Some macro shots I did today (lizards and bee)

Ah, spring is coming... time for some macro shooting

Done with the E-M5 and the 60mm 2.8 macro lens.

Comments & critique welcome.

sometimes I was too slow though...

Oli4D wrote:

Ah, spring is coming... time for some macro shooting

Done with the E-M5 and the 60mm 2.8 macro lens.

Comments & critique welcome.

Nice crouching technique.  I can see your pose in the lizards eye.  

Great shots.

Oli4D wrote:

Ah, spring is coming... time for some macro shooting

Done with the E-M5 and the 60mm 2.8 macro lens.

Comments & critique welcome.

sometimes I was too slow though...

Very nice set. Nice shootin'.  Perhaps it's time for me to buy that lens......

Very nice. The bee in flight is great. Tough shot. What sort of lizard?

Martin.au wrote:

Very nice. The bee in flight is great. Tough shot. What sort of lizard?

Thank you. Yeah I just wish the wings of the bee would be visible... but well, not enough fast shutter I guess.

About the lizards... gooood question, I'm not sure but I think most of them are these guys here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podarcis_muralis

They can be found here in Zürich where I live close to water and on stones.

NCV wrote:

Like the lizards.

How did you get so close, they are usually very timid ?

Thank you

Well... try try try. Very often they run away, but sometimes not. Or let you take a few shots before they do.

It seems to work best when you approach them very slowly... without any fast movements.

The Close-Up shot of the head is actually 1:1 with the 60mm macro... so really very close...

I think they are also not all the same... some are very shy, others a bit less.

What definitely scares them are shadows, noises, fast movements...

I just try to avoid all that and hope for the best ^^

Oli4D wrote:

Martin.au wrote:

Very nice. The bee in flight is great. Tough shot. What sort of lizard?

Thank you. Yeah I just wish the wings of the bee would be visible... but well, not enough fast shutter I guess.

About the lizards... gooood question, I'm not sure but I think most of them are these guys here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podarcis_muralis

They can be found here in Zürich where I live close to water and on stones.

Greutzi!

I like all of your shots, plus the great dragon/damselflies at your flickr site .

Yes, you are "in the box" regarding stopping that wing motion of the bee. It is a great image as it is.

Maybe another stop faster would stop the slight motion blur of the pollen particles but very difficult to stop the wings. So far I find that ONLY in direct sunlight on very bright days do I have a chance to do that. (In some cases I can get up to f5.6, 1/4000, ISO 200).

I haven't tried any auxiliary lighting.   You?

I shoot RAW and sometimes underexpose by reducing shutter interval ... tricky because when I bring it back up in LR, at high ISO, the darks are noisy.  Always a compromise, eh?

Nice work!

Tom

Neurad1 wrote:

Very nice set. Nice shootin'. Perhaps it's time for me to buy that lens......

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Thank you Neurad1.

Well I'm still quite a beginner and never used any other macro lenses... but I definitely like the 60mm 2.8

Usually it focuses rather fast and the image quality is definitely awesome in my eyes.

GeorgianBay1939 wrote:

Oli4D wrote:

Martin.au wrote:

Very nice. The bee in flight is great. Tough shot. What sort of lizard?

Thank you. Yeah I just wish the wings of the bee would be visible... but well, not enough fast shutter I guess.

About the lizards... gooood question, I'm not sure but I think most of them are these guys here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podarcis_muralis

They can be found here in Zürich where I live close to water and on stones.

Greutzi!

I like all of your shots, plus the great dragon/damselflies at your flickr site .

Yes, you are "in the box" regarding stopping that wing motion of the bee. It is a great image as it is.

Maybe another stop faster would stop the slight motion blur of the pollen particles but very difficult to stop the wings. So far I find that ONLY in direct sunlight on very bright days do I have a chance to do that. (In some cases I can get up to f5.6, 1/4000, ISO 200).

I haven't tried any auxiliary lighting. You?

I shoot RAW and sometimes underexpose by reducing shutter interval ... tricky because when I bring it back up in LR, at high ISO, the darks are noisy. Always a compromise, eh?

Nice work!

Tom

Grüezi Tom

Thanks a lot. Yeah I know a bit faster would have been good to freez it even more... but well, I think I was lucky with that shot anyway

No I have not tried any additional lights so far.

But thanks for the idea with the underexposing... I might try that.

Kind regards, Oliver

iansmith wrote:

Nice crouching technique. I can see your pose in the lizards eye.

Great shots.

haha yeah I know

Thanks!

Oli4D wrote:

GeorgianBay1939 wrote:

Oli4D wrote:

Martin.au wrote:

Very nice. The bee in flight is great. Tough shot. What sort of lizard?

Thank you. Yeah I just wish the wings of the bee would be visible... but well, not enough fast shutter I guess.

About the lizards... gooood question, I'm not sure but I think most of them are these guys here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podarcis_muralis

They can be found here in Zürich where I live close to water and on stones.

Greutzi!

I like all of your shots, plus the great dragon/damselflies at your flickr site .

Yes, you are "in the box" regarding stopping that wing motion of the bee. It is a great image as it is.

Maybe another stop faster would stop the slight motion blur of the pollen particles but very difficult to stop the wings. So far I find that ONLY in direct sunlight on very bright days do I have a chance to do that. (In some cases I can get up to f5.6, 1/4000, ISO 200).

I haven't tried any auxiliary lighting. You?

I shoot RAW and sometimes underexpose by reducing shutter interval ... tricky because when I bring it back up in LR, at high ISO, the darks are noisy. Always a compromise, eh?

Nice work!

Tom

Grüezi Tom

Thanks a lot. Yeah I know a bit faster would have been good to freez it even more... but well, I think I was lucky with that shot anyway

No I have not tried any additional lights so far.

But thanks for the idea with the underexposing... I might try that.

Kind regards, Oliver

First, thanks for the spelling correction!  My Swiss-German is oral, having learned it from some of my Swiss relatives over the years.

I have a pair of cheap, LCD panels that have their own batteries and which I can either hand hold or attach to the tripod mount ... or to the tripod itself.  I haven't tried them yet.   I tend NOT to use the tripod when shooting bugs though, as I am not fast enough to move the camera on the ball head when the wee beastie moves around.

I am looking forward to seeing some bugs SOON!   It has been a long winter here and I am getting a bit tired of snow shots!

Yeah, I find no problem getting a stop of speed by shooting a stop under exposed and pulling it up in Lightroom.  I tend to use the spot meter when shooting bugs and watch my LV histogram.  I chimp a lot and often preshoot to find a good exposure before the bug arrives at the flower. Always a compromise!

Have fun!

t

Tom

Great shots and love the Flickr stream.

Can I ask if these were all hand held without flash? How did you get such a high shutter speed at relatively large apertures? Unless it was VERY bright (I'm in Australia, doesn't get much brighter than here and I'm finding the 60mm f2.8 a steep learning curve, was attempting bees today). Were these the best of a lot of pics? Do you shoot burst mode?

Cheers

Pepyn

The bee shot is pretty freaking awesome!  I would just increase the saturation on the lizard for eye-catching purposes; however, if it's for documentary then I would leave it alone.

GL!

Pepyn wrote:

Great shots and love the Flickr stream.

Can I ask if these were all hand held without flash? How did you get such a high shutter speed at relatively large apertures? Unless it was VERY bright (I'm in Australia, doesn't get much brighter than here and I'm finding the 60mm f2.8 a steep learning curve, was attempting bees today). Were these the best of a lot of pics? Do you shoot burst mode?

Cheers

Pepyn

Hello Pepyn

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it.

Yes, all hand held without any artificial lighting, just the sun.

It was a normal sunny day here early spring in Switzerland... so the sun was high, but not as much as in Summer. And definitely not Australia "style"

I shot in Aperture mode... set ISO to 800 (often 1600 is required) and tried to set the aperture depending on the DOF I wanted. most of the time somewhere between 6.3 and 8 or so.

The shutter was still fast enough as you can see... so really no special tricks here

And let's face it: I was pretty lucky with the bee shot in flight ^^

Oh and yes, this series is a "best of", in total I shot maybe 5 times as many. Yes, in slow burst mode. But I did not use it that much actually.

Pepyn wrote:

Great shots and love the Flickr stream.

Can I ask if these were all hand held without flash? How did you get such a high shutter speed at relatively large apertures? Unless it was VERY bright (I'm in Australia, doesn't get much brighter than here and I'm finding the 60mm f2.8 a steep learning curve, was attempting bees today). Were these the best of a lot of pics? Do you shoot burst mode?

Cheers

Pepyn

Sorry edit to above - I meant relatively small apertures

Pepyn wrote:

Pepyn wrote:

Great shots and love the Flickr stream.

Can I ask if these were all hand held without flash? How did you get such a high shutter speed at relatively large apertures? Unless it was VERY bright (I'm in Australia, doesn't get much brighter than here and I'm finding the 60mm f2.8 a steep learning curve, was attempting bees today). Were these the best of a lot of pics? Do you shoot burst mode?

Cheers

Pepyn

Sorry edit to above - I meant relatively small apertures

Hello Pepyn

Ah ok, no worries. Well it must be the ISO 800 then... no other "tricks".

Sunlight, ISO 800 (sometimes I go for 1600)... that's it

How do you get insects in flight? I find myself chasing them around, never able to get framed and focused in time. Did you set up on the flower and let the bee come to you? Lovely work.