Toronto Photography Meetup Group

PE, thanks for organizing the event. That was good. Not sure if I have many good pics though, shaky hands and non-IS marco

Janet, glad that you came looking for me at the end. Also for finding the "free" parking.

Ramesh

Did you make it to the boat?

http://www.niagarascenery.com/offroad_b ... lcome.html

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/janetliz/4223136947/" title="Christmas_0055 by janetliz, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4047/4223136947_6cd8f9e114_m.jpg" width="159" height="240" alt="Christmas_0055"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/janetliz/4223899062/" title="Christmas_0046 by janetliz, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4223899062_e76ef94a9b_m.jpg" width="240" height="148" alt="Christmas_0046"></a>

Yeah we did, but the light was very unflattering, so I am not sure we got what we wanted this time, maybe needs another well-planned visit

Here are a few shots

Butterfly Conservatory





Niagra-on-the-lake


Ramesh

wow~~~you guys are fast...i'm still going through my shots...and lots of crappy shots and hopefully after i delete some...there won't be as many

thanks potato for setting this up and the ride. it was nice seeing and meeting everyone. i had a blast

the mothman~~~

Thanks Potato for the ride & an absolutely fabulous day (butterflies, lake niagara, monument, spring bloom & shipwreck)!

Banded Peacock (Papilio palinurus)
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wycchan/4510987962/" title="Banded Peacock (Papilio palinurus) by wycchan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4510987962_bcbe59667e.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Banded Peacock (Papilio palinurus)"></a>

???
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wycchan/4510363887/" title="_MG_7678 by wycchan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2755/4510363887_7d8f93388f.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="_MG_7678"></a>

Rice Paper (Idea Ieuconoe)
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wycchan/4510351759/" title="Rice Paper (Idea Ieuconoe) by wycchan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2381/4510351759_9253ecb14f.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Rice Paper (Idea Ieuconoe)"></a>

Robin in front of some forsyth
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wycchan/4511037794/" title="Robin by some Forsyth by wycchan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2388/4511037794_b59494193c.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Robin by some Forsyth"></a>

La Grande Hermine II - burnt shipwreck originally intended as a restaurant
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wycchan/4510409049/" title="La Grande Hermine II by wycchan, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4510409049_22961ef5b2.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="La Grande Hermine II"></a>

PM me if you'd like a copy of the butterfly identification chart.

Nice stuff rkanth1661, I tried shooting the butterflies with the purple flowers & gave up very quickly.

Piglet, your super macro is so close it gives me the creeps. I am a entomophobia.

rkanth1661,

great composure. the colours and depth of field selection spot on. i like shot no 4. with the black and pink butterfly


catherine and piglet,

were those crops or did you shoot macro 1:1?

very nice photos from the conservatory guys. look forward to seeing more. i bought a bellows waiting for it come in to do some closeup work when it arrives. so maybe a future meet i'll be out there.

Edwin, I have a Tamron 2x tele-converter attached to my 100mm macro lens. No crop

thanks potato for the ride.

very good weather, nice location, delicious lunch

got few nice shoots for me

Butterflies waiting for take off



A close up



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For Catherine, another creepy one with PotatoEye's scary finger tip

Finally got to go through the photos, here's some







more on the website

http://www.scapevision.ca/p254157787

I used 100mm macro lens only.

Piglet's Tamaron 2x works on both the 100mm macro & the 70-200, the Canon 1.4x or 2x extender doens't work on the 100mm macro lens. It makes you wonder why?



Oh boy, now I'm really itchy & scratchy.

Great shots everyone. I see your shots are really sharp. Are they manually focused? Did you use the view finder or live view for focusing?

I tried both auto and manual, but not much luck. Can't quite see the focus point through the view finder. Looks like my eyes are also giving up on me

Thanks for the complements. However I do confess my pics aren't sharp, they look sharp due to color contrast

Ramesh

i have to manual focus with my tiny viewfinder so a lot of the time i can't quite see what i'm focusing at and sometimes i get the focus but my hands trend to shake a lot and then i end up not getting the focus afterall

Same here as Piglet wrote, but I am somewhat used to focusing with this crappy finder, I use auto focus, then re-compose, then make sure focusing is somewhat correct by moving my body, then fire away. This works due to decoupling the auto focus from shutter button though. Sharpening in post also helps

I did read about the process of moving the body back or forward slightly after manual focus and fire a few shots rapidly. I tried that, but I think I also tend to move side ways inadvertently in excitement



I have shaky hands as well. I noticed that I tend to hold my breath while concentrating on manual focus and when I am ready to shoot, I am wobbly. The shoulder bag makes it even worse. I should start focusing on my breathing first through meditation

Ramesh

Ramesh, are you sure the softness is a focus issue?

At least something in the image should be razor sharp, although at these distances the depth of field is very narrow. I found that when I didn't have a solid base with the monopod, I went to the continuous auto-focus mode, rather than single. That way, when you're swaying a bit, the AF will keep the area you want sharp.

The other more important thing at these macro distances is the compromise between f stop, shutter speed and ISO. You may be seeing motion blur. You will likely want an f stop of 14 or higher at these distances. You also need a fast shutter speed like 1/200 because of the shake and vibrations of the telephoto at close range even when the creatures aren't moving. Unless you boost ISO, such settings will give a dark image. Flash is handy because it will freeze motion, both yours and the butterfly's. And power at these ranges is unlimited. Something to consider next time.

Oh and great images everyone. I just got to look at and sort my images. It will take me a few days to get mine ready.

Looks like time well wasted. Turns out I don't need to go back to the ship Simon, thanks for the ND

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/potatoeye/4512534387/" title="Best Western Beacon Jordan Burnt restaurant by Scapevision, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2324/4512534387_524a466d8f.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Best Western Beacon Jordan Burnt restaurant"></a>

I've got so many butterflies to go through, but don't have time until the weekend. So far I've only finished my other stuff. All 17 are here:
http://www.pbase.com/reimar/niagara_spring
Butterflies to come.

Here are three samplers:

I too gave up on the monopod after couple of shots since I was spending lot of time trying to adjust the hight with moving subject

I did not go beyond f/5.6 since the shutter speed was getting slower for hand holding. Thanks for your input Reimar, I will try the ISO boost and flash next time to see if I can improve my hand held shots.

Nice shots, I really liked the one with field of flowers. Did you use a PC-lens?

Thanks Ramesh.
No, I don't have a PC lens - mostly because I'm hooked on zooms. But I will often achieve infinite focus by taking two shots. In this case a hyperfocal distance for both far and near fields. Although it's hard to tell from the small images posted, everything is sharp front to back.

In fact, even though I used f14 for the butterflies, I often used the same strategy there. I'll take several shots with slightly different focus points and combine the shots to get, say, both the eyes/body, and wings in focus. That's one reason it takes me so long to process pictures!

oh i should really bring along my tripod and so i can take a couple more shots and get the eyes, the body, and legs all focused but for now, here's my last one of the not so focused spooky shot

If anyone can stand a few more butterflies, I finished mine here (22):
http://www.pbase.com/reimar/niagara_spring

I spent a bit of time playing with off-camera flash in addition to my ring flash. Something like this:



I also spent some time at the hatching station, so I have a few pictures of butterflies emerging from the pupa. I was trying to shoot through the little air holes when a staff came along to open the doors. I'm sure she thought I was never going to finish.



I didn't do very close up shots, so as to still see some wing pattern: