Long Range Macro Photography
My weekend has been very busy.
On Friday night I cooked for my family; as usual, cooking new dishes meant I was a little late in serving (I made a shallot compote and I used rather large shallots which took longer to cook than I anticipated!) but I think it was worth the delay!
On Saturday we had an early start to go into London and buy a dedicated macro lens for my camera. My Flickr friends recommended getting a Sigma 105mm, so now I can take reasonable photos at a much further distance than I could previously. Once I get some extension tubes I hope to take photos of smaller insects, like leafhoppers and ants.
After buying the lens I went into the museum to try the camera out:
An unidentified Cercopid taken using a Sigma 105mm Macro lens © The Natural History Museum
Very shortly I will be leaving to visit Wicken Fen and shall go insect hunting with the new lens. I’ll post some new photos and the photos I took last weekend soon.
Great blog!
I also use a Sigma macro lens for my bug photos. Although I haven’t taken any in awhile (it’s winter!), there are still a few on the front page and my sidebar lifelists for bugs (on the left side) keeps track of everything. Although my Sigma is not a dedicated lens (it’s a 75-300mm, with macro function between 200-300mm), I have enjoyed it very much. Ants, leafhoopers, etc. have all been photographed (although leafhoopers seem to be just out of range).
Anyway, I’m going to add you to the blogroll. Looking forward to the new photos!
Oh, and the bug photos on my front page are not good representations of the Sigma lens. Most of those are old archive photos that are only being published because they are the only shot of a certain species and because it’s winter time and I haven’t been able to take any new photos for awhile.
Enjoy the new lens Laurence – should be some great stuff at Wicken Fen I imagine. Really enjoying the blog by the way!
Thanks guys, I’ve already had lots of fun with the new lens. Sunday and Monday were both sunny days, giving me an excellent opportunity to try it out.
Wicken Fen was lots of fun and I saw my first water scorpion (Nepa cinerea)! Unfortunately the photos of it are not fantastic because of the reflection from the water and because I had nowhere to lean as it was all very wet.
I have the same lens as Moe – it’s good for me because (as you know) I’m extremely clumsy and have a habit of scaring things off…