Macro photography from a distance
Okay, it's not the best quality, but it's not bad considering the way it was taken.
Usually when I do macro-photography I set my dSLR up on a tripod, I use extension tubes between the lens and the camera so I can focus much closer than normal and I use a decent flash to provide the extra light needed.
The picture below was taken with my Olympus C-5050z from our back verandah, about ten metres away from the subject using available light.
This is how I did it. The picture below is a spotting scope. They're usually used for birdwatching (of the feathered variety), they're also used by shooters to see if they managed to hit their target. This one is a relatively cheap one compared to what is on the market, but it certainly works well. Those flowers usually have ants in them collecting the nectar. If there'd been one in that particular flower you would have been able to see it. It zooms in to 60x magnification. The equivalent amount of power in telephoto lens for an SLR camera would cost many, many thousands of dollars.
That's why digiscoping is so popular with birdwatchers. Basically, you put your digital camera (even a point and shoot) on the end of a spotting scope and snap away.
I don't yet have an adaptor to mount the camera on the scope, I just hold the camera up to the eyepiece, but it's still pretty good I think.
I took the scope to the Boondall Wetlands with my nephew Joe yesterday as he's doing a school assignment about the wetlands. I think all the birds must have got prior warning we were on the way as there were hardly any to be seen.
The flower is on that bush up against the shed.
If you're interested in trying digiscoping, here is the scope I have. That's not the price I paid though, we know someone that works for a wholesaler.
3 comments:
An interesting way to take macro photos - from 100 m away! Turned out OK though Steve. The flower looks like the NZ pohutukawa that flowers here at Christmas.
Your kookaburra looks like our kingfisher but has paler colours. They belong to the same family, but yours makes a strange sound and ours doesn't. Thanks for the nature shots. - Dave
Actually Dave, in Oz it's called the New Zealand Christmas tree and the birds, bats and possums love it. Actually, so do the bees and ants. It's a really nice plant. It seems wrong that we've got your nice plants and you've got our possums.
I think most of the kingfisher species are a bit hard done by because they're overshadowed by the kookas. As nice as the kookaburas are, the other birds are just as worthy of our attention.
Hi again Steve. Ah, so I was right about the tree. Here it flowers just on Christmas hence the name.
I have been experimenting over the last four years at growing them from seed I gathered from a tree. Gave four trees I grew to the council to plant somewhere. I have two more now that I grew from green cuttings. OK re-trees and possums... - Dave
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