Took a stab at Macro

I am still trying to do "Macros" even though I do not have a true dedicated Macro Lens.

All I can say is that it is not easy, and that my respect for all of you that do this grows every time I try.

I know that this is far from a true Macro, and that the technical end of it leaves a lot to be desired, but I wanted to share some of what I am doing trying to learn.

http://www.jepagan.com​/potn//img_2580b.jpg

A nice start. You could do less on the cropping so the wasp looks sharper. Leaving the wasp a little smaller in the picture won't do harm, and the result would be a sharper subject (but smaller).

In the end, you'll have to work with the gear you got. I took it a little extreme with a kitlens, not everyone likes it this way (the first picture of the fly). I got the suggestion to get out of the extremes and use settings with a larger degree of normalness (normal DOF, normal sharpness, normal composition etc).

If you stay on the conservative side with the settings, and don't push the cropping thing, you can get very nice and broadly accepted pictures with non macro-dedicated gear (however, the last picture was taken with macro setting on my zoomlens).

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Thank You for the tip, I will try to work it up following your suggestions.

Your new picture is better. I ain't missing no wasp and it does not raise eyebrows in respect of sharpness.

Wekkel wrote in post #3990089
Your new picture is better. I ain't missing no wasp and it does not raise eyebrows in respect of sharpness.

Thank You for looking, as I stated I do not have a dedicated macro and this was taken with a 70-200, a lens not designed for this.

You do pick a tricky subject for your first macro.

Keeping the bright yellow from blowing while maintaining the detail in the dark areas is a tough call.

As with lots of wildlife photography, the eyes are the important part, and you hit the focus on these. The black body doesn't do you any favours, which makes this an excellent first effort.

Warning; macro does become addictive, as I'm sure you'll soon find out. It will soon make calls on your wallet.

Looking forward to seeing some more of your work

Dreamline, thank you for your kind words, with encouragement like yours there is no other thing than to go forward.

dreamline wrote in post #3991050
You do pick a tricky subject for your first macro.

Keeping the bright yellow from blowing while maintaining the detail in the dark areas is a tough call.

As with lots of wildlife photography, the eyes are the important part, and you hit the focus on these. The black body doesn't do you any favours, which makes this an excellent first effort.

Warning; macro does become addictive, as I'm sure you'll soon find out. It will soon make calls on your wallet.

Looking forward to seeing some more of your work

just keep at it you'll get it eventually. i'm still learning alot from this site.

Bill

i think it looks great. we had tons of those in NC in our old apartment building.. they loved the plants around there. ( i dont know why) but great shot.
shannon

Bill Pham wrote in post #3991658
just keep at it you'll get it eventually. i'm still learning alot from this site.

Bill

Thanks Bill I am trying, I read up as much as I can, and then try what I can.

shannyD wrote in post #3991678
i think it looks great. we had tons of those in NC in our old apartment building.. they loved the plants around there. ( i dont know why) but great shot.
shannon

Thank You Shannon, my backyard is full of them because of all the flowers I have laying about.

KonTiki,
Just to let you know your subject I don't believe is a Yellow Jacket. I believe it is a Black and Yellow Mud Dauber. What gave it away was the thinness in its middle section.
A suggestion to try is using your flash, as it will give you faster shutter speeds and help give some light to the black surface.
Here is a yellow jacket family to show you the difference between your subject and a yellow jacket <--click to see

John thanks for the ID I was not sure since it did look skinny but having never shot one this close before I did not venture other than the title I gave the image. I will also keep the flash suggestion in mind for the future. Appreciate all the help I am getting here, thank you all.

That's not too bad an attempt at all, hard subject to get right as Bernie said - yellow is always hard to avoid blowing at the best of times, combined with black and your asking for trouble Flash might very well help, even if it's used to fill in. What aperture/shutter speed setting did you use? I take it it is a crop as well, doesn't appear to have lost too much detail or sharpness from the crop, so well done there as well. My only criticism is that there is a lack of detail in the black sections of the Wasp, and that detracts from the shot overall, but still a very fine effort considering.

Might I suggest the following:

Get a set of tubes and use them with the 70-200, with the zoom set to 70mm. This should give you 1:1, which is fine for most subjects imho. Said tubes with a 50mm lens will give you even higher magnifications Use flash for fill, and to also help freeze the subject. You could try AV mode, and use fill flash, but you'll probably need something like f5.6 or f8, and ISO 800 or so, depending on the lighting conditions. It's doable, get out there and experiment

Dave