Stillness

athos · August 23, 2006

didn't have time to drive to shoot what i want to until the weekend, so i messed about near to home.

A Still Perch

Incoming Stillness

TomaS · August 23, 2006

That is an excellent dragonfly shot

Having him 'pose' parallel to the lens makes for no DOF problems and all if him is sharp

Swartzy · August 23, 2006

I too love the Dragonfly
That's an incredible capture and comp. It looks like he has hands and is busy at work like a surgical technician. Very impressive!

Zahid Niaz · August 24, 2006

I like the composition of Shot 1. Execellent take ! Congratulations!

douglas · August 25, 2006

#1 is awesome!

Bendr · August 25, 2006

Nice work,

I'm curious, what lens did you use for those?

Ben

athos · August 25, 2006

Bendr wrote:

Nice work,

I'm curious, what lens did you use for those?

Ben

thanks.

the first shot was the canon 70-300IS wide open. it would have been sharper if i didnt move forward a touch after focusing and recomposing. i was in a field next to a burned out building that the fireman use for practice to shoot a fire hydrant in the middle of a grassy field when i saw this fellow perch perfectly still for half a minute. i wish i was a bit smarter on adjusting my settings.

the second is with the sigma 105mm macro also wide open.

i went easy on the PP for the first: cropping, levels, little bit of unsharp mask, a bit of color enhancement. the second i used levels more robustly to darken the green leaves in the background of the flower bud.

i did use the free noiseware application at the very end.

they came out nice out of camera left me with not too much to do.

Awais Yaqub · August 25, 2006

:

:
There is nothing best then 1st one for stillness

saurora · August 25, 2006

That's one of the nicest dragon shots I think I've seen! It defintely shows stillness, as there's barely any out of focus areas (due to DOF) that might suggest movement. It's really wonderful. I like the flower, but not nearly the same effect for me.

Bendr · August 26, 2006

Great job!

Now everyone's trying to sell the sigma 105mm macro to me!

I started off convinced on the canon 100mm macro vs the other ones...

First the camera shop doesn't have the canon 100mm macro, so they showed me the sigma 105mm macro...

And now you are showing me one of your pics from the sigma 105mm... Bah!!!

Well, any ways... thanks for sharing! nice pics!

Ben

athos · August 26, 2006

it's not my lens. it's my girlfriends and i get to use it

there are pros and cons to it. big pro is the price over the canon macro. it is 370 at sigma4less.com it is very very sharp, with amazing contrast and colors out of camera. it has a nice 13" min focusing distance which gives u some room to work.

some cons, focusing is loud. focusing is also very slow when you go from macro to non-macro shooting - it cycles through the whole barrel, and not fast. once you get it back to full range focusing, focusing is pretty quick. in low light though, when you have to focus it hunts and going through all that range takes what feels like forever. also the barrel extends, which doesnt bother me, but it does some people.

if you are going to use this for mostly macro, with some portrait shooting, this lens is great. if you are going to utilize it for less than 50% macro shooting and a lot of walkaround stuff, id go canon.

here are a few more shots from this lens, what is great is i barely have to touch the colors in pp. they come out insane.

Bendr · August 27, 2006

Wow, nice colors!

Now I've handled the sigma, and it does seem to run quite nicely, though it did seem quite slow...

Now I just wish someplace had the canon such that I could pick it up and try it out...

How fast is the canon compared to the sigma, The Canon has a ring USM with full time manual right?

Anyway, I suppose this is all off-topic isn't it

Perhaps we should get back to the challenge discussion

Ben

athos · August 27, 2006

Bendr wrote:

Wow, nice colors!

Now I've handled the sigma, and it does seem to run quite nicely, though it did seem quite slow...

Now I just wish someplace had the canon such that I could pick it up and try it out...

How fast is the canon compared to the sigma, The Canon has a ring USM with full time manual right?

Anyway, I suppose this is all off-topic isn't it

Perhaps we should get back to the challenge discussion

Ben

yeah it has the fast and quiet ring usm and FTM focusing. the sigma uses a clutch. but like i said, for macro stuff, i dont find any of that a bother, it becomes second nature, and its not even my lens.

canon should be noticeably faster. basically, if the $100 difference (349.95 for a sigma w/canon mount at sigma4less vs 449.95 for the canon at b&H) means little to you, then get the canon for sure.