Photos: The Wonderful Land of Macro

Here are some photos I took when it was a really misty day outside and I really like how all these turned out so please check out the others on my Website and see for yourself.

The D600 and the 105mm VR Micro is a beautiful marriage.

Petal and Droplets - 105mm VR Micro - D600

Allium - 105mm VR Micro - D600

I thought I would post these as I edit my shoots I have done recently.  Trying to keep a good flow of photos coming if I can!  

Photos: Macro

Hey folks,

I have just uploaded some more photos to my new arrivals gallery.  They are some some very nice macro shots and with the D600 they are even better than before.  Hope you like them and I have a lot of shoots setup so stay posted for those after I do them!

Tulip - D600

http://www.tomhoustonphotography.ca/#/personal/70c1454423b96e9e80c8e51dfc104b6b

Video: What's In My Bag

He folks,

Just made a "what's in my bag" video recently because of the shift in gear I have done recently so this will be the most up to date gear.  It is all the same as my last gear review video however this is all of the gear I use.

Hope you like it,

Tom

Video: Gear Review

Hey Folks,

Currently I am selling two of my lenses and I have acquired two new big things for my kit.  So right now I have the most gear I will have in a while probably.  Because of this I decided to make a video of all my gear going over quickly some pro's/con's of them.  I hope you enjoy the video and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

Video: http://youtu.be/sMzt-XTFA9A

Tom

Videos

Hey folks,

Just made a video on my initial thoughts of the 16-35mm f/4 VR wide angle zoom lens as well as my camera, the Nikon D90.  I hope these videos help and if you want me to cover anything just toss a comment below.

Video: 105mm f/2.8 Micro (Macro) VR Review

Video: 105mm f/2.8 Micro (Macro) VR Review

Here is my video review of the 105mm f/2.8 Macro VR lens on my Youtube channel.  I know I already have a blog post reviewing this lens so check it out here and I will put the video link on that blog post as well.

Here is the video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfbknCpkio0

Hope that helps!

Photos: Orchid (In Colour)

Hey,

I wasn't only going to post the black and white photos I did of the orchid and here is one of the ones I kept in colour.  I have two more on my site that I think you should check out (In the new arrivals gallery) at www.tomhoustonphotography.ca.  Here is one of my favourites:

Orchid - 105mm f/2.8G VR Macro

Hope you enjoy theses.  I had a lot of fun taking these photos.

Tom

Photos: Macro

Hey,

So I was doing more writing in my blog than I was doing photography lately so I decided to change it up a bit.  I went out and bought a Gerbera Daisy and decided to do a macro shoot.  Usually I am crawling around in my mom's garden when I am home taking photos of flowers.  However this time I wanted to control all the variables.  So here is a sneak peak and then I will put of the flowers and how I got the shots:

Gerbera Daisy - 105mm VR Macro

Gerbera Daisy - 105mm VR Macro

Stay posted for more photos as well as how I setup the lighting and such.  Hope you enjoy!

Photos: Lavender Falls

Hey,

So I just went hiking today and I wanted to try to capture the motion of a river.  I have never really tried this properly so I thought I would give it a honest go this time.  It was a semi-cloudy day so I thought that this type of photo would be a good one to go after since there was not a lot of light.

My dad and myself went off to try to find a certain area of the Bruce Trail.  So off we went.  We found the river and then decided to hike along the bank to get to the small rapids that were further upstream.  This got a little risky from the mud and such but after a couple of minutes of trudging through mud I found a good spot.

So after a small amount of trial and error I got some decent photos.  The sun did come out more and more as the afternoon passed so I couldn't have the shutter speed I wanted.  As I wrote in my take on the exposure triangle, I just fiddled with the settings on manual to get the right shutter speed to catch the motion but the right aperture and ISO so that it wasn't one big blown out photo.

I am happy with my shots I got but I know I can do better.  I just need to find a better river and a cloudier day.  Maybe wait till fall since I will have a little more colour in the photos.  However one of my photos I did toss in black and white since it had some cool tones going on.

So here are my two photos I liked the most from the trek:

River Wisp - 17-55mm

Flow - Black and White - 105mm Macro VR

I hope you like the photos and thanks again for reading!

Focus: Shutter Speed. My Take On The "Exposure Triangle" Part II

Focus: Shutter Speed. My Take On The "Exposure Triangle" Part II


Part I covered aperture which I decided to cover first.  If you did not read it, you can click here to read the post.  I would recommend covering aperture first since this post will build on that knowledge a little.


Shutter speed is the duration it takes to open and close the mechanism that allows the light to hit the film or sensor of the camera.  It is the click as you take your photo.  Shutter speed allows you to control again how much light you can let it just like aperture does just in a different way.  


Slow shutter speeds keep the shutter open a longer amount of time which allows more light to pass through to the sensor/film to create a brighter image.  Having a fast shutter speed opens and closes the shutter quickly creating less time for the light to come through the lens to hit the sensor/film.  So both aperture and shutter speed control how much light hits the sensor however they both do this in different ways.  Just like aperture, shutter speed has other effects on your photos than just controlling the amount of light that is let in.  Aperture had an effect on the out of focus areas of the photo or bokeh as well as the Depth of Field (DoF) of the photo.  Shutter speed has it's own effects.  


However before I go into the effects of shutter speed I will discuss how it effects your photos if you are not using it for creativity purposes.  Shutter speed is something that can negatively effect your photos beyond having them too bright or too dark.  Using a slow shutter speed allows the camera to capture the movement of the camera which in most cases is from your hands shaking a little.  This results in blurry photos and lights streaking around in the photo.  Using a fast shutter speed ensures that the photo is captured quick enough that there isn't enough time to have any camera shake effect the photo.  Usually in most cases between opening up your aperture and slowing your shutter speed you can get decent photos if you do not have a lot of light.  There can be a couple of reasons you need to have a slow shutter speed.  If you cannot open your aperture wider due to the lens or you want a certain aperture for a desired DoF then you have to play with the shutter speed to get the right exposure. If your aperture limitations cause your shutter speed to be too slow for a hand held shot then you will get blurred photos.  This can sometimes be fixed with a tripod if the subject of the photo is stationary, or now with some newer lenses there is the ability to decrease the effect of camera shake.  


Using a tripod as a fix for slower shutter speeds is helpful if you are doing landscapes since usually there is not a lot of movement and therefore having a 2 second shutter speed wont result in a photo that looks like abstract art.  You are in a tough spot if you need to have a slower shutter speed and have your subject moving around.  For me this is what I run into at concerts.  Lighting is terrible and the singers are moving around.  Here is where it is very useful to have a large aperture on your lens.  


From the example from the concert, you may have noticed that a faster shutter speed "freezes" movement in a photo better than a slower one.  So with a fast shutter speed, you can capture something moving in a still photo and not have it blurry.  However if you are photographing something moving with a slow shutter speed you get motion blur.  The problem here is that sometimes you want motion blur and sometimes you don't.  Having your camera setup on a tripod you can get motion blur of cool things like stars or water which both can have very cool effects.  However if you are again taking photos of a concert and use a slow shutter speed as someone is strumming a guitar, you just get a semi sharp portrait with a very blurry hand/arm which looks kinda weird most of the time.  


Before I go into the cool effects that shutter speed can have I am going to lastly go over how your lens can help.  So we went over aperture already, but some newer lenses have the ability to shake opposite to your hand to allow for slower shutter speeds without camera shake effecting the photo.  Different camera/lens companies call this technology different things.  Nikon calls it VR for Vibration Reduction, Canon calls it IS for Image Stabilization and Sigma calls it OS for Optical Stabilization.  Personally I am a Nikon user so I only know how well Nikon's VR works but I am sure they all are basically the same.


VR is very useful and I only have it in one of my lenses.  I have it in my 105mm Macro lens.  Most people think that it shouldn't be in a macro lens but it is outrageously useful.  I rarely use it with a tripod as I should for marco work.  However I have managed to capture some very good marco photos (I think but you can make that call so I tossed one of my hand held macros at the end of the post) without a tripod and just taking photos hand held.  Shutter speed along with VR help do this as well as sunny days and steady hands.  I have heard photographers speak and write about the new 70-200mm VR II Nikkor lens and it's amazing ability to get shots with slow shutter speeds.  It is a useful technology that definitely helps photographers get tougher shots in low light that were almost impossible before.  


Now for how you can use shutter speed to help you.  You can use a fast shutter speed to capture actions or movement.  I think my best example of this would be in this photograph:

Humming Bird - BC - 18-105mm VR

So with a fast shutter speed I was able to capture a photo of a hummingbird with it's wings not blurry.  That is impressive since their wings beat at 60-90 beats per second or so.  Slow shutter speeds can get nice night shots with stars as well as motion blur like this photo:

Queen Charlotte Islands - 18-105mm VR

I took this photo with a semi-slow shutter speed in a car while it was moving.  This slow shutter speed allowed me to capture the movement of the car.  To be honest I accidentally took this photo, but I liked it a lot so I kept it.  


To sum this up, shutter speed is the duration of time that the shutter allows light to pass through to the sensor/film which dictates the amount of light that is let in for the photo.  So now aperture along with shutter speed control the amount of light that is let to the sensor/film.  Together they can be used in combination to allow you to get the look you want in you photo be it a large or small DoF to motion blur or freezing action.  


Next I will go over the last thing responsible for the brightness or darkness (exposure) of your photos, ISO.  So that will be Part III.  Since ISO won't take as long as shutter speed and aperture, I will tie them all together in Part III.  


Again, if you have any questions to make anything clearer please do not hesitate.  Hope this helps.  And always remember to practice!


As I said with the macro shots and the aid of VR, here is a hand held macro shot:

Frog - 105mm Macro VR

P.S. I've now made videos on my youtube channel about the exposure triangle so here is the one on shutter speed:  http://youtu.be/z1VNrU6PofI

AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED

Lens Review: Nikkor 105mm Macro VR

Thoughts and Opinions:

Where to begin... well lens may be my favourite lens.  I just thought about it for a second there and concluded that it is my favourite lens.  I thoroughly love this lens.  Here is why:

This lens is tack sharp, hands down.  The detail it can pick up just makes you want to take pictures of everything to see what things look like at a macro level.  It is a great macro lens.  It is great at taking 1:1 photos and they look great.  I can go on about why this is a good macro lens but I would rather keep this review shorter than a novel if I can.  

If I have space to back up, I use this lens for portraits as well because it is tact sharp.  Turns out it is a wonderful portrait lens.  Personally, I want a 85mm however between a 50mm and this 105mm, a 85mm might not have it's own niche there.  I have decided that if I keep doing portraits a lot and such, I may get a 85mm but as it stands my 105mm does the trick just fine.  

One bad habit that this lens allows me to get away with is not having to lug around my tripod with me everywhere I go.  Now this is just from my personal experience and I do not suggest doing this but, the VR on this lens lets me get away without using my tripod.  Any website you find on taking macro shots will have "use a tripod" in there however I find it just limits what I can do.  Yes, I am sure I could have better shots if I use a tripod.  I agree there, but I was in Saskatchewan and I was chasing shy dragonflies around these bushes which was difficult to begin with.  It was hard to slowly sneak up on the dragonflies and would have been nearly impossible with a tripod.  Another time I was balancing myself on a branch on a muddy river bank to take photos of frogs.  Again, it was very difficult and if I had my tripod I could have ended up swimming with it in the river.  So that is just my personal view and I know it isn't the best way but it works for me.  I can't promise it would work for you but I can tell you this is an amazing lens.

The cost has dropped since I bought it but that only means it is even better for its cost performance.  Also a lens this good, which has the Nikon's pro gold ring around it, is a no brainer if you like macro or want a good sharp versatile lens.  It is pro glass and it less than $1000.  

One thing about this lens that always makes me happy is the colour rendition.  As I mentioned in my Tokina 11-16mm review, I want photos that look like what I saw with my eyes.  The closer the photo is to what I saw then the happier I am.  My examples of this is taking photos of leaves in the fall because I find with other lenses the colours get a little darker and muddier looking.  I took a photo of yellow leaves in the fall and it was exactly how I saw it.  Also I took photos of a pow wow in Saskatchewan and the colours of the all the outfits was truly amazing.  And again, the 105mm passed with flying colours with colour rendition.

Before I got this lens, I tried out my Godfather's macro lens.  He owns the Tamron 90mm.  This was a good lens and I got some nice shots with it however I had a few issues with it during the short time I had it.  The autofocus was slow and loud.  I know AF is not used for 1:1 because it is easier using manual focus but I wanted a lens for more than just macro.  A slow and loud AF wouldn't be fun for portraits other other non-macro uses.  I could be wrong but I don't believe it had any vibration reduction either.  This was also a negative because I didn't want to have to be attached to a tripod for everything I did with a macro lens.  Another feature that caused the Tamron to lose points was the lens did not have internal focusing.  The barrel extended almost half of the original length of the lens.  It was almost far enough when you are doing 1:1 you could bump into things.  Also having this large object moving towards a shy insect could be troublesome.  Because of these things, I ruled out the Tamron.

I put a lot of thought into getting the Sigma 150mm Macro.  It was a worthy contender however it did not have stabilization as well, and I know sigmas are known to be heavy.  For these two reasons I did not want to chance it if I wanted it to work well being hand held and hiking with it. 

My only bone to pick with this lens is that it actually is not a fixed aperture lens.  Depending on focusing distance, it can go up to f/4.  It is a minor detail since that is only when you are very close to something which helps most of the time because it gives you larger depth of field (DOF) which aids with macro photography.  At f/2.8 in a 1:1 photo, the DOF would be smaller than a dragonfly's head.  

Just as a side note, the lens hood for this lens is very good.  It stops the sun from coming in from bad angles for outside shots as well as protects the front element from easily being hit by anything.  

Usage:

As I have mentioned, I use this lens for macro work, portraits and anything where I want the colours to be perfect.  

Pros:

- Sharpness

- VR

- Relatively fast and quiet focusing

- Internal focus

- Good for macro, portraits and vibrant coloured photos

- Cost for performance 

- Pro glass

- Not too heavy

- Built like a tank

- Focus range switch

- Nice lens hood

- FX lens

Cons:

- Aperture changes with distance, but that helps increase depth of field which is nice for macro shots

Sample Images:

Portrait of Hayleigh - 105mm (Portraiture) 

Frog - 105mm (Macro work)

Fall Leaves - 105mm (Colour rendition)

Conclusions: 

As I am sure I you’ve noticed, I think very highly of this lens.  The Nikkor 105mm Macro VR is a very good lens.  I highly recommend it for macro use as well as portrait or nature shots.  It doesn’t have a lot of reach with this lens for only being 105mm however for my purposes I find 105mm is perfect.  Also on the D90 it is more around 150mm because of the crop factor.  Anyways, this is a very solid and sharp lens.  For the price and the versatility of the lens it would be a little silly not to own.  Haha, but that is just my opinion.  So in conclusion this is my favourite lens, and I am very happy with it so far.  If you are thinking about purchasing this lens, I would, but if my word is not good enough I would keep reading reviews of it and you’ll find nine times out of ten this is the lens people pick for macro work.  I did a good month of research into macro lenses and that is what I found.  Hope this helps if you are sitting on the fence.

I would definitely give this a near perfect score if I had a rating system.  


If you have any questions please don't hesitate to e-mail me at tomhoustphotography@gmail.com.  Also if you are interested in visiting my photography website to see my top work, please visit it here: www.tomhoustonphotography.ca.


Rating: Overall 4.5/5


Macro Photography: 4.9/5
Portrait: 4.5/5
Overall: 4.5/5


Lastly, I have started doing video instead of writing my long blog posts.  I started up a Youtube channel and I will be re-reviewing all my gear there in a video so here is my one for the 105mm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfbknCpkio0

Hope that helps!