Macros of My Backyard

I got outside after work today for a little while today before the sun went down to practice my macro photography with my fairly new Nikon 105mm VR and I took the following series of photos below with the lens (lens info & reviews found at the bottom of the post).

Before I got started I noticed a little friend peering through the fence at me. It's my dog's "girlfriend" Taffy. They run up and down the fenceline canoodling anytime they are both out at the same time which cracks me up. I quickly fired off a shot of her with the Macro lens. I think it came out pretty sharp! I printed a copy to give to my neighbors. :)







Now don't be gossed out but Lucas was my sidekick on my backyard adventure tonight...and I was trying to get his cute nose but ended up with this while he was yawning...I wasn't going to share...but I just had to:



Then I became infatuated by this rusty nail in my tree...

It was the hard to get this thing in focus how I wanted...





More rust...and the strangest DOF...







and then I got into some textures:



















The 105mm lens is great!

Buythom.com had a very thorough review of the lens that I found exremely helpful and helped me to really understand the use of the lens.

Nikon Micro 105mm VR Sample Gallery on Pbase.com.

DPReview site gives a full overview of the lens.

Christmas Spirit/Lighting Essentials/Backdrop Compresson Poles

Wow this website is filled with great information:

Lighting Essentials:
http://www.lighting-essentials.com/

Also, another DIY treat for those who want to save money on a diffuser:
http://www.diyphotography.net/just-fab-s-turkey-pan-beauty-dish


DIY Studio Lighting - The Strip Light That Won't Strip You

http://www.diyphotography.net/the-strip-light-that-wont-strip-you


A link to 150 great blogs abput photograohy

http://chasejarvis.com/blog/2007/11/150-of-your-favorite-blogs-and-my-new.html

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST - This just may be the answer to my backdrop hanging woes! A compression pole from the Home Depot! Watch the video on this site to see how wonderful this invention is for us DIY photographers!

PHOTO STUDIO COMPRESSION POLE

http://www.diyphotography.net/photo-studio-compression-pole

After you watch the video in the one above and you get the idea - THEN CHECK OUT THIS POST - THIS may be the answer for me! I'd prefer to not have to put the one above together and this one also lets you place it on a diagonal.

"THIRD HAND" Lighting Pole

http://www.diyphotography.net/home-studio-third-hand-lighting-pole

So, it looks like I might be purchasing a set of these soon:

http://astore.amazon.com/diyphotography-20/detail/B000067S12/105-0886295-3838818

In the Christmas spirit here are couple Christmas tree ornament macros I just edited from yesterday:

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas from My husband and I:



My table is all set up for Christmas day tomorrow... :)






A few of my favorite decorations:







My mom gave me these salt & pepper shakers for my Birthday Saturday...I love snowmen and these are too cute.




Can you tell I adore snowmen??

And this is my tree:

Birthday!

Today is my birthday!

Didn't do much in the day but we're going out to dinner tonight so I'm looking forward to that!

In the mean time I was keeping busy with my birthday macro lens.

I convinced my husband to let me take a macro of his eye (I know...I'm a weirdo!). The surprise was that you could see a reflection of me taking his photo in his eye! I loved it!

I'm calling it:

The "I" in His Eye



Also Santa Claus came to my town today and I snapped a shot:



I know it has nothing to do with the above topics but I just edited these shots of an ice sculpture we watched in Bryant Park in New York City from last week's visit.

Macro Mania

So tonight I was practicing again (2nd day with the new Macro lens)...but I just can't get the lighting right with the bulbs I have. I know it will take time to figure out but I hate the learning curve!

I will be seeking more advice on the best way to light the lightbox so I can avoid a ton of post processing! It's just too time consuming!

For practice I decided to photograph things that I felt were meaningful to me.



The umbrellas were the gift that was given to all of the guests at my wedding shower:





My husband and my wedding rings:



A bracelet that was given to me by my friend's mom before she passed away:



Was in my hair at my wedding:



Beaded jewelry hand-made by me:








Also, I took these for my brother-in-law's birthday:





To view my MACRO Photography gallery click here: http://jenweaverphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/2753011

Happy Birthday To Me

Well, it's not my birthday yet...it's Saturday. But my Birthday/Christmas gift has arrived today from B&H Photo.

I haven't tried it yet...I know...you're asking "why???" That's so unlike me! Well, other things have gotten in the way of trying it but I think I will go and try it right now....

More to come in this post if I get a few shots off.

OKAY! I CONVINCED MYSELF! Even though I'm dead tired!

I just went and used my new lens for the first time! I shot for about 20 minutes and tis the season I went with mostly Christmas ornaments for the test shots.

These are unedited straight out of the camera....so that means I haven't worked with the white balance and it may be off in these shots. I'm still experimenting with various lightbulbs and camera settings (and the flash).

These were shot in the new lightbox with the flouresent setting for the white balance on the camera, the Gary fong cloudy filter on, and the flouresent bulbs in the lamps.















And some non-Christmas items: