CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

A grey and overcast day is not the best for landscapes but with a few breaks in the clouds I did manage to grab some shots of the wildlife on the Grantham Canal near Woolsthorpe. As usual there are Mute Swans dotted up and down the canal and one pair sailed serenely past use with their wing feathers puffed up in a typical pose.  One gave me a curious glance as it paddled past my camera but carried on down to the next lock. A flock of wild Canada Geese were sitting quietly on the bank so I approached with care and got my shots before they got into the water and paddled away. Catkins are starting to appear and Snowdrops are on the ground amongst  the trees, heralding the start to Spring, which probably means we'll have snow next week. The final shot shows one of the waterfalls at one of the disused locks along this stretch of the Grantham Canal.  One day these locks might be restored to full working order but for now the...

Depth of field is a term that is used in photography that describes the amount of distance between the nearest and farthest objects that appear in acceptably sharp focus in a photograph. Depth of field is referred to a 'DoF' in some camera manuals or texts. Depth of field is controlled by the aperture setting.  A small aperture (high 'f' number - ie f22) will give a large depth of field or a wider area of sharp focus and a large aperture (low 'f' number - ie f4) will give a small depth of field or a narrower area of sharp focus. The images below, of Snowdrops in the Vale of Belvoir, were taken on a Nikon D800 with a 60mm f2.8 AF-D micro lens and mounted on a sturdy tripod.  The first image was taken at f7.1 and the focus point was the snowdrop on the left of the image.  As you can see the DoF is very shallow, with just the front Snowdrop in focus.  In fact the DoF is so shallow not all of the flower head is perfectly sharp. Aperture on the len...

A camera armed with a macro lens opens up a whole world of opportunities for photographers.  A lot of cameras sport 'macro' functions or a lens will say it has a 'macro' facility but unless a lens can reproduce a lifesize image (1:1) or better then it isn't a true macro lens. Macro photography is described as extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is equal to or greater than life size. These shots were taken on a Nikon 60mm f2.8 AF-D micro lens, which does give the magic 1:1 reproduction.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON O...

After two days of taking snowy landscapes I decided to get the macro lens out of the camera bag and take some shots of the snow crystals and icicles.  The miniature world of the snow flake and ice is quite amazing and the close up images were lit by an off camera flash gun, which was positioned to highlight the wonderful shapes. Here are some of the results -   All images taken on a Nikon D700, Nikon 60mm f2.8 AF-D Micro using a Nikon SB-600 flashgun on remote commander mode, except for the 'red berries' which was taken on a Fuji X100 on macro mode. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION If you like what you see on this blog please visit our  Facebook  page and click 'like' MORE IMAGES CAN BE VIEWED ON  FLICKR  AND ON O...