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Jason Hurst
09-12-2011, 08:03 PM
On Saturday I had a chance to "test drive" a Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III for an hour. So I thought I'd post one of the pics I took.

Such an incredible photographic machine.

Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 1:1 Macro Lens. ISO 100, 1/320th @ f/5.6. Manfrotto Tripod & Ball Head.

Sharpened in DPP. Cropped & Resized in Photoshop CS4. :S3:


http://i56.tinypic.com/98cxv5.jpg

bhavya joshi
09-13-2011, 02:27 AM
Wonderful shot..Jason.. I like the composition and bee.. but try to take Different angle or front view angle of bee ( Bee's Head). With your macro lens its really comes beautiful...

Jason Hurst
09-13-2011, 09:26 AM
Wonderful shot..Jason.. I like the composition and bee.. but try to take Different angle or front view angle of bee ( Bee's Head). With your macro lens its really comes beautiful...

Thanks, Bhavya, much appreciated. I'll post another image later on today with a side view of the bee. I was hoping the bee would turn around and face me, but unfortunately, she didn't. I also tried to move in closer, but she flew off before I could.

Nancy Bell
09-13-2011, 06:06 PM
I think these fuzzy bees made great photo subjects and I have spent a fair amount of time with them. Here the red flower is overpowering the bee. Looking forward to your side view image.

Jason Hurst
09-13-2011, 06:21 PM
Thanks Nancy. I was actually more interested in taking pics of the flower (to see how the 1Ds Mk III portrayed it's colour), when I noticed the bee. I tried to get as many images of the bee that I could, but it didn't stay too long. (Plus my phobia about bees, wasps etc began to surface)

Steve Maxson
09-14-2011, 12:20 PM
Hi Jason. Sounds like you had fun trying out the "fancy" camera. :S3: You have good sharpness on the bee, but I would agree with Joshi that the pose could be better (bees often have their head buried in the flower and seem to always be on the move so getting a great pose is a challenge) and with Nancy about the reds. There are a few things you might try next time in the field - 1) try to capture a better pose, 2) consider using some fill flash to soften the light, 3) try for more DOF to get both the bee and the important parts of the flower in focus. In this case, you could have increased ISO to 400 to get an f/stop of 11. Because you were using a tripod, you could have lowered ss somewhat to get an even higher f/stop. Of course, increasing the DOF may also give you problems with too much detail in the background so it's always a tradeoff. Just some ideas for you to consider next time out. :S3:

Jason Hurst
09-14-2011, 02:43 PM
Thanks for the tips Steve, much appreciated. Hopefully next time, I will have more time to spend experimenting with different apertures, fill-flash, shutter speeds etc. Coming from a lifetime of shooting film...the last 15+ years or so, predominantly shooting Velvia 50, I like to keep the ISO as low as possible. So using higher ISOs will be something I'll have to adapt to.

As the owner of the camera was kind, and PATIENT enough to let me spend roughly one hour "test driving" the camera, I didn't want to "push" things my lollygagging too much. (I've been known to spend 2 hrs + on ONE flower...WITHOUT a bee sucking nectar from it. So I can't wait to get my own 1D/1Ds body and "take my time", and experiment as much as I can.

Also, to be honest, I was rather "excited" about using the camera, which BTW was the best camera I've ever used in over 30+ years of photography. The 1Ds Mk III is so addicting, and yes I know it's NOT the "equipment", but honestly, how can one NOT have their adrenaline go up when using such an incredible photographic machine?

Arthur Morris
09-15-2011, 07:30 PM
Sharp with nice colors but I am with the group here feeling that the flower way overpowers the small in the frame bee.... Getting closer and using a different perspective would have yielded something much more dramatic.

Jason Hurst
09-15-2011, 11:11 PM
Thanks Artie. :S3: Coming from you, that means a lot. I realize I should have taken more time, and visualize what I wanted ahead of time, instead of basically shooting haphazardly. I should have concentrated on the bee, as once I saw it was there, it did become the center of my attention. Unfortunately, I didn't capture it to it's fullest potential. I basically ended up with a few "snapshots" instead of what could have been some very nice photographs.

Thank you to everyone for making me realize this. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again.

Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice...shame on me!

Arthur Morris
09-16-2011, 07:32 AM
Thanks for being open Jason. It is always better to take your time and make a single great image.... For me it is about respecting photography. When someone on an IPT is walking along taking an image with one hand "just to get the shot" I always let them have it :S3:

Jason Hurst
09-16-2011, 11:28 AM
Thanks for being open Jason. It is always better to take your time and make a single great image.... For me it is about respecting photography. When someone on an IPT is walking along taking an image with one hand "just to get the shot" I always let them have it :S3:

Well I do take my photography very seriously. I want to be the best photographer I can be, and take the best photographs I can take. I also believe one is never too old to learn. (I'll be 52 in October).

Being that this was the first time I had used the 1Ds Mk III for any reasonable length of time, I will admit that my adrenaline did get the best of me at times, and when I saw the bee on the flower, that only added to the "thrill", but I should have taken a few deep breaths, a "time out", and gotten my head back into "photography mode" so I could create some quality photographs of the bee.

Not saying that I just quickly snapped off a few frames, but as you, and others have correctly pointed out, and that I myself have since realized, I could have gotten much better images.

One should never just be satisfied.

Arthur Morris
09-16-2011, 12:08 PM
I hear you. Go get em!