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G'day
also tried a few shots of Dendrobium lichenastrum

The first one came out ok.
It is at f-stop 29 so can not get (much) more depth of field. I think iso and speed are wound up as plant blowing around and hands a shaking, and ring flash on.
And still being lazy and hand holding a 100mm macro lense with 50mm of extension tubes on canon 40d.
What else should I have done



And the flower range is from 4 to 7mm for this Australian orchid. Positively huge!



Looking in, it has a tongue like my rottweillier, just on a different scale



The colour range is fantastic. Deep dark maroon stripes to lime yellows.



I quite like this one, showing how it grows with an old steam in focus across the front of the flower


Hmmm, maybe i better go take some motor sport pictures so you guys don't get the wrong (or right) idea about me!

Col, see my library (of reduced size shots) at flickr as most of the lichenastrums are your plants!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wazzas-orchids/


Cheers
Waz

I prefer the first and last one, but I find them a bit too dark. Was this intentional?

I tend to take small things a tad dark as when using the ring flash it is very easy to blow out the colour, get a large portion of relfection with no surface detail, or even make the flower translucent. So i find I take to dark. Also the preview on my camera is always lighter than my computer screens at w
home and at work.

Regards
Waz

Looks a little dark to me

If you are happy with them, it's fine by me. I haven't use a ring flash so I cannot comment on the technique.

These are pretty interesting orchids. Were they in a garden or did you find them in the bush?

I quite like the first two even if they are a tad dark.

I would suggest you bracket your shots, 1 or 1/3 of a stop on each side so three photos. That way when you get back to the computer, you'll be able to figure out which one actually works best exposure wise. That's how I've been learning anyways.

I would certainly recommend using a tripod, you don't mention if you did. There are some good ones for macro work that allow you to get close. An angle viewfinder could also help when for a low perspective. If you need to be right on the ground, a bean bag works sometimes.

I also carry a couple of small reflectors with me. One is actually translucent to help in high sun so I also use it to block the wind at times. To get that extra hand, I have a Wimberley clamp that affixes to my tripod and holds the reflector in place while I adjust the camera.

cheers,

André

Radar
Good to see someone else from lake Macquarie!
I am at Valentine.
I cheated and "found" these plants in my shade house. They occur naturally along mid coast of Queensland.

Yes I need to try out this lens. I couldn't bracket the shot as the flash is manual so I am using the suck it and see technique. the only way to get more light was to drop the f stop. I only just picked it up and lazily was using by hand. To compensate i was going max depth of field, and the best ones appeared where i had pushed to f 29 or 32 and the limit of max ISO (1600 when "tone definition" turned on) and the ring flash just on max output.

Got frustrated tring to get the labellum of the Dendrobium toressae (not pictured) in focus as it was always fuzzy. DohHH! the actual plant has a very finely fur on the labellum!

need to put the camera on a tripod (haven't done that yet either). I think that one good thing may be the live view. Have not used it yet to comment on. After a weekend away chasing ground orchids, I think the been bag for me might be the go. It seems to take longer to get up off the groung each year (and plant) that goes by.

The reflectors sound good. Is it a home made job or a purchased item?
And you find the wimberly clamp good then?

see you round
Waz

Waz,

there are a few of us from the Newcastle region.

wazonthehill2 wrote:The reflectors sound good. Is it a home made job or a purchased item?
And you find the wimberly clamp good then?

The reflectors and the clamps can be bought from B&H, that's where I ordered them from, click on links below for the store items.

Winberley Plamp

Photoflex Gold/Silver Reflector

Photoflex Translucent

The plamp is really good to hold the reflectors in place and also to hold branches out of the way or hold flower/plant in place while taking the photo. The photoflex litediscs are 12" and fold nicely to fit in your pocket.

Cheers,

André

Hey Waz,
That is a neat gallery. It makes me want to build a glass house again.
Your use of the extension rings is loosing you some depth. You should be able to get pretty good crops out of the centre with just the new lense. You should also be able to stop down a bit further.
Regards Colin