Since so many had posted so many inspirational floral macros. I played around with my close up filter X2 a lot more and Fa 77 ltd.

This is quite fun doing all these in my backyard with some perenials

Some are not sharp and some have nasty bokeh. But it was fun!


C&C welcomed

1/90s f/8.0 at 77.0mm iso100 full exif



1/125s f/2.0 at 77.0mm iso100 full exif



1/90s f/2.0 at 77.0mm iso400 full exif



1/45s f/5.6 at 77.0mm iso400 full exif



1/90s f/9.5 at 77.0mm iso200 full exif



1/90s f/9.5 at 77.0mm iso100 full exif



1/90s f/8.0 at 77.0mm iso400 full exif



1/90s f/4.0 at 77.0mm iso200 full exif







Thanks for looking

[joele]

Some very pretty flower shots James...

What is the flower in the first and last shots?

[roentarre]

Some very pretty flower shots James...

What is the flower in the first and last shots?

A kind of cactus that mum grows them everywhere around the house. No water required. Pretty small pinkish flowers like bells. Rather cute.

Thanks for your kind comments though. I thought these shots were quite a failure.

Struggling to make up my mind about getting a particular macro lens... A dilemma here.

[clarenceclose]

#2 has a dreamy quality to it but it seems out of place with the other shots because it doesn't appear to have a focal point, as if you missed it. This could be due to the color of the flower pedals but perhaps not. The fine detail of the fern fiddlehead is delightful. Where your DOF allows you are getting some nice details.
Tripod? Handheld? SR?

[Andrew Faires]

Very nice, James. The colours are all very good and that last shot really stands out.

[roentarre]

#2 has a dreamy quality to it but it seems out of place with the other shots because it doesn't appear to have a focal point, as if you missed it. This could be due to the color of the flower pedals but perhaps not. The fine detail of the fern fiddlehead is delightful. Where your DOF allows you are getting some nice details.
Tripod? Handheld? SR?

You are quite perspicacious about these fine prints and it shows you actually think about these images.

All of them taken hand held and with SR turned on.

The 2nd shot is blurry for a reason only. The close up filters on the ltd does not produce sharp images unless stopped down the aperture to at least f8... I could not recall where I had read this but close up filters do compromise the sharpness of images and it is quite hard to take shots in dark situation

This is quite painful for me without a macro for pentax gear as I had 4 macro lenses with canon set up. I preferred the colour and details from pentax lenses.

Fern fiddlehead look crispy isn't it? I read that it is actually sweet and aborigines in Australia actually eat it as desert. Fiddlehead is concenrtated with starch apparently and packed with some vitamins...

Thanks for your feedback Clarence

[roentarre]

Very nice, James. The colours are all very good and that last shot really stands out.

Welcome back. You had been missing for a while!

I know these images are not as sharp as the images without close up filters. But colour is preserved at least in these shots.

The experimenting with cheaper close up filters confirmed my desire to get something more serious.



The last shot got a backdrop of yellow foxclove bokeh to make the picture a bit busy...

Thanks for your comments

[Tom Lusk]

James:

You should thank your mum for giving you such beautiful subjects to photograph!

And I thank you for using the little-used word perspicacious.

A truly great word that I run across only rarely - and well used in this case!

[Scott Rylance]

These are great James, beautiful colours and nice Bokeh. Looks like I'll have to pick me up a set of close up filters. ;^)

[roentarre]

James:

You should thank your mum for giving you such beautiful subjects to photograph!

And I thank you for using the little-used word perspicacious.

A truly great word that I run across only rarely - and well used in this case!

Hi, Tom. I bought lots of plants to keep her busy during the week otherwise she nagged me all day long (even I lived about 15 minutes drive from her house). I actually have a lot of fruit trees and ornamentals in my own backyard too. Good for my LBA that I can test out my lenses any time in the backyard.

You must be aware of my broken English here and there in this forum as English is my 2nd language. I did not speak English when I got into the university here (hehe how lucky I was). I did pick up a few words along the way.

I am looking forward to your DFA 100mm macro images actually.

BTW I gave up chasing that Pentax F 1.7X teleconverter on ebay. Please go ahead bidding it (I changed my mind to pursue that teleconverter). I tested out my pentax A rear 2X teleconverter today and I love it!

DPR has a thread comparing Fa* 400 f5.6 vs Fa* 300 f4.5 with 1.7 F converter. It was a good wake up call for me

Cheers!

[roentarre]

These are great James, beautiful colours and nice Bokeh. Looks like I'll have to pick me up a set of close up filters. ;^)

Joele was just talking about how brilliant your protrait photos were this afternoon and I saw your feedback here (an honour)

To be honest, the images are not sharp enough for my liking and I stopped down to f8 for most shots with mediocre resolution. Colour is great but themes might have been lacking. You have been gentle on me

The close up filters are very cheap in deed!! Only costing me 8 US dollar for me (3 close up: 1+ 2+ 3+) on ebay.

Made in India and full of dust when I received the parcel.

Worth giving a try. You can try that close up filter 2+ and take a photo of your son's iris!! Try f11 and see how it turns out!

James

[mingdie]

Very nice serie of flower shots. The colours are rich which I like. The photo of the fern is my favourit. The green throughout the whole photo and the softness surounding the fern head is very pleasing to the eye.

Cheers
Eddie

[roentarre]

Very nice serie of flower shots. The colours are rich which I like. The photo of the fern is my favourit. The green throughout the whole photo and the softness surounding the fern head is very pleasing to the eye.

Cheers
Eddie

Thanks Eddie. Ironically the only photo without close up filter is the photo of green fiddle head of fern...

This is rather funny. I just learnt the lesson of not using this close up filter ever again and grab the pentax D Fa 100mm macro instead.

I had read various reports of sigma 70mm f2.8 macro being the sharpest lens sigma ever produced and it is even better than a lot of competition brands...

And I will be looking forward to the day you had a photo of a fishing man with a jumping fish hooked up in the air !

Cheers