Latest News

Home » Posts tagged Macrophotography

Tag: Macrophotography

  • Nature
    Orange tip butterfly 1

    Orange tip butterfly

    I know the orange tip butterfly is not a rare or endangered species, but I’ve seen them flutter by me for the last 4 or 5 years since I’ve been interested in macro photography and I’ve never been able to get a shot of one. That’s why I was particularly pleased when I finally managed to get a half decent shot this morning of an early specimen which fluttered by me. We had been out for a walk when I...
  • Nature
    Lightroom post processing techniques - radial filter 2

    Lightroom post processing techniques – radial filter

    I like macro photography, but this post uses a macro photograph to point out a Lightroom 5 post processing technique I’ve started to use a bit which is Radial Filters. This pretty unremarkably picture of a fly was taken a few weeks ago and I’d mostly forgotten about it. But I was looking through the pictures I’d taken and realised that I could improve this one if I could blur the flower a bit and bring the fly into more...
  • Nature
    Small skipper butterfly

    Macro photography – small skipper butterfly

    This is another in my macro photography series, and this time features a small skipper butterfly. I took this picture in the priors wood area of Stevenage in August this year with what is now my standard macro photography kit consisting of my Pentax K5 and Tamron 90mm f/2.8. To get this picture I cropped from a bigger image to produce this more detailed and closer image. I think the interesting thing about this picture are the small ‘barbs’ which...
  • Nature
    Macro photography - Hoverfly 3

    Macro photography – Hoverfly

    My favorite lens for macro photography is my 90mm Tamron f/2.8 and this picture was taken with that lens on my Pentax K5 in August this year. This is actually a crop from a larger image, but the resolution is good enough to still produce a good picture. I’m not sure of the species of hoverfly, but I found it sitting on a flower in our back garden as I was searching for subjects one afternoon. I did a bit...
  • Macro
    Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro picture - Macro shot of a Grasshopper

    Macro Photography – Grasshopper

    I found this little grasshopper in a wooded area of Stevenage called Prior’s Wood yesterday. I could hear the grasshoppers all around as I walked about looking for butterflies. Unfortunately the butterfly population this year seems to be severely depleted, with only a few Marbled White, small Skippers and the common Tortoiseshell, Comma etc about. A couple of years ago I went to the same area and you could almost guarantee some great pictures just by pointing your camera at...
  • Macro
    Macro photography garden spider 4

    Macro photography garden spider

    I bought a new flash gun for my Pentax K-5 at Christmas which I’ve been experimenting with over the last few months. Today I went out into the garden with my Tamron 90mm lens and a Raynox 250 Close up adapter fitted, to try some macro pictures with the lens set to F/32 to maximize the Depth of field. The shot shown above was my most successful picture, taken of a tiny garden spider sitting on a leaf sunning him(her?)self....
  • Nature
    Macro photography - Red-and-black Froghopper 5

    Macro photography – Red-and-black Froghopper

    As I was out on my now customary weekend ‘walk with my camera’ I spotted this very bright Orange and Black beetle nestling under a leaf in the undergrowth. I took several pictures, but this is the best as the insect’s face is in focus. I’m beginning to wonder if my Tamron 90mm F/2.8 has a small amount of back-focus as the majority of the other shots were focused slightly behind the head. If this is the case I can...
  • Tamron
    A user's view of the Tamron 90mm F/2.8 SP di 7

    A user’s view of the Tamron 90mm F/2.8 SP di

    I bought this Tamron 90mm f/2.8 SP di lens about 18 months ago as a 1:1 macro lens to be a supplement to my Tamron 70 – 300mm Macro Zoom. Although the zoom is a nice lens and was remarkably cheap (about £90) I wanted a lens that would produce a full 1:1 macro and be of better quality. Because I owned a Pentax camera, the choice in a Pentax K mount came down to Pentax SMC-D FA 100mm f/2.8...
  • Nature
    Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro picture - Cricket or Grasshopper ?

    Cricket or Grasshopper ?

    This is another picture from my walk yesterday. I’m not sure if this is a cricket or grasshopper, but it was about 5mm in length,  sitting on a leaf sheltering from the cold and wind ! Tamron 90mm Pentax K-5 iso320 f/9.0 1/60 sec
  • Nature
    Wild Flower in profile 8

    Wild Flower in profile

    Wild flower in Profile I went for a walk with my Pentax K-5 and Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro lens and caught this wild flower in a field about half a mile from my house. 1/1600 F/2.8 ISO 400 Tamron 90mm Pentax K-5
  • Macro
    Fly

    Macro Photography – Bluebottle Fly

    This is another macro shot, this time taken with a Tamron 70-300mm Maco zoom on a Pentax K200D DSLR. Unfortunately the fly wouldn’t turn round so I could capture him (her?) full in the face but it’s quite a detailed shot anyway. Pentax K200D Tamron 70-300mm Macro Zoom iso800 /250sec f/13 Related articles Hoverfly on flower (simonhawketts.wordpress.com) Macro photography – Scorpion Fly (simonhawketts.wordpress.com)
  • Macro
    Soldier Beetle

    Macro Photography – Soldier beetle

    This is a Soldier Beetle which I found in the field across the road from our house in May 2012. I believe the Latin name for this variety is Cantharis Rustica. This was taken with a Pentax K-r and a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 1:1 macro lens. In order to hand hold the camera and get enough depth of field to keep the beetle in focus I had to raise the iso to 2200 to get the shot at 1/125 @...
  • Nature
    Snowdrops and Daffodils 9

    Snowdrops and Daffodils

    I saw some snowdrops growing in a local patch of grassland a few days ago and took a quick snap on my mobile phone, but resolved to go back another day with my ‘real’ camera. Well, this morning James & I went back and I took some more pictures & used the opportunity to try out the Metz 58 af2 flash gun I got at Christmas as a fill in flash. I have not used a flash much before, and...
  • Macro
    Bokeh

    Bokeh

    This image was one I selected from the large backlog of pictures I have sitting in my Lightroom library. I am not feeling well today but I wanted to post an image so I was looking through the set of pictures I took in the garden when I got my Tamron 90mm Macro lens. This one struck me as a good demonstration of the bokeh obtained with this lens. Pentax K-5 Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro 1/100sec iso200 f/2.8 Related articles...
  • Photography
    Side view of a Garden Orb Spider

    Macro Photography with a compact camera

    These pictures of a garden org spider were taken a couple of years ago (Sept 2010) with a Panasonic DMC-FZ8 compact camera. There are lots of things wrong with these pictures, but they do serve to show one important point – you can get very good macro results with a compact camera. Because the sensor is small and therefore the aperture is small, there is a large amount of depth of field available, which is a positive boon when taking...
  • Macro
    Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro picture - Scorpion fly

    Macro photography – Scorpion Fly

    This little chap is a scorpion fly, so called because it’s tail has a large red bulbous end which curls back over it’s body and has a sharp end, making it look like a scorpion poised to attack. It is, however, completely harmless (well to humans). I took this picture with my Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens fitted to a Pentax K-r DSLR in Jun 2012 in the Priors Wood area of Stevenage. Pentax K-r Tamron 90mm f/8 @ 1/180sec...
  • Macro
    Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro picture - Bumble bee extreme closeup

    Macro photography – Bumble bee

    I Love macro photography; the great thing is you can find subjects almost anywhere you look. I found this bumble bee on a wild flower in a field just outside my house in June last year whilst I was out with my new Tamron 90mm macro lens. This type of subject is the reason I got the macro lens. I already owned a Tamron 70-300 mm Tele zoom with macro facility, but it will only produce a 1:2 magnification ratio,...

  • Keep up with all the latest posts by subscribing to the blog

    Categories

  • Top rated posts

    Replacing the shutter curtains on an Exakta Varex camera
    5 (4)

    Replacing the shutter curtains on an Exakta Varex camera

    The Fantastic Pentax MZ-3 autofocus slr review
    5 (1)

    The Fantastic Pentax MZ-3 autofocus slr review

    My Dad’s Brilliant Pentax P30 35mm camera
    5 (1)

    My Dad’s Brilliant Pentax P30 35mm camera

  • Top Posts & Pages

    Petri FTII 35mm review and repair
    Olympus OM-20 35mm slr review
    The Minolta Dynax 404 si 35 mm plastic SLR Camera
    Building my amazing Dunster House Log Cabin - Part 1
    Replacing the shutter curtains on an Exakta Varex camera
    Olympus [mju:] II zoom 115 review