Coming from camera brand I loved was a big jump and some say a gamble, but I made the right choice with some simple requirements for my needs. Wildlife and birds being my main style was very important to me so the image quality had to exceptional. Focus tracking had to be on the next…
So the Owl is in my best top ten but it is not only the Owl that fascinated me on my journey with nature.
Take the Dragon Fly insect that never seems to keep still, many hours trying to capture it in flight and others just creeping through the grass when it lands
So one day in the summer of 2012 I was walking along a disused railway when I noticed a dragon fly moving back and forth. Standing still I watched as it settled on a leaf stem.
Being a bit more flexible in those days I crawled forward using the old leopard crawl I had learned in the Army days.
Camera ready I had a Canon 60mm Macro Lens on my Canon 50D. Getting closer and closer I got within inches of it and I as I looked through the lens at its beauty, it seem to look at me straight on.
This was so exciting as I had never seen the detail icon this amazing insect before. So I took about 20 to 30 shots and moved slowly back.
Was this another meeting wher nature and man meet and everything is just perfect. I really don’t know and thats what is great about wildlife photography.
Look at the detail and colour on the Emporium Dragon Fly.?
Considering this droplet is the size of a Pepper corn, it delivers fantastic images when dropped from high into a bowl of water. Yes this has tested me and i have tried for 12 months to get it spot on. Today i set up different and set my f number to 16 keeping my ISO at 100 and my shutter speed at 1/200. With the Godox TT865S mounted on the Sony A7r4 i used the Tamron 28-75mm.
The setup was very simple i used a concrete block to sit the bowl of water on with a shower curtain underneath. I then used another concrete block to rest the camera on. Getting the level right was the hardest as i wanted the lens just on the top of the water, i managed this by just adding some paper card.
Once i had done that i had to control the speed of the water coming from the tube. The method was to watch where then droplet landed in the water, the n with a plastic ruler i placed it in the water with the numbers visible. Using the Manual focus on the Tamron i focused on the ruler as a droplet hit it. The Background was made from Printing designs from the internet and placing it behind the bowl
These are the best i images i have taken and the only thing to do now is to get even closer and use the 90mm Macro so the super sharp and are a 1 to 1 image. I am loving the images this fun form of photography produces and i am going to continue and experiment further. The Machine that does all this for you cost about £200 so considering i have not spent anything yet and just used my imagination i feel i am doing really well.
