The Prettiest Of Traps

The Prettiest Of TrapsThe Prettiest Of Traps
CameraSony DSC-F828
Exposure Modeaperture priority
Focal Length7.1mm
Aperturef/2
Exposure1/250 sec.
ISO Speed64
Flashoff
Back in June of 2010 I posted a photo of a buttercup taken using a macro lens adapter. I really liked the photo but as I explained at the time using the lens is actually really difficult due to the extremely narrow depth of field it produces. While I've played with the lens a few times since this weeks post marks the first time I've managed to take a photo I'm actually happy with.

Among the chilli plants on my study windowsill I also have a Venus Flytrap which helps keep any greenfly under control. I've owned a few of the plants before but have obviously never looked after them properly as they have all tended to die quite quickly. This time though I must be doing something right as it has decided to flower! In comparison to the violent nature of the rest of the plant the flowers are really quite delicate and I decided they were an ideal subject for practicing with the macro lens.

The Prettiest Of TrapsAs you can see from this photo I setup the camera and macro lens on a a tripod (I actually used a hide clamp to bolt the post to the windowsill) and with a cable release to reduce camera movement. Once I'd worked out the composition I set about trying to get the image focused. I wanted to throw the background out of focus which meant that I wanted a fairly small aperture which in turn meant I had to be very careful with the manual focusing. In the end I figured out the aperture required and then took a whole sequence of photos at different focusing distances to ensure I got the shot. All told it took me about an hour to get one good photo, but I learnt a lot and I really like the final result.

1 comments:

Synflame said...

Nice bit of macro work there. Flowers are so hard to shoot well. Many an hour I've spent with unsatisfactory results. As you probably now know it's all in the set up. good work.

Post a Comment