As I woke up today, the sun was nicely diffused by a blanket of clouds and only a few beams of sunlight were able to pierce through. Combining that with a free afternoon caused me to pack a camera bag, throw on a bunch of layers and venture out. As usual, my close to home hiking spot is Ohiopyle State Park and even though I knew there would be no snow on the ground, no leaves on the trees and probably not much in the way of grand scenery, I had an urge to be out in the woods.
Once I arrived and to begin my hike, the clouds parted and the sun shone bright. It was right around noon and the light was harsh. This kept my camera pointed at the details rather than the majestic landscapes, not that I minded. I shot mostly with the Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 and had some generic macro extension tubes on hand to assist with the close in shots. Walking around and finding interesting details in such harsh light was a fun challenge and I hope to be out again soon doing it all over again.
After reading some other blogs recently espousing the fun that can be had with some macro photography tools, I jumped on-board and ordered a few cheap accessories to have some fun. With just the basics, wandering around your back yard can open up many new opportunities in photography.
These were the first shots that I’ve taken with my basic setup. I ordered a $30 set of Meike Macro Extension tubes for my X-Pro2 and used with my 56mm f/1.2 or 18-135mm Fuji lenses. On the front the lens, I added a Raynox 150 macro lens that I had from previous dabbles in macro photography. To get the depth of field I needed, I had to stop down the lens to either f/16 or f/18. Due to the extremely small aperture, I attached a flash via a TTL cord to illuminate the subject and keep ISO down. All of these shots were handheld and the working distance was between 2 and 3 inches of the lens. It was challenging and I’m sure there are better setups for this, but for the minimal cost involving, I’m very happy with the results.
The Cicada’s are coming out of their long hibernation in force and they are just about everywhere. The buzzing has started and as soon as you step outside, you’ll see them. I wanted to get a closer look at a few, so I clipped my Raynox Macro lens adapter to my 18-135mm lens, grabbed a flash and small softbox with TTL cable and mounted the camera on a small tabletop tripod to go in the backyard.
I didn’t get into focus stacking or anything like that. Shutter speed was 1/180, Aperture at f/13, ISO 400 and the flash was firing via a TTL cable into a small Rogue FlashBender softbox about 4 inches from the bug. Since the tabletop tripod sits 6″ off the ground, it was the perfect height.
