Macromania..

We were visiting close friends who recently relocated from our neighborhood to Irvine before our return from Disney. Saw this beautiful rose in their backyard and took out the macro lens..




we went back to the house and saw a small peacock with real fine detail. (the head of this peacock is smaller than a dime, the whole thing fits within the palm of your hand)..




Irvine was nice. The same $ seems to buy better things in Irvine than in the bay area. Did not see many desis or an international population mix though.. maybe it was the area we visited?!

Did not even know that having an international crowd is now part of a built in pre-requisite for us to live anywhere! Strange how the bay area changes you in ways you did not imagine!


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Busy bees...

It has been a very hectic work week with not much time for family, leave alone updating the blog.

This morning while standing in the backyard trying to catch an AT&T signal on the iPhone to call work, a dead bee was spotted on the concrete!

Having made several unsuccessful attempts to catch the bee live on the rosemary and sage bushes, this was an indirect blessing (for me , not for the bee) to capture this using the macro.

So put a drop of hand sanitizer on a piece of paper, plopped the bee on that drop and took pictures with the macro..










Then saw my own busy bees sitting in a dark room with dark glasses and clicked away..

Here are the big busy bees, up close and personal














When things get tough, you can always be happy that a chance encounter with a dead bee or catching your kids at play can put a bright spot in an otherwise hectic day.

We had friends and relatives over for dinner and that was really refreshing. Have to do this more often.

The economy rant needs a post in itself..



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Ikebana show - Wow!

Did not know much about Ikebana till today. Still don't, but at least got introduced to the concept at the Flower show at the local community center.

It was awesome!

The arrangements looked picture perfect to the point where Jr. and the little one kept asking "Are they real flowers or fake?" over and over again.













Are these real daddy?




how about these ones. are they real?




I learned something new today. My kids are uncomfortable around "perfection" or the notion of "perfection"..




Was taking pictures of the arrangements and the flowers in the arrangements and in the process learnt a lot about changing zoom lenses fast. Finally decided to do multiple rounds of the show...

with wide angle
with telephoto
with macro!

see results..

this one is with the sigma lens maxed out at 200mm taken at ISO 1600, f6.0, 1/60 sec.
Autofocus makes a big difference..




this one with the 50mm macro lens at ISO 1600, f5.6, 1/60 sec. The macro lens was on manual focus and it has a real small depth of field but where it focusses, it is unbelievably sharp and detailed. Should have taken a tripod with me and it would have been better..













The next bunch of pictures are taken with different lenses..




The bud and the flowers are either zoomed in or magnified with macro. You can see the image differences..













For those local readers, it is open tomorrow also. Definitely worth a visit.

A big thanks to the organizers and participants in the events for this visual treat.



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Intricate detail

In nature.. (a chrysanthemum bud)




and man made (a hand crafted Indian doll - the head is as small as a dime)




the world is just different when you got nice glasses....


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Look for a bee and almost find a butterfly...

an accidental subject!


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HDR

A HDR (High Dynamic Range)image got by superimposing 3 macro shots with 4 second exposure and f2.5, 4.0 and 9.0. Shot without flash using a Disney birthday cake figurine.. (this section shown in photo is around 2 centimeters. whole thing is 2 inches tall)

Just wanted to try it to see if it will bring out the details in the shadows. It does, but not the best use of the macro or the HDR freeware.

Need to find a dead fly.. and take a picture of its head. The live ones are too fast to capture...



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Small is the new big

Remember these angels from the Bokeh shots? It is about 2 1/2 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches tall..




The gummy vitamins in deep discussion..





A close look at Mahabaleshwar channa..




A violet flower (actually this is a bunch of buds, the flowers are almost white)... will have to wait for it to bloom tomorrow.




and almost got the bee....




Practice makes perfect. .

There will be lot of practice!


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Kid in a candy store..

There is only one thing worse than a kid in a candy store, and that is me with a macro...

The hibiscus that was all rolled up was nicely open today..




There is a delicate optimization between a swaying hibiscus and the depth of focus, which happens to be only a few millimeters or less with the macro. Either one has to hold the flower with one hand and take the shot with the other hand or tape the stem against a wall and use a tripod! (as in below picture).




Tulasi (holy basil).. just the tip swaying in the breeze.. Did you know that the basil is so complicated?




San's favorite hanging bird string from India..




and a beetle of some kind which produced some amazement to us this evening...




Somehow, knew deep down, that this wouldn't wait for thursday.


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A whole new world

The front yard, the backyard, the kids, the laptop.. every little thing was looked through fresh eyes.. lens + eyes that is and here are some results.

Rosemary bud..(actual size is about little one's pinkie nail!)




It is very difficult to take pictures of moving subjects where you are taking pictures so close at this magnification. Was trying to follow this bee for a good five minutes and all I got was this! More manuals have to be studied before the bee can be captured up close. There is also the fear of getting stung!




The hibiscus bud was still enough to be captured..




This one is a magnolia. Never knew this bud was this hairy!




Was inches from this rose.. practically touching it and still got a picture!




A red geranium bud from our front yard..




To capture my joy at this you have to realize what scales we are talking about .. this is a photo to show you size reference..




Now for my favorite subjects who posed for me so well.. especially when the camera was inches from their face and they had to stay still.. very very still!







and the earings! Never knew we could do a focus so sharp on an area so small and leave everything blurred. (please note, I have got this effect with the 18-200 set to 200mm when focusing on birds 20 feet away. This though is increrideeblllllllle!







The adventure with the lens will continue after thursday!

For now it is back to work and a busy three days.



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