I'm a little disappointed that I missed the last few weeks of posting, especially when I'm so close to the end of this 52 Week photo adventure. However, work commitments have been more than a little crazy lately and I couldn't spare even an hour to snap some images never mind blogging about them.
But here we are again and I'm ready to bring this 2011 visual jaunt to a close. Hopefully in style. I plan on taking lots of photos between now and December 31st!
In the meantime, Santa came early for me (care of Craigslist and a deal too good to pass up).
This is the respected Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro lens. It's been on my radar for awhile so I was very happy to finally snag one. So why Macro? Well why not?! I'm fascinated by the idea of getting close, real close, and seeing details that we either take for granted or that we generally never even see.
I've barely had a chance to play with this new addition to my photographic arsenal but I've already made a few discoveries. In low light it's a tricky little beast - as one focuses closer and closer one loses a fair amount of exposure so a flash or good natural light is a must. The above shot of my keys was taken indoors at night wide open at f/2.8 and with a high ISO (hence the grain).
This close and this wide open, depth of field is-...well, very small! As you can see in all these pictures, I was generally working with about 5mm or so of area in focus. I should have used a tripod for these shots instead of going hand-held because even the slightest little shake of the hand can throw things off.
Hopefully future subjects will be a little more welcoming... Talk about being given the evil eye!
The Tamron 90mm is also regarded as a great portrait lens and it has lovely bokeh (the out of focus area of the pictures), soft and creamy!
At some point it would be great to pick up a set of extension tubes. These little do-dads fit between the lens and the camera and take things even closer allowing one to capture some really crazy images. Here's an example from Flickr of just how close one can get...!
EEEEK!
Until next time folks, thanks for hanging in there despite my recent absence.
No comments:
Post a Comment