Macro photography-A better version
Perched on a window screen, a robber fly eats a small moth in Oklahoma City. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
As both of you know, I’ve been trying to get good macro pictures in my spare time by reversing a 50mm lens. I’ve written a couple of blog posts about it. Staff Writer Ken Raymond recently wrote a story about a student at OU who puts my macro pictures to shame.
Thomas Shahan’s pictures have been published in magazines around the world and even sold to M.I.T. to be used in scientific textbooks. It was by looking at his macro pictures that I found out that the insect doing the eating in the picture above is called a Robber Fly.
You can see more pictures by staff photographers at The Oklahoman by clicking here. You can always click on photographs featured on Alternate Crop for a closer view.
-John Clanton
Macro photography-the practical application
A grasshopper sits in tall grass in northwest Oklahoma City Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Until last week, my experiments with macro photography were just for fun. An interesting challenge that made popular blog posts on Alternate Crop, but that were rarely used in the newspaper. When I saw that the City Desk made an assignment to get pictures of grasshoppers for this story, I knew my chances of getting a picture of an insect in the paper had increased dramatically.
To get these pictures, I used a reversed 50mm macro lens and walked through a field in northwest Oklahoma City. I didn’t have to walk very far for the grasshoppers to fly away from me so I could follow them to their next hiding place. I didn’t know that grasshoppers came in such a variety of colors, or that if you sneak up slowly enough, some of them will hold still for as long as it takes to get good pictures.
As always, you can see more photo galleries by The Oklahoman photo staff by clicking here.
A grasshopper sits camouflaged in tall grass in northwest Oklahoma City. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Grasshoppers like this one are being driven into cities from rural areas during the drought to look for food. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
Macro photography-Heat Dome version
A Blue Hawaiian sno-cone melts in he sun in Edmond on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
As you’ve read before on Alternate Crop, I’ve been using our “pool” 50mm macro lens, which can focus closer than my 50mm @ 1.8. For the really close pictures like these (except for the fish picture), I take the lens off and hold it up to the lens mount backwards. Focusing is a little more difficult with a reversed lens because you have to physically get the camera closer or farther away from the object to change the focus.
Here’s a few images I’ve collected over the last couple of days. You can see more macro photography posts by clicking here, or you can click here to see some of the hot weather images we gathered in the record-setting month of July.
An insect chewed holes through this sunflower leaf at the Dorothy Day Center at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Oklahoma City on Monday, Aug. 1, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
A fish lies dead in the sun after water receeded from Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City on Monday, Aug. 1, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
A dried out plant lies near a crack in the ground on a beach at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City on Monday, Aug. 1, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
