Nikkor 105mm f2.8 Micro | Christopher John Photography

April 23, 2020July 19, 2020

Heading home

I’ve been stuck at home due to lockdown and it’s quite frustrating as the weather is so good. Spending time in the garden I’ve been noticing quite a few hoverflies. I wanted to try and get photos of these creatures whilst in flight, but this was close to impossible. Without a camera they are happy to hover close by, but as soon as you raise a camera to get a shot, off they go.

Focus was a challenge as these creatures were quite fast moving and stayed still for such brief moments. I tried using a 105mm macro lens to maintain a reasonable distance between camera and insect whilst also providing a fair level of magnification. I really wanted the insect to face me, but all I seemed to get was a rear view as they headed off from whence they came.

All the same, great fun whilst stuck at home during lockdown.

March 14, 2016

Back to the D300 …

First signs of autumn colour? Silver birch leaves in my front yard. — First signs of autumn colour?

A few delays this morning getting ready to start work. Looking out of the window I noticed several leaves starting to turn. Many trees near where I live are evergreen so I miss the overwhelming colour changes you see with large deciduous forests. The one leaf changing colour on my silver birch in the front yard doesn’t have the same effect! The car was all packed, so I used my old D300 for the shots you see in this post.

I can see the silver birch trees from my bedroom window and I keep an eye on them as the seasons change. At this time of year most of the “seed pods” have changed colour and are in the process of dispersing seeds all over the garden! The leaves will go more yellow and then fall to leave only the stark skeletal structure of the tree until next spring.

Silver Birch Seeds. These things get EVERYWHERE!!

I quite like this last shot … shallow depth of field and quite a pleasing bokeh. Hopefully you like the photos too.

February 28, 2016

Focus Stacking

Something a little different to a landscape for today. Just outside my front door there’s this rather pretty vine, commonly known as a bleeding heart vine. The flowers are not huge, so I needed to get quite close to get an image in which you’d be able to see the pretty red flower. Problem when you get close is that it’s difficult to keep all the flower in focus.

You may have heard of HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography where a number of images are taken of a scene and then blended in a manner to avoid deep shadows and blown out highlights. Focus stacking is a similar concept, but instead of a range of exposures being blended, a range of focus points are blended.

The image below is made up of ten images, each focussed at a slightly different point on the bloom. In this instance the task was automated using an app on my phone called Helicon Remote. This is very easy to use. You just select the two ends of the focus range and it then controls the camera … modifying focus and taking the photos. Next, you’ll need something like Photoshop to stack the images together. Here’s a YouTube clip that might help explain how to do this.

So, here’s the photo. As I said at the start … something a little different to a landscape;-)

Bleeding heart vine - (10 image stack) — Bleeding heart vine – (10 image stack)

February 6, 2016

Out in the garden.

I’ve been busy reading all day and decided to take a break and head out into the garden. I was going to buy a few books, but thought I’d check them out first from the library. I seem to get the books, get embroiled in something more pressing then frantically read them before the return date. Anyway, the garden. We bought these plants a few months back and they ready are rather lovely. The leaves are those “sword shaped” affairs but then, from the centre of the leaves, you get these beautiful yellow flowers on stalks. Well, I like them anyway!

Whilst shooting these flowers I noticed the seed heads on the lilies close by. I think I like these seed head more than the flowers to be honest. Lining up the camera to take the shot I noticed something move. Not sitting still for long was a very busy spider crafting its web between these seed heads. Quite a pleasant time looking around the garden I think.

January 31, 2016

Raindrops …

Today started off well. I thought it was going to be another hot and sunny day, but no. We had rain and thunder … and a respite from the heat. I’d been trying a few photos with varying exposures, seeing what happened with long 30 second exposures as the wind blew the branches and leaves in the trees. I was curious to see the effect as some parts of the image would remain sharp and focussed as there was no movement. Other areas would have motion blur. Nothing to show I’m afraid … still experimenting!

What was interesting, however, was how the rain sat upon the leaves of the plants in the garden. The first image is of raindrops on a yucca leaf. Quite a shallow depth of field to ensure other leaves are nicely out of focus. Made me think of Itten and his contrasts. Here you can almost see rough and smooth, wet and dry, harsh/hard and soft.

The second image intrigues me as it looked less like a raindrop on a leaf and more like a creature with a beady eye! I really must try some of those shots where you use the raindrop as a lens.

January 5, 2016January 31, 2016

Caterpillars!

Down the bottom of my garden I’ve planted some swan plants and buddleia. It’s been wonderful to see so many butterflies in the garden, but also somewhat upsetting. Upsetting because it appears that wasps attack the caterpillar during it’s final metamorphosis. We noticed a few caterpillars go into their fish hook shape but never saw them the next day. Needless to say we then started to rescue them off the bush and have successfully released a few butterflies. Never ceases to amaze me how such a tiny spec of an egg can develop into such a magnificent butterfly. Below are a couple of photos of caterpillars on a swan plant.

January 1, 2016January 31, 2016

Hmmm ….

Well, Happy New Year! I usually get up early and head out to see the sunrise, but this year the weather was pretty bad so I stayed in bed. Whilst doing odd jobs around the house I noticed these wee beasties in the basement. Before capturing them and setting them free in the back yard I had to get a few photos of course.

I’m guessing that the young spiders have a taste for their siblings as there appears to be a few “corpses” in amongst the living youngsters. Made me wonder what percentage of the baby spiders survive into adulthood.