Macro Week

The sudden popping of beautiful spring flowers always calls to me for macro photography.




So, my lenses of choice for this past week have been my AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm 1:28G ED (both flowers above taken with this lens) and my old workhorse film lens AF Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 D which is ailing but still has a sharp focus and provides me some damn decent images. (see both flowers below)





After a week of experimenting, I stumbled on this article by Tony Sweet which I found very informative.  So, I see where he tells us that the longer lenses can bring about a softer bokeh. Oh how I love that pastel effect in the background! I also discovered that my 105mm works great as a portrait lens as well as for macro.  I shot a mature but bawdy female comedian this week who made it difficult for me to focus on my settings as she ripped off nonstop one-liners.


So, after listening to Zach Arias telling me to "know my lenses, know my lenses," I am really getting to know them quite well. And, despite the fact that the 70-300 is still able to perform, it no longer performs at an aperture wider than f4 and it no longer zooms automatically, so I've really got to start seriously saving for a replacement.  I am getting a whole lot better with the "head in a clean spot" recommendation but that IS a LOT of work!

Worked a lot on portrait retouching and playing with the ring flash.  More tk next week about both. In the meantime, happy shooting, friends!

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