I realized this morning that i have not posted nearly as many images as i wanted to. So today, we’re going to have a look at this past month, in photographs. Some of these will have been seen before, some won’t. I’ll include as much information about each as i can, and try to keep them in order of shoot! I hope you enjoy.

One of the “nice” things about living in the Midwest this month was a few days of 75 degree weather that allowed for some fun outdoor shoots. This one, in particular, involved a hike to find a “waterfall” that was created when they dammed up a local lake. Unfortunately we made it out during a dry spell, so they weren’t nearly as impressive as they could have been. It did still supply some unique images though.

This is also a product of that hike, even though the larger falls were mostly dry there was still a few smaller trickles and falls that made for some fun shooting.

This one should look familiar! It was shot while walking along the man made dam to reach the falls in the wooded area behind and to the left. This was an impromptu shot which is a good argument for why you should always keep a camera handy, and not just tucked in your pack waiting for what you expect to be your “shot”.

Another “nice” thing about the midwest, macro work outside is almost impossible! The wind is outrageous, and the few times it’s not the heat/cold (dependent on time of month) is outrageous. So, my shooting mate and it, decided to go for some indoor studio macro work. Him and i had both just ordered reverse rings and we decided why not give them a try! The image above is one of the non reversed images i took during the day using my Sigma 1:1 macro, which is great for flowers.

We very quickly discovered a few things with the reverse ring; firstly hand holding did NOT provide sharp images, secondly the focal plane was (as we had read) razor thin. You can read all about how fine the plane is to work with, but until you try it the extreme of it just doesn’t really compute. We also discovered, however, that the soft focused images that came out of it were definitely not failures as a composition, just something different. I love the abstract, almost ethereal feel of these images, and am happy to post and share them.

This one should look familiar as well, it was a product of the same shoot.

In setting up the lights and subject i decided to snap a few test shots with my partners D5000, one of my favorite images came from this. It had been a very long time since i’d gone through the hassle of setting up my studio lights for something, this afternoon of shooting reminded me why sometimes it’s worth the trouble.

This is the last image for this post, again an image shown earlier but now with some back story. The thing that still never fails to amaze me is the final product you see is a culmination of many many hours of work, both with the camera and getting to the locations. I’ve shot well over 500 images this past month, many of which were very good, but only a handful are good enough to make it out for people to see. I hope you’ve enjoyed.
~Wes