Blog
Changing Weather
The weather is changing. The first hints of spring are here and the photographic opportunities are changing as well. Early morning mists and fogs, sometimes combined with a low sun can create fantastic images. I was lucky enough to get a couple that are now in the gallery: “Dairsie Castle” and “Kemback in Mist”. I say lucky but following my own advice in this blog, I used the weather forecast as my cue to cycle to work and gave myself the chance to get the images.
It is definitely cycling weather now. I was out recently with the aim of going to a small village about 7 miles from home. On the way I spotted a potential shot, stopped and took a number of images. As things turned out I got an image that is one of my recent favourites, “Bow of Fife”. You can see it in the Rural Gallery. This was not my intended target but it just shows you that keeping your eyes open can really prove rewarding.
Another aspect of the changing weather is that plants and flowers are coming back to life and that gives me the chance to try out another area of this great game that is unknown to me: macro. I don’t want to buy a dedicated macro lens (just yet) so I’m going down the extension tube road first. These things are “spacers” that fit between your lens and the camera body, the effect of which is to reduce the apparent minimum focusing distance and hence take you into the macro world. There is no loss of optical quality as there are no optics in the tube, just electrical contacts to carry the normal signals to and from the lens. They come in various sizes ( and hence effect) and can be combined to produce further sizes. They are a cheaper way into macro photography, allowing you to experiment and assess before making the bigger commitment of getting a dedicated lens. I hope to get a set of these tubes in a few weeks and I’ll let you know how I get on.
It is definitely cycling weather now. I was out recently with the aim of going to a small village about 7 miles from home. On the way I spotted a potential shot, stopped and took a number of images. As things turned out I got an image that is one of my recent favourites, “Bow of Fife”. You can see it in the Rural Gallery. This was not my intended target but it just shows you that keeping your eyes open can really prove rewarding.
Another aspect of the changing weather is that plants and flowers are coming back to life and that gives me the chance to try out another area of this great game that is unknown to me: macro. I don’t want to buy a dedicated macro lens (just yet) so I’m going down the extension tube road first. These things are “spacers” that fit between your lens and the camera body, the effect of which is to reduce the apparent minimum focusing distance and hence take you into the macro world. There is no loss of optical quality as there are no optics in the tube, just electrical contacts to carry the normal signals to and from the lens. They come in various sizes ( and hence effect) and can be combined to produce further sizes. They are a cheaper way into macro photography, allowing you to experiment and assess before making the bigger commitment of getting a dedicated lens. I hope to get a set of these tubes in a few weeks and I’ll let you know how I get on.
06/03/2013