. My first camera was a Zenith E - then a Pentax KR to go digital after a long stint with a Pentax Super A. Now a Nikon D5200 and a D7100 with a Sigma 150 f2.8 macro lens to play with amongst others. Please note all photos used are my own and I retain full copyright to all of them. Thank you for respecting digital ownership

Tuesday 30 June 2015

A step forward on my macro photography



I recently bought a speedlight flashgun for my macro set up – to get the depth of field I want at the magnification I want with the low ISO I need to be able to use fill in flash.

I had part of a day at Llanelli WWT at the weekend with my lady to enjoy a walk and to try out the flash on camera, a start to get a feel for the settings I need to get the correct lighting and depth of field etc.

Willow leaves with rain

Horsefly female probably Tabanus autumnalis

Soldier fly Odontomyia viridula

A sawfly on a sowthistle- no idea which !

a BIG Hoverfly - Volucella zonaria

Common Spotted orchid

Emperor Dragonfly

 Following on from that I ordered a sync cable. This will allow me to use the flash ‘off camera’. This is so I could move it to the side of the lens and towards the front so I had more control and could model the light better.

Out in the garden, 

Harvestman

Bee mimic fly

Ruby tail cuckoo wasp circa 10mm

Lots of work to do on getting the base settings correct but it is not a bad start.
The range of insects is interesting and it will require some time to experiment to get the best lighting effect without creating ugly highlights on insects, and ugly shadows on surrounding plants. 

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