The league of gentlemen

· 1013 words · 5 minute read

We were joined this morning on our macro outing by a gentleman sporting a massive Nikon DSLR. We forgave him this because he shoots for Getty, is a fellow of the royal society of extremely good photographers (or similarly named), does take the most extraordinary photos, and he offered to provide a post-shoot breakfast. After breakfast he treated us to a photo slideshow which had us reaching for the “format card” buttons on our cameras; not a lot of pointing taking photos when you see what he can do.

Confusingly, he is also called Nick, but with a ‘c’; so the attendees were Nik, Nick, Ian and Spike; and our gear was two Nikons (pah!) and two Olympus OM-Ds (yay!). I thought it best to lay down some ground rules for the event:

  1. For those still employing antiquated flappy mirrors in their cameras, a carry-on baggage limit of 15 kilos will apply.
  2. Any attempt to smuggle Scottish music on board will result in the continuous playing of Slap My Bitch Up by Prodigy at high volume for the entire duration of the journey.
  3. Ditto any attempt to recite poetry in a Scottish accent.
  4. Complimentary cocktails and canapes will be served on both legs of the journey to those traveling OM-D class.

Unfortunately I forgot to ban Tai Chi demonstrations, so we had a bit of that from Ian; but mainly we were too busy taking photos to be distracted. The recent rain seemed to have brought out the bugs and there was plenty to point a lens at. A good outing in fine company.

Comments 🔗

2013-01-30 | The Lightweight says

were Nick’s photos so much better because of himself, or because of his camera? ;-)

2013-01-30 | Spike says

It’s always about the photographer. Although having a sodding big sensor he could crop probably helped.

2013-01-30 | Chang Noi says

A all new world created by macro …. even with an OMD. The beautiful colours and details … even on my simple laptop screen with an sRGB IEC61966-2.1 jpg

2013-01-30 | The Lightweight says

I suppose those photos were taken using the OMD - beautiful. Also the model plains and everything else you posted since the purchase of the OMD. I can’t see why anyone would complain about the boke of m43

2013-01-30 | Spike says

Yes, all OM-D.

People who complain about M43 bokeh have never used an M43 camera.

2013-01-30 | Spike says

You can’t beat an sRGB IEC61966-2.1 jpg, allegedly.

2013-01-30 | Robin Parmar says

To be clear, people who “complain” are talking about limiting depth of field for portrait shots and the like. They are obviously not referring to macros, where increasing depth of field is the real problem. And they had a point, before the release of the 75mm.

All nothing to do with these lovely images!

2013-01-30 | Spike says

You are, as usual, correct. Although the 45mm F1.8 does a reasonable job, as does the 25mm F1.4 and the Voigtlander 25mm F0.95. And stick an old film lens on the front and the bokeh is nuts!

2013-01-30 | Dude says

Wooow. Incredible shots! And very nice post-processing. (in my oppinion) people complain about m43 as a system but the photos it can produce are just stunning. of course without the motion-tracking capabilities of phase-detection-AF taking sharp shots of these speedy bugs is pure hit-and-miss gambling. ;-) One question thoug: Did you crop the images or did you down-sample them? (a little bit of both?)

2013-01-31 | Grant says

What a lovely set of photos, that first one looks like something the Yanks would throw at someone they didn’t like… In future, can we please have more depth of field on the longitudinal bug sex? The latitudinal is fine, thanks.

2013-01-31 | Spike says

Thanks. Not much post-processing, pretty much how they came out of the camera. Where necessary they are cropped in Lightroom, and then exported as 1000 pixel wide images for use here. Sometimes, if required, I export full size PSDs and then sharpen and reduce in size in Photoshop. The full size images look spectacular; but they are too large to share on the web.

Although you will find the occasional ‘in flight’ shot, close up macro photography is of necessity done with manual focus on static subjects. The depth of field is so small, that you can’t rely on auto-focus to select the exact point you want to focus on; you have to manually focus to get exactly the right focus point; ideally using a tripod. In addition, once these small insects start jumping/flying around, it is almost impossible to physically keep the lens pointing at them, even the best auto focus system in the world is not going to help you. Any insects in flight shots I have ever managed have been achieved by focusing on a flower and waiting for an insect to arrive. Not real macro shots though.

The OM-D has an “auto-focus plus manual focus” setting, which allows me to half press the shutter to acquire an initial focus lock on the insect. Then I touch the focus ring on the lens and the camera automatically switches to manual focus and zooms in on the target so I can precisely focus. I can also turn the wheel next to the shutter to change the focus magnification I can do all this via the viewfinder or from the rear screen which I can fold out. With low down beasties, the folded out rear screen is fantastic, saves me from having to lie down in the mud! It’s pretty much a perfect macro camera.

2013-01-31 | Spike says

Never mind all this latitudinal, longitudinal bullshit; what you actually mean is: please focus on the genitals next time.

Pervert.

2013-01-31 | Grant says

That’s not me down Beach Road snapping hookers… Don’t stop though!

2013-02-02 | Grant says

…and keeping his sodding big feet out of the red ants probably helped, too… Mind you, there’s nothing better than a dose of red ants to test out the limits of your ISP…