I've been into travel photography for decades now. One thing I've always wanted to try, but never really got around to it is macro photography. It seems like a growing fad in general since people are isolated and stuck at home. I found a highly reviewed Sigma macro lens for $400 off retail, so I decide to take the plunge. For anyone interested, the price is still good at Adorama (though it is on backorder): https://www.adorama.com/sg10528meosk.html. It's a 105mm prime macro lens with stabilization. I'd like to get some extension tubes in future, so that I can get really close to stuff, though at that point, I'd probably also need to start using a flash and/or tripod. With this particular lens, you have to be about a foot away from the subject. I also did a couple test portrait shots, and this seems like it will be really good for taking impromptu portraits. It has great bokeh. Now that I'm going to be unable to travel like I have in the past for the near future, I'm really looking forward to exploring the world in an entirely different way.
Yesterday I went to a local park did a few test shots. I thought they turned out well. I saw a post by @darrenflinders who also uses the same lens for macro, so I was inspired to do a post of my own to share my experience. Not too bad for a first attempt in my opinion. What do you think?
All the photos below were taken hand held, wide open at f2.8.
Here is the lens mounted on my camera. It a fairly good size, especially with the hood mounted on it. It's going to be quite a bit more weight if I decide to go on a hike and I want to mix in landscape (wide), wildlife (zoom), and now macro kit. I also picked up a refurbished 40mm/2.8 lens from Canon super cheap (~150), which also has a close focusing distance and can be used for macro. It will probably be more useful where I want to get a little more DoF with my macro shots, but for now I just want to get really really close to stuff.
Thanks for visiting! What about you? Have you switched up any of your hobbies recently to adjust to your current situation?
Every time I see one of you with a big fancy lens like that I want one!
What about a stubby one?
From a non-photographers perspective, it doesn't look capable of anything more than a selfie.
With a full frame camera, a 40-50mm sees about the same as what a human eye sees. So if you didn't have a lot of room to pack lenses and wanted to carry around your camera and capture what you see, a lens like this would be perfect since it barely protrudes from the camera.
These are pictures absolutely beautiful! Good camera!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed them!
The top yellow and the violet are super - how difficult it is to learn about these cameras and lenses ?
It's a balance of what you want to do, versus what you want to let the camera do. For example, for these ones I used aperture priority. I set the camera to F2.8, and the camera chose the shutter speed and the ISO. This is what gives you the least depth of field and makes the background blurry. In contrast, using a completely automatic camera will attempt to get everything into focus. Lenses give you a lot of flexibility. I've seen people on safari trying to capture animals with iPhones and iPads, and the end result is an animal that looks like a speck on the photo. A 400mm zoom in that scenario, you get get much 'closer' to the animal without disturbing it. For travel, a really wide angle lens is good, because you can get a lot of scenery into the frame, and closer to your subject than the throngs of people with their cell phones.
Wow awesome captures, I have a canon 28mm prime lens and as of now using that only for all purpose. Thinking of adding a zoom lens to the kitty for better options.
It never hurts to have more options, except of course for your wallet and your spine! ;)
Beautiful photography sir
Thanks!