workPosted by Rense Aug 29, 2010 15:31:56Friday, Iris de Ronde and I went to the 'Mantingerbos' in the heart of Drenthe. This is a old woodland remnant along the 'Oude Diep', a small lowland rivulet, characterised by old, more than 10 meters high holly trees (
Ilex aquifolium). The history of this woodland dates back to prehistoric times, and it's the only woodland in the Netherlands from which we know it has been permanently wooded from prehistory till present. This doesn't mean there are no - old and recent - human influences recognisable. In Medieval times, trees were cut, and later the Mantingerbos was grazed. Due to this grazing, holly could take over large areas.
The Mantingerbos is the place where I was confronted with bramble diversity for the first time. I did a vegetation mapping project for the 'Vereniging Natuurmonumentn', the owner and manager of the forest. My supervisor, Piet A. Bakker pointed out the
Rubi of the area, and said: "You could try to include the brambles too..." I was hooked! The bramble flora of the Mantingerbos is quite special, with several characteristic old woodland species, like
Rubus pedemontanus and
R. arhenii.
Rubus mucronulatus has one of it's few occurrences in our country in the road verge thickets here, which are mainly formed by
R. idaeus (Raspberry) and
R. glandithyrsos. The Mantingerbos is designated as one of the Natura 2000 sites in our country.
We made photos for the
Rubus website of all the main species growing here, including the ones named above. You can find them on my website:
Rubus species in The Netherlands. The species in bold font can be viewed in a separate window. Below you will find some photos to give you an idea about the Mantingerbos.
Rubus thickets in the road verges near the Mantingerbos
Holly woodland with Dryopteris in the field layer
Holly woodland in the Mantingerbos
workPosted by Rense Aug 14, 2010 11:21:36Yesterday, I added a comprehensive list of Dutch
Rubus species on my website.
Rubus has it's European centre of diversity in the lowlands in western Europe, and in our country, about 200 species can be found. Although the Dutch
Rubus flora is very well known, until now there was no overview of all native and introduced taxa. The published list is made by prof. A. van de Beek, and together with him, R.J. Bijlsma and I will publish a official check list later this year or next year. On my website, I will add photos of as much species as possible.
As said, the
Rubus flora of The Netherlands is very well known, but there are still discoveries to be done. Last week, while working on my
Rubus transects with my colleague Iris de Ronde (see one of my earlier posts), we found an unknown
Rubus species near Maarn, which was identified later as
R. euryanthemus. This taxon was not known from The Netherlands before. It's known distribution includes England and Wales, Sleswig-Holstein and Niedersachsen in Germany, and some solitary founds in Denmark and Belgium. Our plant forms a nice connection between the British and the German distribution areas.
The
Rubus species list can be found
here, and of course you will find photos of
Rubus euryanthemus there too!
macro photographyPosted by Rense Jul 31, 2010 14:26:58I just love the colours in this one....
nature photographyPosted by Rense Jun 25, 2010 16:32:56In one of my earlier posts, I've shown you some woodland blurs. These impressionistic shots were made by panning the camera vertically with slow shutter speeds. I wanted to try this with a completely other subject, but most landscapes seem to have not enough colour to get decent and attractive results. Yesterday, I attended an excursion to South-Limburg, and more specific to a field reserve near Wahlwiller. Our National Forestry Agengy has a beautifully developed grain field, with lots of flowers, on a slope of the hills near this small village. This looked like a very good opportunity to try some other type of landscape blur.
This is one the shots I took yesterday. The reds are poppies, the blues are cornflowers, and the bright yellow stripes are Greater Yellow Rattles (Rhinanthus alectorolophus). I think this exposure looks like a Monet painting.....
Shot with the Super-Multi-Coated-Macro-Takumar 50mm F4, at f/22, ISO100, and 1/15". Postprocessing in LightRoom 2: added vibrance, reduced clarity, slightly reduces highlights, and increased lights.
macro photographyPosted by Rense Jun 18, 2010 22:20:18Technique.
Okay. After some mesmerizing about gear here is the more important part of this diptych on macro photography: the technique I use. Having said this, I really don’t know where this epistle will end... What I mean is this: of course I use technique, but there is no real pattern in it. Probably there are some less obvious points though, that are lightly overseen. Therefore, I will concentrate on 3 points, and I hope I can tell you in these 3 points what is worth to be told. In case you wonder which points I want to discuss: a.) the best place to shoot, b.) the best time to shoot, and c.) the best way to shoot. And let me tell you in advance: there are no best places, times or ways. The only thing I will tell you is what works for me.
The best place. I guess there is no best place to shoot macros. However, I make 80% of my macros in my own backyard, even when I am a field biologist, and I bring my camera everywhere. Are there more crawling creatures in your backyard than in other places. Don’t think so. But you have two advances when you decide to shoot macro in your backyard: a.) it’s nearby, so you can do it whenever you want, even if you have only a spare 10 minutes, and b.) you can get to know your backyard real quickly, so you know soon where the insects are at what time of day. The two principles behind this are: shoot often and shoot much, and get to know your subjects intimately. It takes some time to get to know your gear, and having your hunting ground nearby gives you the opportunity to shoot as much as possible, so the learning time will be shortened, and the learning curve steepened. And once in your garden, you will experience that your subjects are not evenly distributed, but every species has it’s own place and preference. In my garden, the red currant bushes and my prune at the south wall are perfect places to shoot flies and bees in spring. The flowerbed in the border is a very good place in summer, and the Eupatorium plant in the border hosts many insects in late summer and autumn. And today I discovered the front yard, with one particular rich place for flies. This photo was shot here
.
You don’t have a garden? Find a park nearby, a parking lot with trees and bushes, a stream, as long as it is nearby. I think macros can be shot everywhere, but when you want to practice: shoot in your vicinity, and when you want to learn where the insects are: shoot in your vicinity.
Second one is the best time. Time of the year, or time of the day? Yes. Both. Of course the best time of the year to shoot macros depends significantly on the place on the globe where you live. In winter, there are not many bugs around here, but in other places summer can be burdensome for a macro photographer. But you know when you have your best macro season better than I do.
Regarding the time of the day, there are two things to remember. With the magnifications reached with macro photography, the Depth of View (DoF) is very low, so you need a small aperture to maximise it. With small apertures, light is always scarce, and when shooting hand held, without a tripod (as I always do, as you will discover as you manage to read this whole story), and without a flash, you are convicted to the time of day with a maximum of light, so around noon. This has one big disadvantage: it’s the time of top activity of most insects and other arthropods, and they are fast in the sun! These cold-blooded creatures start up slowly in the morning, receiving their body warmth from the air and direct solar radiation. THIS is the best time to shoot insects: when they are warming up in the sun, early in the morning. They are slow, easy approachable, and they give you lots of opportunities to shoot nice crisp macro photos. So these are the two things to remember: do you want to shoot with natural light: you are most likely convicted to the time around noon, with lots of light. But if you want to use flash, the best time is early in the morning, when the insects are slow....
The best way to shoot. This is the most personal note, of course, because what works for me doesn’t necessarily have to work for you... But these would be my tips.
1. Avoid tripods. Tripods are good for all kinds of photography, but I wouldn’t know how to shoot my macros with the help of a tripod. Insects are always under leaves, hiding in strange holes, asking to shoot in strange angles and half-heights etc. In the time I’d manage to bring my tripod in the right position and focus the camera, a next generation of insects is on the doorstep most likely. A tripod kills flexibility, a thing you need desperately when shooting insects! So you have to shoot handheld.....
2. Move slowly, and low. This has nothing to do with photography, but it will give you opportunity to approach most insects without scaring them. Fast movements, and movements from above make you look like a predator, and they won’t sit down and wait what happens. Slow movements, and movements at eye level (from the insects view of course) will pay eventually.....
3. The background is as important as the subject. If you want to make attractive macro photos, you have to pay attention to the background. A smooth background makes your subject stand out, a busy background makes your photo a puzzle. This is where the question of natural light versus flash light comes in. When using flash, the background is very easily changed into a black hole. When used with purpose, this can be very nice. However, on the internet you can find loads and loads of photos where the background is a mix of green leaves and black holes. With natural light, the background is usually way better than when using flash. If you use flash, find a position where the background of the insect is lit too. This can be a leave, a brick, whatever, but best is to find an even coloured background.
This brings me to an important technique I often use. Most of the time, I handle the camera with only one hand, my right hand. With my free left hand, I try to bring the leave or branch with the subject in a right position, in front of such an even coloured background. When this is impossible, I often take a green leave or such a thing and hold it with my left hand behind the subject, to get a nice background. I think this is impossible with shutter speeds below 1/100” or so, so this is why I use flash most of the time.
4. Avoid shots from above. They are boring in my opinion. Probably good for the ID of your subject, but I prefer frontal shots, or shots from the side at eye level.
5. Be creative. Do things no one does. There are lots of things to learn from others, but that doesn’t have to keep you on the same track, does it? In the end there are no rules, as long as you make attractive photos. Go out, shoot, find your own way to do it! Have fun, and enjoy creation!
street photographyPosted by Rense Jun 05, 2010 10:35:44Some weeks ago, I had to stay some days in The Hague for my work. It gave me the opportunity to take my Pentax 6x7 out as a street camera for the first time. This is a medium format camera that makes my digital Pentax K20d look like a dwarf, so I was eager to know how people would react on such a behemoth pointed towards them. In the evening, I went to the boulevard of Scheveningen, together with a friend and colleague, and I started shooting, with the SMC Pentax 67 55mm F4 lens mounted and the camera loaded with Ilford FP 4 plus 125 film. This lens is a true wideangle, comparable to a 28mm on a FF camera and a 18mm on a cropped sensor. I was totally surprised that the people only paid minimal attention to my camera, just kept on doing what they did before! Most probably, this has to do with the waist level finder I was using. Looking from above in the camera doesn't scare people off, apparently. They don't associate it with photography any more..... It was fun to do, and this are some of the first results.
photographyPosted by Rense Jun 03, 2010 12:55:52After receiving several questions about my macro set-up and technique, I decided to write a short hand-out for those who want to learn more. It won’t be a laborious and exhaustive ‘how to’, but more a handful of tips and tricks and some insight in how I do my macro work. I feel there is still much to improve in my macro work, and I do my macros more or less as a ”one trick pony”. Don’t ask too much about optics and that kind of stuff, because I won’t be able to answer your in depth questions… Just see this article as an exhibitionist attempt to show you – as nameless voyeurs – the way I shoot small worlds. This first post will be on gear, the second one will be on technique. That makes this first one less interesting, but still I hope you enjoy!
My gear – body and lenses.
Probably I have to say something about the gear I use. Not because I think you can’t shoot good macro photos with other gear. Not at all! But I can show you some other things when I tell you what I use for macro photography. I am using a Pentax K20D body, and I think this is a good choice for macro photography, but there are many more good choices. There are good reasons however why to choose a Pentax. A first one is the wheather resistance of the later Pentax bodies (K10, K20, and K7). However, no-one likes to shoot macro in the rain, so this is not the best reason to buy a Pentax body for this kind of photography. There is another reason though, and that is the unique shake reduction of Pentax, not in the lenses, but in the body. This has two big advantages: first, you only have to buy it once
, and second, you can use old lenses with shake reduction. Surf the big anonymus web, and you will find that this will deliver you 2 or probably 3 extra stops, and these can hardly be missed in macro photography, because the shallow depth of view and the high F-stops that are needed most of the time.
Glass
More important than the body is the glass you use! When I started with macro photography, I bought me a Super-Multi-Coated Macro Takumar 50mm F4, an old M42 lens with a magnification of 1:2 (yes, the older ones are 1:1, but not mine). About 60mm of extension tubes brought the magnification to 1:1, or even slightly better, but the drop of light availability with this combination (~f/8!) is not very convenient, and this resulted in many OOF photos. For insect photography I bought a SMC Pentax-A 100mm F4, because of the larger working distance. This is convenient for insect macro photography, because the distance between the lens barrel and the subject is often too small when using a 50mm macro lens (but not always!) In the end I like this lens, but still there the results were mediocre, and I think this is due to the magnification ratio of this lens – still only 1:2 – and the maximum aperture, which is still f/4. When a friend of mine bought a 55mm F2.8 macro lens, I was sold instantly, and as a result I bought a Vivitar 55mm F2.8 1:1 auto macro, and this is where my macro photography grew exponentially! Not much later I added a Panagor 90mm F2.8 to my collection, with the same results.The lesson from this: if you want to make stunning macro photos, you should buy a lens that goes 1:1, and that allows you to focus accurately. This last thing means you should have enough available light when focussing, so buy a f/2.8 lens!
My lenses are all old manual lenses. I never use the focus ring on my lenses, and I think auto-focus is redundant in macro-photography. I always focus by moving the camera forward and backward, and this is how almost all (all?) macro photogs do it. Don’t invest in AF - infest in optical quality, in magnification ratio, and in light-availability. If you find a good AF macro lens in terms of optics, magnification and f-stop, buy it! But don’t buy it because of AF. It’s useless for macro photography. (Okay, of course you can use the lens for other things than macro, and probably, who knows, AF has it’s purpose for those things….)
More magnification can be obtained by using extension tubes, and these have a greater effect when used on shorter lenses. Without maths 50mm of extension tubes will bring a 50mm 1:1 macro lens to about 2:1, and a 100mm 1:1 macro lens to 1.5:1. About! I have several sets of tubes: for my M42 lenses, for my K-mount lenses and even one of 25mm for my few AF lenses. They are cheap, and they can turn a usual ‘not macro’ lens into a great lens for macro work. For all kinds of very small insects, I use them in combination with my macro lenses, just to get magnificent magnifications. Disclaimer: working distance is getting less and less when using tubes, so scary insects and all kinds of poisonousness or otherwise dangerous creatures are not to be approached with these mounted!
Light
One of the main problems in macro photography is the light: where to get it? This has to do with the shallow depth of view, as said before, and the relatively high f-stops needed. It means that, unless you shoot at bright sunny days, you have to make your own! I think macro photos shot in natural light are often better than those made with artificial light sources. This is especially so for the background lighting, which is much easier when using natural light. My tip would be: shoot with natural light when possible, but don’t hesitate to use flash light when necessary. Probably you should start with shooting macros with flash though…
Flashes
Flashes...they are quite expensive, and this is more so when looking for dedicated macro flashes. Most macro photographers use ring flashes, because of the even lighting. However, I don’t like it (and please, feel free to disagree!). It’s too flat for my liking, and with reflecting surfaces – like those cute jumping spider eyes! – you get ugly ring reflections. So I use my often maligned pup-up flash, with a DIY home made diffuser! I’ve written an entry on my blog on how to built it before, you can find it
here. This is the second step in which my macro photos got better. Please, built yourself such a diffuser, and you will surprise yourself! BTW: the idea for this diffuser was stolen from a talented Polish guy, which is known on the internet as grzehoofr. Try to google him, and you will be astound by his great macro photos!
Vivitar 55/2.8 + home made diffuser
Tripod
I never ever use a tripod for my insect macro work thus far. Flexibility has gone when using a tripod, and fiddling around with such a large thing disturbs most shy insects, at least when I do it (probably you are the quiet guy or gall who can handle it, but definitely I can’t!) For mosses and other stills I always use a tripod though!
Have fun shooting!
nature photographyPosted by Rense May 28, 2010 17:18:06We have very small nymphs of the grasshopper
Leptophyes punctatissima in our garden. They make typical holes in the leaves of our
Mentha plants, but I leave them, because I think they - the nymphs that is - are very beautiful. They are small: they measure about 2-3 mm right now, without their antennas. The latter are several times longer than their bodies, so, to get them on a photo completely is a compositional challenge. I think I managed though.....
Again with the Panagor 90mm F2.8 PMC auto macro, with flash tube....
nature photographyPosted by Rense May 17, 2010 15:08:18It's mating season, at least in our garden. We have at least five species of Ladybugs in our backyard, from which I found two mating this morning. This one, the Fourteen dotted ladybug (
Propylea quatordecimpunctata), is easily recognised by the more or less square dots on the shields.
nature photographyPosted by Rense Apr 30, 2010 22:45:13On my way back home from a family visit, my eye was drawn to the parachute balls of the dandelions in the road verges. They are everywhere right now, but these were special because of the sunset, which gave them a great orange glow. Tried to catch it in some shots, from which this is the best. Treated with the Orton Effect...
