This article features some in-camera HHFS macro flower photographs captured with a 16mm extension tube and M.Zuiko 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. Falling firmly into the ‘test’ category, the images in this posting were created simply to see what would happen when macro flower images were captured handheld using in-camera focus stacking technology, and a 16 mm extension tube.
Stand By Generator
We recently had a home stand by generator installed, and I thought some readers may have an interest in the decision considerations we faced. The intent of this article is not to promote any specific brand of home stand by generator, but rather discuss some of the factors that should be contemplated.
Open Garden Week
After a two year hiatus caused by COVID-19 the Hamilton Spectator Open Garden Week has returned and is in full swing. My wife is an avid gardener and she has always enjoyed visiting local gardens and talking “all things gardening” with the homeowners. This article shares a selection of images that we captured over the last few days.
Bird Photography Fundamentals
There are four bird photography fundamentals we can keep in mind that help add some interest, action, and drama to our images. Rather than camera gear based fundamentals, they relate to the kinds of behaviours that birds exhibit. To state these four bird photography fundamentals as politely as possible these include flying, feeding, fighting, and fornicating. I like to call these the “four F’s” of bird photography. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we should stop photographing perched birds.
Nurturing Young Lives
Nurturing young lives is one of our greatest responsibilities as parents… rather than being guilty of hijacking the lives of our children. Perhaps our lives were hijacked by our parents when we were young, and we’ve fallen into the trap of following this erroneous path with our offspring. If so, it is a cycle that we have the power to break.
Terns at Grimsby Harbour
This article features a number of new images of terns at Grimsby Harbour with most of the birds in-flight. This has been an unusual spring birding season with some locations like Hendrie Valley not being very productive.
Incorporating a Foreground Element
Incorporating a foreground element in our compositions is an important way to add a feeling of depth to our landscape images. This approach, combined with our choice of focal length and aperture can help create deep depth-of-field.
Since more people are resuming travel that was interrupted by a couple of years of COVID-19 lockdowns, we thought a quick review of some landscape photography fundamentals may be helpful.
Practical Limits
Working within practical limits is something that we all face on a regular basis, regardless of the camera gear that we may own. Rather than blindly accept what other people think the practical limits of specific piece of photographic equipment may be, it is important for each of us to do our own experimentation. This enables us to establish what we consider to be the practical limits of various components of our integrated camera systems based on our photographic style, image use, and our individual skill sets.
Focus Stacking with 100-400
This article shares some in-camera focus stacking test images captured handheld with an M.Zuiko 100-400 mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom lens. I really didn’t know what to expect using my E-M1X’s in-camera focus stacking capability with this particular lens. In the past I most often used the M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 zoom or the M.Zuiko 60 mm f/2.8 macro with in-camera focus stacking.
The 100-400 does have a reasonably short minimum focusing distance of 1.3 metres, so I thought this test was worth a try. These test photographs fall under the ‘let’s see what happens’ category.
Appreciating Camera Technology
Fully appreciating camera technology is something that we sometimes forget to do as we take our camera gear for granted on occasion. I visited the Royal Botanical Gardens yesterday for about an hour and 45 minutes. During that short time I successfully captured 127 handheld in-camera focus stacked macro images of various flowers and foliage. I did miss 7 attempts.