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Thread: Another with the BIRDS AS ART Macro Lens

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Default Another with the BIRDS AS ART Macro Lens

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    This bird of paradise blossom was photographed at Coronado, CA with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/100 sec. at f/7.1. The background here was a chain link fence and the hull of a boat. I got as tall as possible to keep the background uniform and used the depth-of-field preview button to make sure that I had not brought up the fence. I love using my big glass as a macro lens.
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    Boys will be boys! It must be a joy to work with this lens and create such nice even backgrounds. I really like the even grading from white to blue. What is your working distance here and how far was the BG from the subject? Excellent details and execution, as always. Regarding composition, I just love those three orange leaves sticking up in the UL corner, but I'm a bit distracted by how close that blue pointy thing is to the edge of the frame and the cut offs on the bottom and right. I might consider cropping off the whole bottom of the flower, leaving a composition in orange and blue.
    Last edited by Jerry van Dijk; 01-20-2010 at 01:56 PM.

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    Here's what I came up with after trying different crops. Just an even cropping from the LR corner.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry van Dijk View Post
    What is your working distance here and how far was the BG from the subject? Excellent details and execution, as always.
    I was about 19-20 feet from the flower, and about that distance to the chain link fence. Then about 40 or 50 feet to the boat. I love your reposted composition (thanks!) and I love my original composition as well. :)
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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  5. #5
    Julie Kenward
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    I like them both, Arthur, but would love to see a vertical or square where the right side was entirely in the frame. Having those blue points balance out the orange ones would really put this over the top for me!

    I was at a meeting a few weeks ago and one of the men asked me, "When you see those guys on the sidelines with those great big camera lenses, how much does one of those babies cost?" I laughed and said, "about as much as I paid for my last car. Why do you ask?" His mouth hit the floor. :D;):D

    Any time you need somebody to take that lens for a test drive you just let me know...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Julie Kenward View Post
    I like them both, Arthur, but would love to see a vertical or square where the right side was entirely in the frame.
    With this particular blossom if I moved back I could not get high enough to avoid having the railings and the darker topsides of the boat in the frame.....
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  7. #7
    david cramer
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    The next thing we know you'll be photographing insects with that lens. Both comps are nice, but I prefer the original with the extra complimentary colors. And a very nice example of always being on the lookout for something unique to photograph with our gear.

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    Mike Moats
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    Hey Artie, I think your great eye for bird comps works as well for your macros. I like the origrnal best, and agree with David that the extra colors add a little extra pop. High key BG works great and nice sharp details. Well done.

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    Hi Artie. I am astounded that such detail is possible from 20 feet away! Beautiful image, great lines, super IQ, lovely colours and I like both comps. These lovely flowers are native to my country.:)

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    Quote Originally Posted by david cramer View Post
    The next thing we know you'll be photographing insects with that lens. Both comps are nice, but I prefer the original with the extra complimentary colors. And a very nice example of always being on the lookout for something unique to photograph with our gear.
    Thanks David. I will either need some big bugs or lots of extension tubes. I used the latter the other day to create some images of pelican plumage but I wound up deleting all or most of them...

    Your last point is a good one. As we climbed up the bank out of the mud I saw a ratty stand of flowers but noticed one perfect bloom growing away from the group and envisioned getting the fence o-o-f and the distant white BKGR. I said to the group, "There's a great picture here. What is it?" Only one who got it was my co-leader Todd Gustafson :)
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Thanks Mike. Vida, you are a lucky man to have these loverly flowers as natives.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Artie, I'm a lucky lady!;):)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vida van der Walt View Post
    Artie, I'm a lucky lady!;):)

    That is too funny. Sorry. I meant to ask you if you are a Vida-lady or a Vida-guy. Is there such a thing as a Vida guy? (We are unfamiliar with a lot of foreign names but we do learn a lot :))
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Artie
    Two summers ago I used my 80-400 lens as a macro lens to photograph butterflies. worked wonders since my movement did not cause them to fly away :D

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    Hi Myer, Even with a true macro lens I prefer the 180 for working distance. Not sure how folks use the 50 and 100mm macro lenses....
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    Artie,

    I think you've found a new way to take closeup photos. Now I want to break out my EF 500 f/4 IS, Ext tubes and 1.4 TC. Really like the color, contrast and sharpness from your EF 800.

    Keep these florals coming...
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    Thanks Charlie. The 800 is an amazing lens, incredibly sharp, and the new IS system is amazing. The only problem is that it is often too long and focuses only down to 19 feet. I know--those are tough problems.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Artie,

    Your photo is very artistic IMO. I like the way it captures the color tonality. Using a 12 & 25 mm. Canon ext. tubes should cut the MFD down to a usable range on larger floral subjects. I understand it's not designed for true macro photography. You may have discovered another technique: long lens closeups. Maybe I'm way off but I like your results.

    Thanks for sharing...
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Wesley View Post
    Artie, Your photo is very artistic IMO. I like the way it captures the color tonality. Using a 12 & 25 mm. Canon ext. tubes should cut the MFD down to a usable range on larger floral subjects. I understand it's not designed for true macro photography. You may have discovered another technique: long lens closeups. Maybe I'm way off but I like your results. Thanks for sharing... Charlie Wesley St. Augustine Beach, FL
    Hey Charlie, Thanks for your comments. Actually, I have been using long lenses and extension tubes for flowers and other small subjects for at least two decades now :) The technique is described several times in ABP II. These are some of the subjects; Texas Horned Toad, Golden Orb Spider, Puffer fish, Sally Lightfoot Crab, Rio Grande Leopard Frog, and Green Agama Lizard, but alas, not a single flower there.

    I do love the narrow angle of view and the soft backgrounds that often result.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Artie,

    I first meet you at a NANPA meeting in Haines City in the late 90's. You gave a great clinic on photographing small birds with ext tubes and your 600 mm. Did not know that you used the technique with flowers also. My garden was hit with the cold spell about a week ago. I'm serious about using ext tubes with my 500 mm after seeing your results. You've proven to me there's more than one way to accomplish your goals in photography. Thanks for opening my eyes....
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    Thanks again Charles. I think that your idea is a great one. I just love the look of long lens images.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vida van der Walt View Post
    Artie, I'm a lucky lady!;):)
    I agree with Arthur that one here learn a lot from other people's names. Yours is 'life' in Spanish, and in this language, your name is a feminine word.

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    Artie,

    I too love long lens images. Never will forget the feeling when first looking through my photo instructor's 600. I was instantly hooked. Love the ability to isolate, find a great BG, capture wonderful color and contrast. My knee PT has got me walking well enough to start using my EF 500 f/4 IS again. Will start doing close-ups as you suggest.

    Always look forward to your posts....
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    Hi Artie, no need to apologize and it is a rather strange name, even in my country. Juan Carlos, you are right about my name being the Spanish word for life. Don't know what my mom was thinking.;):D

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Wesley View Post
    Artie,

    I think you've found a new way to take closeup photos. Now I want to break out my EF 500 f/4 IS, Ext tubes and 1.4 TC. Really like the color, contrast and sharpness from your EF 800.

    Keep these florals coming...
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    Charlie Wesley
    St. Augustine Beach, FL
    Charlie, The 500 f/4 and tubes makes a great DF and BF lens since getting the 500 I now take about 1/2 of my DF images with it I just love how it eliminates those distracting BG.
    Don Lacy
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    One thing that folks should realize when using long lenses for flowers is that it is the narrow angle of view that is largely responsible for the clean smooth BKGRs; with subject size constant, depth-of-field at a given aperture is the same regardless of focal length...
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Artie & Don,

    The narrow angle of view really helps produce those sweet BG's. Even if the DF, BF or flower is in front of a wooden fence you can at times get a lovely natural looking BG. The advantage of a long lens with Don's types of photos is that he can stay back and not disturb the DF/ BF. Artie has now shown us how to get another interpretation of flowers: long lens florals...
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    Lifetime Member Markus Jais's Avatar
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    I wish I had your macro lens :-)
    But I agree with it being fun to use big glass for flowers and other small stuff. I used my 4/500 several times for flowers and it worked great. With any other shorter lens I own I would have missed the shot.
    The image is great as is the repost.
    I live the colors and the uniform background. Beautiful, soft light.

    Markus

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    I'm coming late to this image, and confess I haven't read the discussion. I will just say that I love the colors and the stylized look of this image. It reminds me of a fancy car hood ornament. I like the original and the crop. :)

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