Winter Macro Indoors

As winter approaches I start looking for new subjects to shoot, and this is the first in a series of tips on shooting indoors during the winter months.   One of my favorite subjects to shoot during the winter months are slab cut rocks, which are thin slices of rocks that are polished smooth exposing all kinds of great abstract designs.  Each year I search out companies online that sell these rocks and this year I found “Dandy Slabs”  which is a premier site for rare, high grade and old stock lapidary materials – slabs, rough rock and collector specimens.  Check them out at,  http://www.dandyslab.com.

I shot these images using my Tamron 60mm macro lens.  When I’m shooting indoors I like using a short focal length lens and working in close with the subject.

This first rock is a Deschutes Picture Jasper Slab and I liked the rich warm tones and lines.

This part of the rock reminded me of a mountain range, and the bright area on the left is the early morning sun with a large flock of crows in the sky entering the scene.

 

This second rock is a Laguna Agate Slab.  It has a wild design with some great colors. These slabs are maybe a quarter of an inch thick and the designs vary on each side so it gives you more options for compositions.

This is the front side

And here is the same rock but from the opposite side, and a little different look.

So check out Dandy Slabs and pick up some rocks to shoot.

New E-Book Coming Soon

Finding Character In Nature is an e-book for the macro photographer that will help change the way you think the next time you go out to shoot.

The word character is often used to describe a person that is a little different or unusual from the general population.  People that have a unique look, dress flamboyant, or act different from the rest of us are known to have character. They stand out in a crowd and draw attention.  When viewing portraits of people, we often see character in the features of their face.  Finding the character in nature will give your images that unique look, and stand out.

It’s easy to do, and you will learn how in this 40 page e-book.

Coming soon with an introductory price of $5.00.

Fun With Feathers

My cure for the photographer’s cabin fever is finding interesting subjects to shoot indoors.  It’s not that I’m a wimp and don’t want to brave the cold, its just that what sells the best for me is images with color, and winter takes its toll on any color in nature here in the north. 

I can better spend my time marketing during the winter then out shooting images that won’t sell.  As much as I like winter, most people that view my images at the art shows tell me they don’t care for winter and they don’t want to look at it all year hanging on their walls.  I’m always looking for something interesting to shoot indoors.  Probably the most used indoor subject is flowers, and I do my share of flower shots, but I’m always in search of something new to shoot. 

I’ve always liked the look of bird feathers, the lines, texture and patterns have always interested me.  I have some turkey and sea gull feathers I’ve picked up locally from the parks I shoot in, but I wanted some feathers with a little more design and color.  I went online a couple weeks ago and did a search on feathers.  I found sites that were sellling a vareity of feathers mainly used by decorators for home decor arrangments. 

Here’s are some of the feathers I recieved yesterday, and had some fun setting them up and shooting.

I arranged these three feathers at slightly different angles as to not have them looking to composed. Shot at my favorite f/stop, f/32 with the Tamron 60mm macro lens. 

With this group I used two colorful feathers to flank the center feather which is more earthtone.  The contrast allowed the center feather stand out.  Shot with the Tamron 60mm macro at f/32.

These are tiny little feathers that I arranged in this group. I added a 25mm extension tube that would allow me to focus in closer on this small grouping.  I wanted a different and more abstract look, so shot this one at f/2.8.  The Tamron 60mm set at f/2.8 blurred the edges really well and I placed the point of focus on the center feather.

Winter Doldrums

This is the time of year I get tired of winter up north here in Michigan and have to get creative to shoot. The University of Michigan runs a Botanical garden so I will go there some days, or I shoot some stuff indoors at home like feathers, agate slab stones, flowers, sea shells, butterfly mounts, leaves I’ve dried from the fall, etc.

Gerbera Flowers shot with Tamrom 60mm macro

Nautilus Shell, shot with Tamron 90mm macro

Turkey Feather, sprayed with water, shot with Tamron 90mm macro

Printed one of my ice images, added the butterfly mount on top of the print, did some color processing with Nik Software Color Efex Pro. Shot with Tamron 60mm macro.

Shot at the Botanical garden, U of M.Shot with Tamron 90mm macro

 

Agate Slab Stone, Shot with Tamron 90mm macro with 25mm extension tube.

So be creative and shoot regardless of the weather outside.

Ten Favorites From 2009

I was looking over my images from 2009 and decide to pick my ten favorite images.

They are in no order as far as which ones I like best.

#1)  I’ve seen this type of shoot done before and went out one dewy morning with this image in mind.  I was lucky to find an interesting combination of grass and dew.  Placed the oxeyed dasiy in the background.

#2) We didn’t have a lot of frosty mornings this year, but I did catch one morning of frost and got this nice comp.

#3) I found this stump that had this interesting pattern and a hole that I liked, but I thought it needed a little color so I added these tiny flowers which I believe are called Morning Stars. They are only about three quarters of an inch and the area you see is maybe five by seven inches.

#4) This flower is from a May Apple plant.  The top is like a big leafy umbrella and a single flower grows under the umbrella.  I like the way this looks with a soft focus.

#5) Shot this bee on golden rod with the new Tamron 60mm macro lens, very nice fast shooting wide aperture lens.

#6) Shot this while co-teaching a workshop with Jack Graham in the Eastern Sierras.  It’s a trunk of a Briste Cone Pine tree.

#7) This shot was inspired by my photographer friend Jack Graham.  I had seen this comp done by Jack and liked it enough to shot my own.

#8) This was from a dewy morning when the fall color was pretty much gone, so I brought these flowers out with me with this comp in mind.  I like the contrast of the color against the muted leaves.  The dew adds a nice touch on the leaves.

#9) The color and condition of the Sumac bushes this year was awesome.  I’ve shots these many time with a lot of focus, but this year I decided I wanted a more soft abstract feel. The early morning sun was the bright backlighting.

#10) Here’s a cute beetle in some grass.

I was pretty happy with many of images I shot last year so had a tough time picking ten, Hope you liked them.

Winter Ice Abstracts

When December rolls in the cold weather here in the north I start getting excited to shoot abstracts in ice. The first ice is when these abstracts form. I find small streams in the woods where I live and follow the edges in search of this interesting artwork. It happens in the first ice formations at the edges of the streams. As the ice starts to thicken you lose the patterns. I shoot these using a longer focal length macro lens like the Tamron 180mm. You will be shooting from the bank and need the extra reach of the longer focal length. I shoot these in the highest f/stops to bring in all the details. Very cool stuff.

Once the stream ice thickens and I lose the cool patterns, I move to the lakes. Search out the edges of frozen lakes where fall leaves have blown into the lake and froze. On a warm sunny days you will get melted patterns in the ice above the leaves. You can shoot these with any macro lens  as you will be nice and close and you’ll be shooting a flat subject so just position your tripod directly over top of the leaf and shoot in the F/8 range.

There’s A New Fast Shooting Lens In Town

If you watch old westerns, the fastest shooter in town was well-respected, and so is the new Tamron 60mm fast shooting macro lens.  This f/2.0 out shoots the other  macro lenses by a full stop.  This really helps with macro as we tend to shoot subjects like small moving critters, flowers blowing in the wind, and if you’re like me, I shoot a lot in wooded areas were it can get pretty dark.  So to help stop a moving subject or speed up my shutter in low light, the Tamron 60mm macro fits the bill. 

The wide f/2.0 aperture of the this lens also helps to blur backgrounds, which is a problem you usually have with the short focal length lenses.  I had no problem producing a nice blured backgrounds or abstracts, and the results rivaled some of my longer focal legth macro lenses.  This lightweight lens is also great if you’re hand holding shots.

Those of you that know my style of shooting know that I like to shoot a lot of subject using full depth of field. I was very happy with the way this lens performed when stop down all the way. Nice sharp images though out.

Here are a few shots from the Tamron 60mm macro lens.

(Mike Moats is sponsored by Tamron)

www.Tamron.com

 

Fun On The Rocks

Over Labor Day weekend I was in Harrisville, Michigan exhibiting at an art show.  I arrived Friday morning to set up, and I had the afternoon off to go out and do some shooting.  I was staying at a friends home during the show and we planed to head to an old light house on Lake Huron, where I wanted to shoot some of the colorful rocks off the point of the lighthouse.  We waded out into about a foot of the cold clear water and began shooting abstracts of the rocks.  The wave action that was hightlighted by the sunlight create interesting patterns as it distorted the colorful rocks.  I was shooting some macro images earlier with my Tamron 90mm macro and decide to use it when I ventured out for these images.  My settings for the three images were, f/8. shutter 1/2000, and ISO 1600.   The high shutter speed stop the movement of the waves and captured some interesting lines in the rocks.  In the last image I caught a wave that was just entering the frame.

 

 

Macro Memorial Day Challenge

Here in southeast Michigan we had some great weather over the Memorial weekend so I decide to head out and shoot some images for the second annual Macro Memorial Day Challenge.  I am one of two moderators of the macro/flora gallery at www.Birdphotographer.net  (it’s isn’t just for birds) and my moderator partner Julie Kenward  issued the challenge.  You were supposed to shoot images at an aperture that you don’t normally shoot at.  I’m a stopped down f/32 freak and if you visit my website, www.tinylandscapes  you’ll see the majority of my images are full depth of field everything in focus.  So my challenge was to search out subjects and shoot wide open  with my Tamron 90mm macro lens. Shooting with this aperture setting will produce the nice soft blurred background with very limited depth of field on the main subject, sometimes creating a nice abstract look.  Here are some images from my Memorial Day shoot.

Found this little critter and set my focus on him and the shallow depth of field soften the grass and BG.

I set my focus on the very edge of the Mayapple flowers petal and let the rest soften with the wide open aperture.

Found this little dew drop poking sideways through the vertical grass. Place the focus point on the dew drop.

I thought this newly emerging Milkweed plant had a nice flow in the leaves. I focused on the flat leaf facing my camera. 

I liked how the light played thoughout these leaves.  I focused on the ant on the top leaf and the rest soften with the wide open aperture.  It’s hard to see the little ant on this small image size.

Still Waiting On Spring

I got out to shoot last Thursday and did find a few late blooming bloodroot, but haven’t processed them yet.  Still lacking on new growth as the only thing showing was some coiled up Skunk Cabbage and a few emerging Mayapples.  I did get a little creative with an interesting formation on a stump I found last fall.  At the time I found it I shot it with some small white flowers I found in a field but wasn’t happy with the lack of color.  My wife had bought some flowers from the store call Sun Stars,  I carried them with me to use with this stump idea.  Shot both images with my Fuji S5 and a Tamron 90mm macro lens, f/stop at f/32 .

After I finished shooting this one I was heading back to the trail I came in on and found a large Turkey feather.  I always keep interesting finds as it could come in handy combining it with another subject.  I went to visit another downed tree trunk that also had some interesting patterns in the wood.  I combined the Turkey feather with this stump.  You sometimes have to use your imagination when waiting for spring to showed up.

In a few days I’ll post one of the Bloodroot flowers I shot on this day.

Favs from 2008

I’m geting ready for my art shows that will start up in a few weeks and looking through some of my images from last year that I will be printing to sell this year at the art shows, and decided to post some of my fav shots from last year.

Thanks for looking

Mike

New Black & White Macro Gallery

I’ve always wanted to convert some of my images to black and white, but never had a printer that would produce good B& Ws. Last summer I bought an Epson 7880 and the B&Ws are awesome out of this printer.  Not sure how well any of them will sell, but never know till you try.  To check out the new images go to my website and click the Black & White Link.  www.tinylandscapes.com

Have A Great 2009 Shooting

Happy New Year to all you macro photogs out there.  Hope all your days affield in 2009 are filled with opportunities for great images. 

Now that winter has set in up here in the north my art shows are done, the workshops have slowed down, and shooting is limited to a few days here and there.

My new years resolution is to come up with a macro how to DVD and do more postings on my blog.

Check out my new macro how-to book, Tiny Landscapes,When-Where-How

purchase at www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

or

www.Amazon.com  Due a search for Tiny Landscapes

Check out my new Online Macro Nature Photography Course

www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

Website, www.tinylandscapes.com

Low Cost Macro Lens

 

I teach many “introduction to macro workshops” and a lot of the people in the workshops are there to see what kind of lens they need to shoot macro.  I suggest going for the longer macro lenses in the 150mm to 200mm range and don’t recommend any lens less than 105mm in focal length.  The problem is the longer focal length lens are very expensive and the lesser costing 105 Sigma macro will run about $400.00 and the canons and nikons in the 105’s will run more.  Many don’t want to spend that much for a lens just for macro.  I let them know that they can buy extension tubes and use their normal lens and it will only cost $160.00 for a set of tubes, so its a little more reasonable to start out shooting macro. The problem with the extension tubes is that you have to add and subtract the tubes as you move in and out from a subject, which is a hassle taking the lens off and changing tubes all day.   I’ve  had a few people in my intermediate workshops that were using a Sigma APO DG 70-300mm  zoom with macro capabilities.  Its not a 1:1 ratio that a dedicated macro has, but it will do most of what you need for general macro/close-ups.  The images I saw from the students with this lens looked pretty good.  I decided to purchase this lens and try it out for myself.  When I checked online for the cost, I was surprised it only cost $149.00, ( less than a set of extension tubes.)  I went out and shot a couple hundred frames with this lens and was impressed with the image quality and good sharpness from $149.00 lens.  I won’t tell you that its as sharp shooting as my Sigma 180mm macro lens which is a $900.00 lens, but I won’t hesitate to recommend it to someone starting out in macro and not wanting to spend a ton of money before they know if they like shooting macro. Up top are a couple of images I shot with this lens, these are leaves frozen in ice on a pond.

Check out my new macro how-to book “Tiny Landscapes”

www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

or

www.Amazon.com  Due a search for Tiny Landscapes

Check out my new Online Macro Nature Photography Course

www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

Website – www.tinylandscapes.com

Leaves In Ice

Here in southeast Michigan we are frozen in old man winter’s icey grip.  I got a chance to go out and shoot last week and had some fun shooting leaves locked in ice.  The ice was nice and clean until two days ago when we got about eight inches of snow, so no shooting leaves in ice for a while.

Check out my new how-to macro book, ” Tiny Landscapes” at,

www.MikeMoatsBlog.com

or

www.Amazon.com  Due a search for Tiny Landscapes

 

Crosby Fine Art Fair, Toledo, Ohio

Saturday and Sunday June 28th and 29th, I’m showing in the Crosby Fine Art Fair at the Toledo Botanical Garden. The show runs 10:00am till 7:00pm on Saturday, and 10:00am till 4:00pm on Sunday.  Come say hi if your in the area.

Northville Fine Art Show

I will be at the Northville Fine Art Show in Michigan on, Saturday and Sunday the 21st and 22nd. The show is held in the downtown streets.  Show hours, 10a.m. to 5p,m.  Come say hi if your in the area. Here’s another lensbaby shot, its the center of a dandelion.  Any one interested in buying a lensbaby (www.lensbaby,com) email me and I can get you a 10 percent discount from lensbaby.

 

 

 

South Lyon Fine Art Society

Tomorrow evening, Tuesday June 17th I will be presenting a talk about composition to the  South Lyon Fine Art Society.  It wll be held at the South Lyon Public Library in Michigan.   Its open to the public and anyone reading this and lives in the area is welcome to come out tomorrow night at about 7:30 p.m.

 

Heading To Cleveland Area

I will be heading out in the morning to do an art show at Crocker Park in Westlake, Ohio. Crocker Park is about 20 miles west of Cleveland.   Shows on Saturday and Sunday.  Tomorrow I will be going to shoot at the Bradley Woods Reservation, one of the Cleveland Metroparks. Here’s another of my lensbaby images. I gave this one a nice soft focus look.  If anyone is looking to purchase a new lensbaby, email me (mgmoats@yahoo.com) and I can get you a 10 percent discount from lensbaby.

 

On The Beach

After the tide came back in and ended my tide pool shoot on the Oregon coast, I retreated to the beach to look for subjects to shoot. I found some feathers in the sand that had some interesting comps. I will be talking with Jack Graham in the up coming weeks to plan another of the “Macro & More” workshops for Oregon in 2009. We’ve already had inquries for next year.