I did it! After debating it for a few days after the photography club shoot, I decided to bite the bullet and rent a macro lens to test out. After I got it, I realized it wasn't the exact one I was thinking of, but it certainly would work to test the concept. It was a Tamron 90mm and I thought I was getting a Tokina 100mm. Sure, I could have just gotten the Nikon, but there is a pretty big price difference and macro isn't an everyday thing. It seems like a good one to try out a non-Nikon lens.
And even though it wasn't the right lens, I had a ton of fun with it. The week was over to fast and I had to give it back. Guess I have something to lust after for awhile!
So on to the photos. There isn't really a theme to this post except playing with the macro lens. It's obviously great at close up photos, but it is supposed to be a good portrait lens as well. You be the judge!
The strawberries taste amazing right now! They aren't Alaskan strawberries - those have been in short supply thanks to the rain, but any kind of produce that tastes amazing up here is a bit of a treat. Though with the macro lens, I noticed the seeds weren't so beautiful... That makes me really appreciate food stylists and their perfect strawberries! And strawberries are slightly hairy - who knew??
Macro is already opening up a whole new world! ; )
Wildflowers in the backyard. I read up quite a bit on macro *after* I got the lens and the challenges of taking extreme close up photos. Zooming in super close can give you a super small depth of field - you can see here that not much besides the front flower is in focus. This is possible to work around, but I didn't have my tripod out, so I was compromising on the shutter / f-stop. Practice makes perfect, right?
I know it's hard to tell on here how crisp these photos are because I downsize them for the internet. But they are pretty awesome! This is a crop of a photo of the flowers in our hanging baskets. And the stamen is super clear. Ok fine, I'll just go crop and zoom in again and see how it looks.
Keeping in mind this is maybe 1/20th the size of the full image... Look at that clarity! You can see pollen! And if I could remember my middle school science better, I might remember what the other parts are called. But they are there in great detail, whatever they are called!
Ok, I'm good. The photo of the peeling bark has calmed me down. Matt has been working hard on clearing out the dead trees and abundance of alders in the backyard. I've been running around taking photos - seems a fair distribution of labor, right?
I had another photo right here and I was typing the caption up: "I don't love this photo as much." Then I couldn't think of any reason to share a photo I didn't like that much. It was a tomato and lettuce from the farmers market that we made awesome BLT's out of. The sandwich was amazing - the photo? Not so much. So the photography skills aren't quite up to the cooking skills - I'm ok with that.
This photo I love. I don't do black and white very often, but sometimes a photo just needs it. This was a perfect example of where the color took away from the dramatic feeling I get when I look at Henry's beautiful eye. And to top it off, I can even see my reflection in it!
Completely off topic - why do babies have such amazingly gorgeous eyelashes??
Too be fair, Thomas has some pretty long eyelashes too. And you can see some of the dings in his glasses... I'm surprised they have done as well as they have so far. He needs a new pair though - they look like they are starting to be too short for his face. It's not just clothes and shoes they outgrow quickly as this age, is it?
I struggle with Thomas and his glasses when I want to take photos. They recommended against anti-glare for kids. I can't remember exactly why - maybe it made them easier to scratch? But I do remember my protest for them was because of photo taking. Their brilliant advice? Take them off for photos! Thanks...
Sometimes I do. When we do the monthly photo shoots, I take them off. But day to day, he has them on and I'm not going to force him to have blurry vision to take a few photos. Plus he looks like something is missing now if they aren't there. So I mostly leave them on, but then in photos like this where there is glare. I think it's still a good photo, but it would be great without the glare... *sigh*
Natalie has officially gone gray. I know, it's not really news, but she is starting to look like a distinguished lady instead of the wild crazy girl she once was.
Look at this guy and his super awesome head control. I'm thinking any day now he will be sitting up. Well it's probably more that I am hoping he will sit up soon. Life gets so much easier once they don't fall over quite so easily... And I will also say a 90mm lens is a little challenging to use in the front room - the magnification on it meant I had to be almost across the room to get more than just his head in the shot. But other than that I thought it did a great job on both close up shots and the portrait style photos. Yay for a multi-tasker!
And as promised to my sweet hubby who did all the hard work - a blueberry pie! Except we didn't have enough blueberries, so I added some leftover raspberries from Brittney's yard - so an Alaska Berry pie! I know there's no scale, so it looks huge. Nope! I finally got to use my 6" pie plate I bought forever ago and never had a reason to use. It was the cutest little berry pie ever! And pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself. :)