My first dabble with a macro lens

Again, I stand agasp at my ability to not post on my blog with proper regularity.
Or rather - I realise how much this year has ran away with my time!

Earlier in the year I was able to convince the kind folks at Nikon South Africa to loan me a macro lens to play with for a week or two. I was handed the Nikkor 105mm f2.8 Micro lens, and proceeded to (try to) put it through its paces.

I must confess, I have always enjoyed good macro photography (especially of the smaller organisms that inhabit our planet, more so than flowers and fine detail on porcelain teacups)...yet I have never felt an innate desire to partake in it, to try my hand at it as it were. I knew once I started playing with this great piece of glass that there's more to it than merely sticking your lens very close to a bug's face. The bug also would have to sit still, but that is a totally different issue.

Without relenting to too much text, here are a few sample images I was able to make during my time spent with this lens. I can definitely see myself investing in one of these "for the fun of it" in the future!

Nikon D800  |  Nikkor 105mm f2.8 Micro VR  |  f5.6  |  1/100 SS  |  ISO-100

Nikon D800  |  Nikkor 105mm f2.8 Micro VR  |  f20  |  1/320 SS  |  ISO-1000

Nikon D800  |  Nikkor 105mm f2.8 Micro VR  |  f11  |  1/160 SS  |  ISO-1000

What do you think? Should I dabble some more?

Morkel Erasmus

Cosmos Sunset Abstract

It's autumn in South Africa again. In the Highveld, where I live, this means it's cosmos time - millions of seeds come into bloom, often in great sweeping patches of white and pink. The challenge is always finding a meadow of a decent size in a decent setting (minimal hand-of-man elements around) and in decent light.

I went out with my friends +Felix Reinders (www.felixreinders.com) and +Rudi van den Heever (www.linruphotography.com) to a local patch that looked promising. Being mindful of mistakes I made last time, I also made sure to take along my 70-200mm lens for some abstract attempts.

The patch was good.
The location was good.
The light was good(ish).
The 70-200mm lens rocked!


Here's one of my attempts using this lens for some abstract floralscapes - using a very shallow depth-of-field (DOF)...I hope you like it. I wanted to isolate a single flower or cluster of flowers against the setting sun and the myriad of flowers behind and around it...

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 200mm
f2.8  |  1/400 SS  |  ISO-400

Morkel Erasmus