Spring has arrived

 This week I had such a lovely excursion  photographing spring flowers. We visited the very pretty Richardson Dees park, Wallsend,  a park fairly local to us in North Tyneside,  on a magical sunshiney morning .

The sun was just starting to cast its rays over the park, which was slightly hazy, causing some gorgeous light beams cascading through the trees, lighting up the jewel like flowers. We couldn't have chosen a better morning, with barely a hint of a breeze, and relatively warm for February.

I quickly found my favourite spot full of purple Crocuses, Snowdrops and Winter aconites, all in bloom, although none of the Crocus flowers were open.

 The flowers were mostly in shade when I arrived which is actually a lot better for photographing shiny flowers such as Crocuses, the harsher light of bright sunshine can be a bit tricky for flower photography, often causing severe contrast between light and dark. But the sun soon rose and lit the dazzling scene up. So I was having to move around  and keep in the shade to make the photos work the way that I wanted, luckily there are a few trees that helped. I'm hoping to return with a reflector next time to diffuse sunshine, with a stand to hold it, maybe a bit later in the day next time too so I can capture the Crocuses actually fully open ( I'm assuming they close when its dark and open in good light/warmth). By the time I left, the Crocuses were starting to respond to the daylight radiance and expose their full, exquisite colours, I did get a few shots of some in their full glory, but not many, so will plan to return within the week if I can.

I took along 4 lenses but ended up only using one, my 100-400, because it allowed me to photograph the flowers from a few ft away, whilst lying on a mat, which meant I wasn't crushing lots of flowers. You can see from an image further up how closely planted the flowers are, it was difficult to get close to the Winter aconites, but I will be trying to find a better spot to photograph them next time, when hopefully the flowers will be open.

I photographed pretty much everything at F6.3 to F8, yet still got a lovely bokeh due to the longer lens and positioning, composing the scenes to include blurred foreground and background. Whilst I had my mini tripod, I ended up just lying on the ground looking through the viewfinder - something I'm regretting now as my neck and shoulder muscles are crying out for some deep heat and hot baths. So tripod it will be next time. Its funny just how much I forgot after not doing this for a few months.

It was lovely to chat to a few people and also finally meet an online photographer friend after chatting via social media for many years. I was amused to discover that he thought I had fallen from my scooter, until he spotted the camera, I really must make a sign for my scooter so people don't panic. Even one of the gardeners was super friendly and rightly proud of the garden, hoping I would share the resulting images.

The image below is my favourite from this session, you can see why I want to return to capture more of the blooms fully open. Believe it or not, all I have done to this image is increase shadows and reduce highlights. That's all for today, lots more images below. 

2023 Off to a good start

 Well its only February and 2023 has certainly got off to a great start photography wise for me. 

Michael upgraded his equipment last year and kindly gave me his Z6 which has the fantastic focus shift feature, allowing focus stacking. He had let me use it frequently over the last couple of years, but this last month I have really concentrated on focus stacking in my mini home studio ( dining room/table). I bought a couple of insects to practice with, used some flowers and other objects too. I was directed to a fantastic macro photographer youtube channel, full of excellent videos giving information on pretty much everything you could ever need to know to get started in macro focus stacking. Namely Allan Walls photography. I ended up watching the videos most days this last few weeks and joining the new livestreams. Despite having done macro and close up photography for 17-18 years, I have learned loads through this channel and put a lot of it into practice already. 

My aims in improving with focus stacking are to use it creatively, like in the Astrantia image above, combining it with creative effects in camera, and using creative lenses. Secondly is to get more into extreme macro - such as  x2 -x 5 life size and see how I get on with that. 

Now I was really over the moon and grateful to have the opportunity to use the Z6 for focus stacking. However, I had some great news this month in winning both 1st and 2nd place in the Camera Jabber photographer of the year competition and this has allowed me to add in some extra gear ( I will also sell some as the prize - £1500 voucher to spend with MPB -  didnt have the main piece of equipment I wanted) So I treat myself to an automated focus rail - the WeMacro rail, after watching video reviews on it. This allows me to use my Sony camera and all its lenses, meaning I can get more creative. I have also got a Canon MPE 65 macro lens coming as part of my prize - this allows up to 5x life size. So I will be able to really  focus on the macro side of things this year. Im feeling super lucky and grateful in winning this competition. 

I ordered some ethically sourced taxidermy specimens to photograph and Im slowly learning how to relax them, position them and photograph them. Ive ruined most of them already, breaking feet or antennae off, but its all part of learning I guess. Above is a Giraffe beetle, quite fascinating - as so many of these insects are. Its a whole new world photographing insects.

Ive had to learn new lighting techniques to help avoid glare and hotspots on shiny subjects such as beetles and small products such a jewellery, so its a great learning experience. I've been using extra scrims and flagging more, aswell as reflecting light a lot - all techniques I use for still life - but in slightly different ways. Its not coming easy with my brain fog, but I leave everything set up constantly and often enlist Michaels brainpower when I get stuck or forget things/ cant work something out. Even photographing something that might appear simple like these beautiful earrings given to me by my daughter, has been helped by employing my new knowledge and growing macro skills. 

Ive had more exciting news this month too, I have 3 images shortlisted in the SWPP Photographer of the year awards - 2 in the macro category and one in In camera artistry. The results are out in March.

Also, I was thrilled to have an image Highly commended in the Beauty of plants category and another in the Abstract category of International garden photographer of the year. So thats a total of 6 images placed in al the categories for 2022. Its worth taking a look at their website as the winning entries are quite wonderful. My favourites are the winning portfolio by Barry WEbb of Slime moulds - something I am keen to try myself once I improve with closer focus stacking. 

Yet another competition result was with the WPE - I had completely forgotten that I had entered 3 images and was browsing the winning images when I discovered I had won first place and Gold medal in flowers and two silver medals in macro. So its been a bit of a crazy month competition wise, funnily enough I had been considering pulling back from competitions and entering less, now Im not sure. Ive stopped entering a couple, but will have a think on whether I really want to enter so many. I do enjoy entering some and it pushes me to improve. So I will likely still enter my favourite subjects of macro/close up and flowers. I have entered a bit of a fun image into Allan Walls photography's macro mineral competition and funnily enough got it highly commended with the SWPP - it wasnt a serious entry but more fun. See below.

This last week I treat myself to some of my favourite flowers - Anemones - Blue mistral and Nero, and Ive been learning how to use the WeMacro rail whilst photographing these. I have some pastel Anemones coming next week - something Ive not been able to get hold of for many years. One good thing is that it doesnt use much energy as everything sits on a tripod, so easier to capture images in a way. Ive loved getting images like the one below with the centre in focus and still lots of nicely blurred out of focus bokeh. 

So anyone following my photography will be seeing lots of beetle and flower photography popping up and hopefully will see some improvements in my macro work. 

I also have two lensbaby lenses coming as part of my prize from Camera jabber and MPB which I am excited to use in focus stacking too. Lots to keep me occupied with macro at home whilst Im not managing much physically, although I really am hoping to get out to photograph Snowdrops, Crocuses and other spring flowers asap.

Lockdown photography part 5 - In camera Double exposures

 I have been keen on trying double exposures or multiple exposures in camera for a while, but did not have the option on my camera. I recently discovered that there is a downloadable app for my camera (Sony A7ii)) from Sonys website Play Memories that allows double exposures in camera, so promptly downloaded it at a small cost of £3.99.

I was feeling quite excited at using this option because it would allow me to pull together two aspects that I love in one image - firstly getting my main macro subject mostly in focus ( By shooting at F11-18 and using good lighting) whilst adding the soap bubble bokeh ( from a Meyer Gorlitze primoplan lens) which is best achieved wide open at F1.9 with backlighting. The weather outside was murky, dull lighting with winds that would move my subject so I opted to attempt setting up on my dining table rather than in the garden.

 There were several obstacles including having to create my own backgrounds, naturalish look, backlighting to produce the bokeh that I love from the Primoplan lens, then getting the two images to work well together. Plus working at macro photography meant having to be very precise. Then I got silly and decided to photograph a moving subject - my Orchid mantids on tiny spring flowers - giving myself an extra challenge - but then I do love a challenge and both mantids appeared content to explore or preen themselves. I like the option of using current spring blooms for this project with snowdrops, crocuses, mini daffodils and Grape Hyacinths all in bloom this last few weeks.

 The image below has a very light bokeh and I found this was the result with many of my images - using the "screen" mode.

 I did try a few options - using two Primoplan images, or combining one with either a 90mm macro lens shot or a Sigma 150mm macro capture. I was constantly forgetting to change my settings ( switch off flash between images and alter aperture as I was having a major brain fog day  - but kept trying. It was also a good exercise in learning what distances are best in producing the specific bokeh from the Primoplan lens - often it is difficult to find the correct distances in that single image - so you can see why I was keen on double exposures to produce what I wanted.

 The image below was from two Primoplan exposures, one of the snowdrop alone then another of some out of focus Hyacinths covered in water droplets, plus a few more images taken using this method.

I could not resist trying this out with my Red eyed tree frogs using one of my latest backgrounds in red, plus a red flower captured with studio lights at F14 using a Sony 90mm macro lens, with the second image being of the flower covered in water drops photographed with the primoplan lens and macro extension tubes, using led back lighting. 

 The double exposure app has a few different features which I still need to experiment with such as the mirror option used below on my partner whilst he was eating breakfast :D - ( sorry not sorry lol) 

Then there is the soft focus choice which I have yet to try, plus  the reflection and the silhouette possibilities. There is a manual alternative where you can try 6 different blending modes too, viewing the previewed result prior to pressing the shutter.

Below is a quick effort using the silhouette action, my first image was houses out the back and the second one simply plant pots in the garden - nothing particularly creative but an exercise to demonstrate the effect.

Another attempt using the silhouette version resulted in a strange appearance, maybe as the subject was light and background dark - it gave a sort of opposite silhouette look.

 Many cameras do have double exposure or multiple exposure options and some that dont do have an app that can be updated to your camera. Even if yours does not, there are phone apps that can also be used to great effect - so worth looking into and another fun activity to try out whilst we are restricted in leaving our homes. Whilst it is fun to be actually taking the photos and obtaining in camera double exposure, don't forget to try producing these in photoshop by bringing together two images and simply changing blending mode and opacity. I would love to see your double exposures in the comments.

Below is a quick blend of two of my images in photoshop as an example, it was as simple as pasting in the second photo and scrolling through the blend modes to see which looked best, and thats it.