Messing Around with Macro

Several years ago I rented a macro lens just for kicks and had a lot of fun experimenting with it.  However at the time I saw no reason to own one, not to mention that I didn't love the one I rented, so I wasn't tempted to rush out and purchase it.  Fast forward a few years and I found myself dipping my toes into the waters of wedding photography and I was in need of a macro lens to do ring shots.

Several wedding photographers I know swear by the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM.  They said that it was amazing for ring shots, but it also doubled as a good portrait lens, so I decided to trust their judgement and purchase it.  I did a little practicing with it on our wedding rings, and then used it for the few weddings that I photographed.  However, I quickly decided that wedding photography wasn't my thing, and I just never fell in love with it as a portrait lens.  So, I've intermittently considered selling it.  Now that I've decided to begin exploring some other areas of photography, I'm happy that I held on to it because I can see myself getting into taking macro shots.

I decided to make a date with the lens last week to try my hand at taking some night shots of scorpions. Ever since I learned that I could use a blacklight to see scorpions at night, I've wanted to take some photos of them - but of course I never took the time to actually do it. Until now that is - I went out a few nights last week to see if I could find any scorpions to photograph. Sadly, we do have a lot of scorpions where we live, so it wasn't too hard to find some hanging out in our yard.

I'm not sure there's much to say about these images, so I'll let them speak for themselves...

I have to admit that while I'm not necessary afraid of scorpions, they do kind of creep me out!  I was ok taking the photos since my concentration was on holding the blacklight and working my camera settings.  However it was giving me chills when I was editing these images, especially these last two of the scorpion crawling around...

I apologize to anyone who is creeped out by these.  I promise there won't be very many images like this on the blog!  However, I do think there will be more macro shots making an appearance soon.  We recently had new landscaping put in our front yard and I've been tossing around the idea of taking some macro shots of the flowers that are blooming, so stay tuned for those.

Michele Whitacre used to be a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona.  Now she just takes photos for fun when the mood strikes.
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© 2017 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

BBL 2013-2014 | Purchase a Macro Lens

#37 PURCHASE A MACRO LENS

Why did I include this on my Bucket List?

I rented a macro lens a few years ago and had fun playing around with it, but didn't see the need to own one at the time.  Since then, I've considered doing a little wedding photography and a macro lens is a must to take ring shots.

Was the experience what I had hoped it would be?

I didn't love parting with the money, but so far the lens has been great!

The details...

Every wedding photographer I know uses the same lens to take their ring shots, and I figured that many photogs couldn't be wrong, so I opted to join the masses and purchase the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM.  I did do some test shots with it using our rings and loved the results!

Do you want to see my entire 2013-2014 Birthday Bucket List?  You can find it here. Did you miss my 2012-2013 List? You can find it here.  Or my 2011-2012 List? You can find it here.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
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© 2014 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Life Happens

After spending three years swearing that I would never shoot a wedding, I somehow agreed to photograph three of them this spring.  Problem being, I didn't own a lens to take ring shots with, so I bit the bullet and added the 100mm f/2.8 L Macro to my collection.

I took it out for a little spin this morning to try it out on our rings.  I had no plans to do anything with the photos, so I just took the rings and headed out with them as is. As I was going through the images, I was looking at them to get a feel for the depth of field at different apertures, along with analyzing the angles I was using, composition, etc.  I wasn't paying any attention to the rings themselves, because, well, I'm kind of used to seeing them after us wearing them all this time.

But then I came upon the image below, and it just sort of stopped me in my tracks, and got me thinking (and crying if I'm being honest about it).

After four years, our rings are no longer perfect and pristine like the way they were the day we purchased them.  They are covered in nicks and scratches (and even a few decent sized dents in the case of Kevin's).  They haven't been professionally cleaned in a few years, and they are dirty as can be.  They aren't full of sparkle and shine, like when they were new.

But here's the thing:  Neither are we.

Anyone who's ever been in a relationship lasting several years knows that life happens.  The pretty, perfect, and pristine relationship that you started out with ends up covered with nicks, scratches, and an occasional dent here and there. And maybe things don't feel as full of sparkle and shine as they once did.

But maybe.  Just maybe.  It's the nicks and the scratches and the dents that add the real beauty.  For it is in them that your life happens.  You laugh. You sing. You dance. You scream. You curse. You cry.

You Live.  You Feel.  You Grow.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
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© 2014 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Macro Fun | Part 4

If you missed my other four posts about experimenting with a Macro Lens, you can find them here, here, here, and here.

Some of my favorite Macro Lens photographs taken by other photographers are of water droplets. So, I decided to try my hand at a few. Of course I'm not really a morning person (plus I live in the middle of the desert), so I had to fake it a bit. Instead of getting up to find some morning dew, I just turned on the hose and sprayed some nearby weeds and trees!

I love the detail of the reflect in the water droplet here...

This photo was a bit of a whoops, as I was trying to focus in on the water droplet and obviously I ended up with the leaf in focus instead.  But, I was amazed at the detail that was visible in the veins of the leaf and decided to include it for that reason...

This is a water droplet on the hose. If you look closely you can see a reflection of our rental house upside down in the drop of water...

And FINALLY, flowers!!!...

And there you have it!  A week's worth of photos from my Macro Lens Experiment!

So, now the looming question is.... Would I want to own this lens? I have to admit that shooting with this lens was TONS of fun, and I wasn't ready to return it by the time my week was up. I could have easily spent another few weeks experimenting with it. I really do think that I would enjoy having a Macro Lens, and I can see myself getting a bit more into nature photography if I owned one. That being said, I'm not sure that I would opt to purchase this exact lens. I felt like the lens was fairly heavy (and I'm not a wimp when it comes to lenses!) and I think it made it harder to hold the lens steady because I was getting tired from holding the lens up. I also felt like the auto focus wasn't very useful, so the USM basically just added useless weight. I haven't done any research on the options of Macro Lenses available, but if I was going to purchase one I would probably opt for a lighter weight lens, possibly without auto focus.

As always, thanks for stopping by and viewing my photos!

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Macro Fun | Part 3

If you missed my other three posts about experimenting with a Macro Lens, you can find them here, here and here.

When I took my Intro to Photography class, one of our first assignments was to photograph motion. I opted to take pictures of a dripping faucet for that assignment, and all things considered (like the fact that I still had no idea how to use my camera!) the photos didn't turn out half bad. I had a lot of fun taking those shots, and wanted to see what I could do with a faucet using the Macro Lens (and having a bit more knowledge under my belt about my camera).

Considering that I took all of these shots with a hand-held camera, I think they turned out pretty darn good.  I had a really hard time narrowing down my favorites so I've opted to include several different shots.  I just love how you can see the inverted faucet and water droplet reflected back inside of each of the droplets.  I used the flash for these images, and I like how you can see the star burst from the flash in some of the droplets, too...

So, what do you think? Can you pick a fav? I keep trying, but I just can't!

After playing with the water droplets, I decided to experiment with the lens and some random items around the house.  It was during this experiment that I really got a handle on the DOF of the lens.  Here are a few of the images:

The side of a quarter....

Instead of flower bouquets, the bridesmaids at our wedding carried bouquets of beads. The following two photos are close ups of those beads...

Lexi's eyelashes...

An apple...

And a plum...

I was going to take a series of extreme close-ups like the two above and hold a contest to guess what the images were, but sadly I ran out of time with the lens before I captured very many.  So, I just included a few here instead. Would you have known what they were if I hadn't told you?

Part 4 will be posted soon, so stop back by and you will FINALLY see some flower photos that I took with the Macro Lens.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Macro Fun | Part 2

If you missed my other two posts about experimenting with a Macro Lens, they can be found here and here.

The second thing on my agenda with the Macro Lens was to find some flowers and insects to photograph, so I decided to see what I could scout out near the Gila River.  Unfortunately, I didn't quite have the hang of the lens yet and most of the flower images didn't turn out so great.  I had read over and over again how small the DOF is with Macro Lenses, but I guess I just didn't believe it until I saw it for myself. When I saw the images on my computer, I was shocked to see that only a very tiny portion of each flower was in focus.

Luckily, I did a bit better with the bugs!  I was actually quite surprised by how many insects I saw while I was out shooting, and even more surprised by how many I had captured on the flowers I was photographing without even realizing that they were there (but they were out of focus, of course!).

These are my three favorite bug images:

I especially like this one...

I like all of the detail you can see in the wings above, and I am in love with the lighting!  I was shooting in the early afternoon, and the sun was out full force.  I don't normally shoot at that time of day, but I figured I was going to take advantage of the time I had with the lens.  I was rather surprised by how many of the images were keepers because of the lighting, instead of in spite of it.

After finishing near the river, I decided to take photos of a nearby cotton field.  I've been getting such a kick out of seeing them everywhere near our rental house.  I actually can't remember ever seeing a cotton field before, but that seems highly unlikely!  I lived in Mississippi for 3 1/2 years, for crying out loud.  It has to be physically impossible to live in Mississippi and never lay eyes on a cotton field, doesn't it?  But, I seriously can't recall ever seeing one in person before.

Confession Time: I have this serious bad habit of being so excited to get started photographing at a new location, that I'll fire off a few shots before I check my camera settings.  Then I'll rein myself in, and glance at the settings only to realize how insanely off they are.  You'd think after over/under exposing my first 2-3 images every time I shoot, I'd stop doing this but I never do.  I just can't seem to contain my excitement at whatever I'm about to photograph and just HAVE to capture a few shots instantly.

Shooting in the cotton field was no exception, and this next image is the first photograph I took.  It was (is) insanely overexposed, and it took a crazy amount of editing to bring it back under control.  It's not even 100% in focus, but there is something about the composition of the image, and area at the top of the cotton where the sun is so intense, that kept calling out to me and I just couldn't resist including it.  When I look at this photograph, I can picture the sun glinting off of miles of bright white cotton on a hot scorching day on a big Southern plantation.  I can picture the workers out picking the cotton, sweat rolling down their faces, and their baskets overflowing with billowy white puffs.  I guess you could say that it tells a story to me that makes the image come to life (which is quite odd considering I've never actually seen that scene anywhere except in other photographs)...

.  

I am sooo in love with this entire set of photos!  I love the glare of the bright afternoon sun on the white cotton.  I love the texture that just screams out from some of these images.  I think I could have stayed in that field shooting for hours if I'd had the time.  Instead of rambling on and on, saying the same thing about each photo, I'll just let the rest of them speak for themselves:

Admittedly, this isn't the best use of a Macro Lens, but I wanted to capture a little more of the entire cotton field and it was the lens that I had at my disposal...

I hope you'll come back to check out the photos coming up in Part 3! There are some fun ones that I can't wait to share with you!

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Macro Fun | Part 1

If you missed my original post about shooting with a Macro Lens, you can find it here.

If I was smart, I would probably save these images for last. But my obsessive-compulsive need for things to exist in chronological order prevents me from doing that. Sooooo... I give to you my favorite images that I took with the Macro Lens that I rented, which just so happens to be the first set of photos that I took with the lens.

Again, if I was smart, I'd just wow you with the photographs and keep the method of how I took them a secret, but that's not how I roll. I'm all about sharing knowledge, and learning from others. Sooooo... the exact technique for how to take these photos can be found in Bryan Peterson's book Understanding Exposure (p. 72-73 of the 3rd edition), if you're interested in giving it a try for yourself.  If you're not a photog, and you are just wondering what the heck you're looking at, these photos are taken of vegetable oil poured into a glass pan full of water, with a bright colored piece of clothing under the pan.

I've been waiting MONTHS to take these photos and I couldn't wait to give it a try the second I got my hands on the Macro Lens.  When I was viewing the images in my camera, I was a bit disappointed because I felt like they weren't turning out very well, but once I got them on computer and did a little editing on them I fell in love with them.

I hope you love them as much as I do! Stay tuned for more photos from my Macro Lens Experiment in Part 2.  (But don't get too disappointed when the rest of them are all of boring objects like flowers and insects. These really are the most fun of the bunch!)

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.