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Comments
Blimey - that's one amazing close up
Excellent indeed
cheers, Paul
Excellent indeed
cheers, Paul
Fantastic. I wish my close-ups were this sharp, clear and, well, close really. Click.
Alex.
Alex.
Handheld??!!??
Mental! You're as steady as a rock! You're not a heart surgeon, are you? heh heh!
The detail is fantastic; well done
Mental! You're as steady as a rock! You're not a heart surgeon, are you? heh heh!
The detail is fantastic; well done
Impressive! I can't get within 10 feet of them to use a normal lens, let alone grab such an extreme closeup.
How did you get this?
Ian
How did you get this?
Ian
Ian, I discovered that they tend not to notice you if you keep yourself below the horizon relative to the dragonflies line of sight.
Then it is the usual matter of patiently approaching at an incredibly slow pace until they get used to the idea of having a 180mm macro lens about 10cm from their head! Actually, they seem to become almost hypnotised if you succeed in doing this!
The hardest part is keeping steady as a tripod would probably scare them away before you could set it up!
I might have to try this technique on Hannah (our baby daughter) next, see if it will hypnotise her too!
Thanks again for all you kind comments!
Regards,
Tim
Then it is the usual matter of patiently approaching at an incredibly slow pace until they get used to the idea of having a 180mm macro lens about 10cm from their head! Actually, they seem to become almost hypnotised if you succeed in doing this!
The hardest part is keeping steady as a tripod would probably scare them away before you could set it up!
I might have to try this technique on Hannah (our baby daughter) next, see if it will hypnotise her too!
Thanks again for all you kind comments!
Regards,
Tim
Thenks Tim. Mind you, the ones we get by our pond don't even seem to settle for more than a few seconds. I'm still trying to work out if there is a particular plant or something I can get which would encourage them.
Ian
Ian
Thanks Gav,
With extension tubes, you get to within about 10cm! This was taken about 50cm away without extension tubes.
Ian, if you can catch them when their mating and laying eggs by the pond then you will get a good chance, otherwise try the late afternoons away from the pond and look around for any dried grasses or branches where they can perch - like a look-out, they tend to use these in a territorial manner I have noticed.
Regards,
Tim
With extension tubes, you get to within about 10cm! This was taken about 50cm away without extension tubes.
Ian, if you can catch them when their mating and laying eggs by the pond then you will get a good chance, otherwise try the late afternoons away from the pond and look around for any dried grasses or branches where they can perch - like a look-out, they tend to use these in a territorial manner I have noticed.
Regards,
Tim
Thanks again Tim.
Brilliant detail, what a to get the most out of that Macro! Spot on! Click!!!
Have an RC on me! Definately worth one.
Click.
Tg.
Click.
Tg.
Ooh fantastic shot Tim. I seem to have somehow managed to miss your portfolio in the past. No idea how as you seem to be a bit of an insect nut at times and I am always attracted to those shots!
I see you use the sigma 180 macro - a lens I am considering getting myself for the new insect season. I have tried one out briefly in a shop but am waiting until they get hold of a 150 as well to compare the two which should hopefully be any day now. I see you handhold most of your macro shots which did does bring a big smile to my face as I am looking to get the big 180 if it is handholdable and from your gallery it most definitely is!
I was impressed by the results I got in the shop in pretty terrible light with the 180. So much so that I thought my memory must be bad as the couple of handheld shots I took seemd just too good to be handheld.
I think your gallery has now convinced me that unless the 150 is a heck of a lot better than the 180 then the 180 is the way to go. For a combination of subject distance and image quality it looks pretty much unbeatable. My current setup (sigma 70-300 + 1:1 filter) gives me almost 60cm which I have been so spoilt with over the past year. The 180 gets me quite close to this and seems even better for hand holding too!
I have now made you one of my favourites so I can't miss any more of your posts!
I see you use the sigma 180 macro - a lens I am considering getting myself for the new insect season. I have tried one out briefly in a shop but am waiting until they get hold of a 150 as well to compare the two which should hopefully be any day now. I see you handhold most of your macro shots which did does bring a big smile to my face as I am looking to get the big 180 if it is handholdable and from your gallery it most definitely is!
I was impressed by the results I got in the shop in pretty terrible light with the 180. So much so that I thought my memory must be bad as the couple of handheld shots I took seemd just too good to be handheld.
I think your gallery has now convinced me that unless the 150 is a heck of a lot better than the 180 then the 180 is the way to go. For a combination of subject distance and image quality it looks pretty much unbeatable. My current setup (sigma 70-300 + 1:1 filter) gives me almost 60cm which I have been so spoilt with over the past year. The 180 gets me quite close to this and seems even better for hand holding too!
I have now made you one of my favourites so I can't miss any more of your posts!
Wow John! I am honoured indeed!
Really appreciate your taking the time to take a look around my shots here. I guess for those of us that can't afford the Canon 180mm, the Sigma is definitely the way to go, although I am often tempted to get a Canon 100mm also, it does give fantastic results from what I have seen. One of the problems with the 180mm is that it is hard to get a good depth of field, even at f22, the focal plane is wafer thin!
The new 150mm macro gives the extra stop, although how often are you going to use that in a macro shot?, I usually start at f10 and go up to f32 if I have a tripod opportunity!
Regards,
Tim
Really appreciate your taking the time to take a look around my shots here. I guess for those of us that can't afford the Canon 180mm, the Sigma is definitely the way to go, although I am often tempted to get a Canon 100mm also, it does give fantastic results from what I have seen. One of the problems with the 180mm is that it is hard to get a good depth of field, even at f22, the focal plane is wafer thin!
The new 150mm macro gives the extra stop, although how often are you going to use that in a macro shot?, I usually start at f10 and go up to f32 if I have a tripod opportunity!
Regards,
Tim
I was tempted by the Canon 100mm until I realised you'd have to be almost touching the subject for 1:1 which certainly isn't good for a lot of my subjects. I wouldn't mind the canon 180mm but the price is a bit high considering the other bits of kit I want to get. From my little play with the Sigma 180 the dof seemd better than my current setup. Like you say, I don't think for macro work I'll be using f2.8 a lot if I got the 150, though for non-macro work it might be useful. Subject diatance is my biggest thing though and that's why, if the 180 is hand holdable (which it seems to be) and pretty close to the quality of the 150 then I'll go for it.
Do you use flash at all for your hand hold shots, or are you able to get enough natural light for this?
Do you use flash at all for your hand hold shots, or are you able to get enough natural light for this?
I try not to use a flash ever really, I find the light is too harsh, but then I don't have a good flash system. The light would need to be diffuse to work really well. I am looking into experimenting with more diffuse light sources and even reflectors can make a big difference, although they would also scare a lot of things away!
I am sure you will be happy with the 180mm Sigma, they have come down in price a huge amount recently too!
Tim
I am sure you will be happy with the 180mm Sigma, they have come down in price a huge amount recently too!
Tim
Thanks for that. I have also found the built in flash to be very harsh. I shall be getting a decent one for my trip to Uganda in July and will be getting a diffuser too which hopefully will be better for my insect work. As you say reflectors can make a big difference too. I will try with just some bits of card and things at first I think. Cheap and quite small so hopefully not too scary for the subjects.
