Macro-photography

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Raphael, that's a really smart idea and looks good.

Regards Nick.

[Kenneth RichmondParticipant @kennethrichmond30621]

appreciate this topic exists
I'm also interested in macro-ph, I bought a nice medium class camera to try my skill

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Permit me please, another broadening of the topic:

We watched ‘My Octopus Teacher’ on Netflix

This is a wonderful story; beautifully told and exquisitely photographed

… I was captivated

MichaelG.

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

This is nice:

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

This thread has been quiet for a while, so I thought it could do with a little bump

Here is a MicroFossil … roughly 3mm ‘diameter’

It’s allegedly the calyx of a Blastoid, collected at Yaxley Hampton, near Peterborough

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MichaelG.

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Ref. https://isgs.illinois.edu/outreach/geology-resources/blastoids

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/04/2021 21:54:23

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

Just before this lockdown, my daughter braved Oxford St and bought a new jumper… with this included for free!

[JAParticipant @ja]

Needle and a hair (last December when I still had some).

JA

[Mr CParticipant @mrc89691]

Hi Michael,

Your picture is segment from a crinoind stem or arm. Still an echinoderm and still a nice picture.

It is not the calyx of a blastoid. They went extinct in the Permian, well before the formation of the Oxford clay which is Jurrasic, at the location you found this. It is not a calyx either as this would be much larger and cup shapped.

Mr C

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

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Thank you, Mr C

You will note that I used the word ‘allegedly’ in my post

That was because the collector/mounter provided the description … but I was unconvinced.

[ it is mounted in a glass-covered cell, so only visible end-on ]

Your comments are much appreciated.

MichaelG.

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Edit: __ and I’ve just found this very informative  page:

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/fossils-and-geological-time/crinoids/

… and this from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crinoid

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 05/04/2021 10:12:20

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 05/04/2021 10:23:30

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Posted by jaCK Hobson on 05/04/2021 09:10:14:

Just before this lockdown, my daughter braved Oxford St and bought a new jumper… with this included for free!

Looks like the front end of Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa a Mole Cricket.

If the jumper was made somewher in Indonesia it might have been from someone's lunch

John

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

Posted by Journeyman on 05/04/2021 11:07:19:

it might have been from someone's lunch

John

It was a bit dry and crispy. Maybe better with chilli and seasoning.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, just though I'd chip in with something a little different. Two photos of a fridge magnet that I got when I was in Venice back in 2019, it's a Porcelain miniature mask, of those used during Masquerades in Italy. These were taken with it on it's side with the camera in landscape and then rotated as it was easier to set up. The black background was then cropped. they were taken with my Canon EOS 400D on A-DEP setting and using my Canon EF-S 35mm Macro lens, the first one was taken with daylight from the right hand side and the second one with the lens lights on full, and the daylight from the right, but as they have been rotated, the daylight is now coming from the bottom.

Regards Nick.

P.S. this fridge magnet is approximately 60mm x 60mm.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 05/04/2021 13:06:45

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

Nick, I’d like to suggest that your fridge magnet would make a good subject for a stereo pair. Would you care to have a go?

Sitting on say BluTack, tilting it left to right a few degrees might be all that’s required.

Sam

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

Jack, the moment I saw those front legs I had little doubt it was a mole cricket.

Back in Nicosia ’57-8, another chap in our camp had found one and was holding it gingerly between his finger and thumb inside a piece of rag. He claimed that its digging strength was so strong he could hardly stop it from moving.

The same chap had previously demonstrated his ‘ability’ to hand-feed flies to a praying mantis he kept as a pet. It chomped away as if eating a piece of watermelon, making no effort to escape.

Sam

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by Sam Stones on 05/04/2021 22:41:06:

Nick, I’d like to suggest that your fridge magnet would make a good subject for a stereo pair. Would you care to have a go?

Sitting on say BluTack, tilting it left to right a few degrees might be all that’s required.

Sam

Hi Sam, I've done a little experimenting today and it looks promising, but my technique needs a little refining and hopefully I be able to produce one. I'll show my technique when I have a satisfactory success.

Regards Nick.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, OK following on from Sam Stones request for me to have a go at producing a stereo pair of the fridge magnet, I have now managed to do exactly that. I've made four images, one for parallel viewing and one for cross viewing, the other two are the same, but the distance between the pair, is slightly wider, I don't know if it makes any difference, but the wider ones produce a smaller third picture. The all work on my Android smart phone, in both free viewing and with a stereoscope. The first parallel one viewed with my stereoscope is really well defined and I am quite pleased at the result. The cross viewing ones when viewed with my stereoscope, look as if is sunken, as if you are looking at it on the side next to the face, but the eye holes seem to stand outward.

Regards Nick.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Works very nicely, Nick

… and the ‘sunken’ effect is exactly what theory would predict.

MichaelG.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, so, here's a brief description of my technique, first the camera was mounted onto my X/Y camera mount and that was then mounted onto my K & F Concept TM2515T1 in the manner shown below.

This was then set up in front of the fridge magnet in the next photo, with the closest part of the fridge magnet, directly over the centre of the tripod's rotating head where the horizontal bar passes through.

This was then adjusted to be square in all plains with the fridge magnet and the distance from the fridge magnet was adjusted to get it framed and at the same time the fridge magnet was adjusted up/down and side to side to get it central in the frame, which took a fair bit of tweaking. I then did what I though would be the angles that my eyes would be at while looking at the fridge magnet from the same distance as the camera was set at. I then used a simple protractor to swing the camera to the right, by lining up by eye, the horizontal bar.

The first photo was then taken with both my macro lens lights on the dim setting and the shutter was set to delay, so that any slight movement by pressing the shutter release didn't cause any camera shake. The camera was then swung to the left hand side and the above was repeated. The images were then downloaded and processed into the stereo pairs.

Regards Nick.

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

Hi Nick,

That’s a very pleasing result.

Going (viewing) cross-eyed, your efforts put a big smile on my face.

Then, just as I was about to send a congratulatory note, your follow-up post with technique description appeared and my smile turned into a grin.

As can be expected, out-of-register reflections from the glazing seem to cause the brain to switch between eyes producing a twinkling effect. This was discussed earlier, see Page 11 – 23th May 2020.

Sam

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi MichaelG and Sam, thanks for your comments and I'm pleased they worked for you. I must admit that they turned out better than I expected as my first trials were only promising, but trying to do it with varying levels of daylight coming through the windows didn't help, so these were done at night. Maybe I should invest in some blackout blinds.

Regards Nick.

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Hi to all. Glad to see this thread with updated posts. Enjoyed looking at all your macro photos!

Nick great job!

That mole cricket is very common back home and it reminded me of the tropics again.

Keep it coming gents!

Raphael

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Im sure everyone hates if this happens with ones tools and machinery……. However rust is a very nice subject to shoot up close and specially in macrophotography.

Optics: Nikon 105mm AFD Microlens. Most shots are taken between f22-f32, hand held with natural light.

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

More of your pleasing images Raphael.

This has little to do with macro-photography as such (more about the colour of rust), but as a tip …

In the distant past, perhaps in my Ilford ‘Manual of Photography’

**LINK**, (when you could buy it for 30/-) I left mine behind in the UK; I read that orange and grey go well together. As some of your photographs indicate, it seems to work well with rust.

Sam

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Posted by Sam Stones on 08/04/2021 22:22:09:

More of your pleasing images Raphael.

This has little to do with macro-photography as such (more about the colour of rust), but as a tip …

In the distant past, perhaps in my Ilford ‘Manual of Photography’

**LINK**, (when you could buy it for 30/-) I left mine behind in the UK; I read that orange and grey go well together. As some of your photographs indicate, it seems to work well with rust.

Sam

Thanks Sam. Interesting how some subjects we shoot looks more vivid on photos than actually seen. I've stared on the real subjects after I took the shot but the colours and contrast is not as vivid as when I stare on the final photo. The lens and the sensor likely filters out the light and enhances the image i guess. I might be wrong but a photograph always reveals details of the actual subject that we might not see in real time. The magnification also plays a big part on revealing the details at this level. Macro photography on its own genre is very vast. This includes shooting insects, still macro, artistic macro , extreme macro etc. Regardless of the shooting and subject preference, macrophotography and close up photography is such an interesting style of shooting. Keep posting your macros.

Raphael

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Some spring time flower shots and a close up of one of my daughter's pet.

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