Back to Macro

Macro is still one of my favourite types of photography. I'm making do with my Sigma 70-300mm lens, which does macro in the 200mm-300mm range, and is limited to manual focus. It's been good to force myself to experiment in manual mode, as it's also forced me to try and understand depth of field, and how it's related to both aperture and focal length.

 

My one big complaint, however, is that it's made it extraordinarily difficult to capture macro pictures of moving subjects. Macro photography in the 200mm-300mm range has such a narrow depth of field, that even a slowly moving subject can quickly move out of focus. And without any kind of visual assistance for focus, like an old fashioned SLR would have, maintaining focus on a moving subject has been near impossible.

Thankfully, this pine cone wasn't moving, and the mossy ground cover was unaffected by wind.

f5.3

1/60

240mm

What is it?

The fungi that grows on fallen trees can be very interesting. I was able to find a few the other day, and spent some time seeing if I could get any interesting pictures.

Then I stumbled on this one. I don't think I've ever seen one that was leaking before. This isn't rain or water, at least from an external source. The fungi is just sweating.

Anyways, I'm not the happiest with the shots I was able to get. None of them really captured it in a way that I found was particularly interesting. But it's neat to look at none the less.


f/13
1/60
300mm

Mossy Limbs

I think dead (or dying) trees just might be more interesting. Live trees are great in bunches. And made a beautiful background. And photograph fabulously as a lush forest around a misty lake, or reflected in the still waters of a pond, or... you get what I mean. But dead trees have character, and make something special all by themselves.

I didn't focus in on this tree as close as I would have like in the original shot, so it's cropped down a bit. But I do like how this shot turned out.

f/4.5
1/500
150mm