Ice Art ?

[Lord V]

Some shots of sheet ice from a dirty water barrel. These are not manipulated apart from focus stacking for greater DOF.

Brian v.

[Farplace]

They are amazing, Brian. Thank you!

[ChrissyMarie]

They are indeed very beautiful.
As an aside, yesterday I looked in the kitchen to see my other half had returned from work and was howling with laughter at me... what was I doing? Well, I had the camera, my tripod, my macro lens and an extension tube (my extension tubes were a a gift from someone that I had not yet got around to playing with). Anyway, I also had pieces of frozen grass pegged up to various locations around the garden. Andy asked what I was doing and my answer was...well I am trying to see how Lord V gets flowers in his water droplets and practicing with the sun......
Good thing he knows me!!!


When we got up there were beautiful ice patterns throughout our conservatory this morning. So here is a little ice art from our house.
Hopefully, you will all forgive the lack of expertise with my macro equipment, I confess to requiring a lot more practice with manual focus....

[Deb London]

Originally Posted by Lord V

Some shots of sheet ice from a dirty water barrel. These are not manipulated apart from focus stacking for greater DOF.

Brian v.

Excellent.

[Andestine]

Brian,

Those are exquisite! Which lens did you use? And how clever of you to start an 'Ice Art' topic . Perfect timing, of course, and you can't say that I didn't warn you about our meandering threads

I'm greatly looking forward to seeing more from around the country now that the Ice Queen cometh

Chrissy,

What lovely images! And I must ask you too about the lens you used...and I totally fail to see any lack of expertise with your macro equipment in these photos

(Doing up the house and garden are stopping me trying out my extension tubes, so I will be coming to you for advice on how to use them come Christmas )

Cheers,

Andestine

[Lord V]

Originally Posted by Andestine

Brian,

Those are exquisite! Which lens did you use? And how clever of you to start an 'Ice Art' topic . Perfect timing, of course, and you can't say that I didn't warn you about our meandering threads

I'm greatly looking forward to seeing more from around the country now that the Ice Queen cometh


Cheers,

Andestine

Thanks - using an MPE-65 lens as usual plus some focus stacking for greater DOF.
Brian v.

[ChrissyMarie]

Originally Posted by Andestine

Brian,

Chrissy,

What lovely images! And I must ask you too about the lens you used...and I totally fail to see any lack of expertise with your macro equipment in these photos

(Doing up the house and garden are stopping me trying out my extension tubes, so I will be coming to you for advice on how to use them come Christmas )

Cheers,

Andestine

Haha, it won't be much good asking me...not till I get to grips with them. I have a Sigma 150mm lens. But, it has not been used as much as my tele lens and I need a lot more practice with it. I used it on it's own for the second shot and you can see areas that are out of focus towards the corners!

The tubes were provided my someone who changed all his Nikon camera gear over to Canon so he gave them to me knowing that I was enjoying playing with the Sigma. I used one of them yesterday.........but confess to not having a clue what I was doing!
I fixed it to the lens and the camera correctly
After that, well.....

[Andestine]

Originally Posted by ChrissyMarie

Haha, it won't be much good asking me...not till I get to grips with them. I have a Sigma 150mm lens. But, it has not been used as much as my tele lens and I need a lot more practice with it. I used it on it's own for the second shot and you can see areas that are out of focus towards the corners!

The tubes were provided my someone who changed all his Nikon camera gear over to Canon so he gave them to me knowing that I was enjoying playing with the Sigma. I used one of them yesterday.........but confess to not having a clue what I was doing!
I fixed it to the lens and the camera correctly
After that, well.....

Hello M'Ducks

I'm a Canon girl myself, and am in love with my Sigma 105mm. I've been teaching myself macro photography (and photography in general) since last March. I'm working fully manually and found few books of any use, except 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson. But in searching through many photographic forums I discovered one which is a real treasure trove of excellent advice, even if for people who aren't Canon fans:

Canon Digital Photography Forums - Powered by vBulletin

If you haven't already looked at it via the hints and tips link Brian posted earlier

Macrophotography by LordV - Canon Digital Photography Forums

then do take a look at the Macro, and the Macro-talk section, and let me know what you think

I was getting cross-eyed trying to understand the things that were written on other sites, but Brian and most of the other macrophotographers on this site really know how to explain things clearly and simply.

Also check out 'Still Life, B/W, and experimental', plus their discussion section for great ideas for what to do in winter

Still Life, B/W & Experimental - Canon Digital Photography Forums


Once I discovered POTN I never needed to go anywhere else for information and inspiration apart from one other lovely Brit site, especially for the local landscape shots. Both sites are very friendly, welcoming and exceedingly helpful though, even with beginners like me, and I expect to be still learning from them for the rest of my life

Canon Fodder Forums

But don't talk to me about focusing! It's currently the bane of my life. I keep on having to adjust my diopter for some reason as it seems to work better on different settings over the course of a day. Doesn't make the least bit of sense to me, as it should be set to my eyesight and be OK from then on...

And if you've produced lovely images like that with your extension tubes without knowing what you're doing then I'm greatly looking forward to seeing what you do when you really catch on!

Come Christmas, when at least my refurbishment chores are over (gardens never are, of course ) I'll be able to join you in experimenting with new toys I'm also looking forward to using the reversing ring I bought for my 18-55mm kit lens. Have you ever tried that? I've seen some great results with that macro-technique. Not as good as the MP-E 65, of course, but amazing for the low price of the ring.

Must go now, as I could happily talk about photography for ever

Cheers,

Andestine

[Lord V]

[quote=ChrissyMarie;707255]They are indeed very beautiful.
As an aside, yesterday I looked in the kitchen to see my other half had returned from work and was howling with laughter at me... what was I doing? Well, I had the camera, my tripod, my macro lens and an extension tube (my extension tubes were a a gift from someone that I had not yet got around to playing with). Anyway, I also had pieces of frozen grass pegged up to various locations around the garden. Andy asked what I was doing and my answer was...well I am trying to see how Lord V gets flowers in his water droplets and practicing with the sun......
Good thing he knows me!!!


When we got up there were beautiful ice patterns throughout our conservatory this morning. So here is a little ice art from our house.
Hopefully, you will all forgive the lack of expertise with my macro equipment, I confess to requiring a lot more practice with manual focus....

Liked the story - I often get strange looks when It looks like I'm praying on the front lawn doing dewdrop refractions shots.

Love your frost pattern shots - it can make amazing patterns sometimes on a macro scale but sometimes on a much larger scale but always difficult to photograph.

Re focusing. I nearly always focus bracket my shots. This is partially because I do a lot of focus stacking but the fall back position is that I nearly always get at least one shot with the focus exactly where I want it. When I'm shooting at high magnifications (4 or 5:1) it comes in very useful as the viewfinder is pretty dim and it gets very difficult to see if the subject is in focus.

Brian v.

[Sparklebug]

Originally Posted by ChrissyMarie

Love this one Chrissy - it looks almost like an etching, so pretty!