Project 365 - Day 175 - Macro presentation

Tonight was camera club night and we had a guest speaker.  Don Komarechka came and talked to us about Macro phtography.  He covered a lot of subjects, from snowflakes to bugs to flowers.  It was a very good presentation.  I recommend visiting his web site.  You can find it here.

So when I got home, I was inspired.  But it was dark, so I can't take any macro shots of bugs or flowers.  I looked around and found this to shoot.  I used all three extension tubes on my 60mm lens.

Shot with my 60mm lens at ISO400.  Shutter was 1/100s and the aperture was f/14.  This is part of a pull tab from a pop can.

Project 365 - Day 173 - Rules to live by

I was in Sarnia today for my sister's 25th anniversary party.  This set of candles is on her counter behind the sink.  I had to slightly re-arrange the candles so the words could all be read. 

Shot with my 24-70mm lens at 70mm.  ISO800, and 1/250s at f/5.6.  Shoe mounted flash directed up at the ceiling for bounce.

Project 365 - Day 169 - Sailboat

Tonight I went out with the express purpose of getting some star trails.  Turns out it was too bright still, even at 10pm, to get these.  So I had to improvise.

Today's shot is of a sailboat at night.  I set up and took this as a straight on night shot.  My exposure was 6 seconds, and the boat is floating, so it was really blurry.  So I got out my speedlight and fired it off just before the shutter closed, emulating a rear curtain flash.

The end result is it froze the boat and still let the ambient night light in.

24-70mm lens at 24mm.  f/6.3 at 6 sec.  ISO is 800.  Manually fired handheld flash, but the camera is on a tripod.

Project 365 - Day 159 - Millipede??

I hate these things.  :-) 

We have a garbage containment unit outside since we don't have a garage.  For the first couple of years, I battled with the racoons and other "night life" around here when it was getting close to garbage day.  We would try everything from tying the garbage cans up to the posts of the car port to leaving securing the lids with bungee cords.  Nothing worked.  But finally, I designed and built a containment unit and this has kept them away successfully since then.

One of the bonuses of the containment unit is that it creates a nice damp environment for all kinds of creepy crawlies to lounge about in the doorjambs of the unit.  Every time I open the door, centipedes run for cover, potato bugs slowly meander in their potato bugly way into a darker corner, and the small millipedes pretend that they are not there and that I can't see them.

So today, I purposely went to get this guy and shoot him.

I wanted to get him in his "ring" state, but he wasn't sitting still for me.  These things should have more respect for my size and humanness...  but I did get a couple of good shots of him trying to get away.

Shot with my 60mm Nikon lens, at f/32.  Mounted on my tripod.  ISO was 1250, and the shutter is 1/100.