Got tired of the same bumblebee and poppy photo, so I headed down to the local community garden for some exploration.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 1600, 105mm, f/16, 1/125

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 1600, 105mm, f/16, 1/160

This one reminds me of a fried egg.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 400, 105mm, 0.3EV, f/16, 1/60

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 400, 105mm, f/8, 1/60

One leg out of focus. 🙁

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 400, 105mm, f/8, 1/125

I think I need to revisit this site while shooting on manual mode. On aperture priority, sometimes the shutter gets too slow. Unless you are shooting macro indoors, the slightest breeze can easily knock a flower out of focus.

After I bought my macro lens, it seems that every day has been a windy day. Or maybe it has always been windy and I just haven’t noticed until now.

I’m still searching for the optimum settings when using the Nikon macro lens. At f/6.3, barely anything is in focus, which isn’t a problem if the subject is flat.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 400, 105mm, f/6.3, 1/125

At f/45, more of the flower is in focus. However, the original image was quite dark, even with a macro flash. Had to spend a few seconds in Photoshop to fix the image.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 400, 105mm, f/45, 1/125

Here is how it looked out of the camera.

When viewing macro photos, it might be difficult to determine the degree of magnification even for familiar subjects. At first glance, this may appear to be a photo from someone’s rock collection. However, this photo was taken at a playground. The rocks are really sand.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 125, 180mm, f/8, 1/400s

For reference, I took a photo of a standard office park flower along the sidewalk. I have no idea what these are called, but they were growing every where.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 100, 180mm, f/8, 1/400s

With the 105mm macro lens and a 1.7x teleconverter, the flower appears like this up close:

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 100, 180mm, f/8, 1/800s

A 100% crop of the above photo reveals these details. Not bad for a handheld shot on a windy day.

Here’s a different flower. Again, handheld and at the mercy of the wind. The center of the flower looks a little soft.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 100, 180mm, f/8, 1/640s

But, look what shows up when viewed at 100%. The bug is actually visible in the above photo, but I didn’t even notice it when I first took the shot.

Here’s the dangerous part about getting a macro lens. You might relapse back to childhood with a serious fascination for insects. Who sees a bee and moves in to get an even closer look?

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 140, 180mm, f/8, 1/200s

This bee does not look happy.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 250, 180mm, f/8, 1/250

This bumblebee was a lot easier to track than the one who was busy pollinating the poppy. For poppies, the bumblebee would disappear inside the flower for a second or so and I had to guess the timing of its departure. Here, the bumblebee remained in the open the entire time.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 3600, 180mm, f/9, 1/800s

I even got lucky and caught the bumblebee just as it was about to take off for another flower.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 3200, 180mm, f/9, 1/800s

Still experimenting with the macro lens and 1.7x teleconverter. I shot a batch at the smallest aperture, but the ISO heads to 6,400 and the image quality gets totally degraded. Then, I returned to f/8, and shot at the faster shutter speed and set the advance mode to CH (continuous high).

The in focus plane is so limited that for a rapidly moving insect, there’s less than a second where the face is in focus.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 800, 180mm, f/8, 1/2,000s

By the next frame, the bee was already taking off and blurry. That would have been an even cooler shot to get in focus.

Photographers who can capture insects in perfect focus are true masters. My approach may not be entirely correct, so I have some experimenting to do. You don’t even have to look that closely to realize that the bee is just a bit out of focus. Too bad because the pose is quite interesting. After tracking a few bees, I noticed that they flew into the poppies head first. However, instead of backing out, the bees would turn around and exit head first. Even though I anticipated the bee’s exit, I still could not nail the focus because the bee was moving about quite quickly and the depth of focus was quite narrow.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 160, 180mm, f/8, 1/200s

How do you get 180mm with a 105mm lens? With a TC-17EII, a 1.7x teleconverter.

The spider photo came out quite cleanly. The spider was on a web between a handrail. However, the web is out-of-focus and invisible. You can see the hair on the legs of the spider. Amazing!

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 800, 105mm, f/8, 1/1,600

Today, I received a Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm 2.8G ED. Fortunately, it arrived just before noon, so I headed out on a lunch hour walk with the camera in tow to test the new lens. The conditions were not entirely optimal due to the strong wind.

The first thing I discovered was that the depth of focus was rather narrow.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 100, 105mm, f/8, 1/500s

So, instead of relying on auto focus, I switched over to manual focus for more precision. The photo below is a crop from the above photo when viewed at 100%.

Later, I came across a bee and switched back to auto focus. I could not manually focus fast enough to keep up with that busy bee as it flew from flower to flower.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 100, 105mm, f/8, 1/320s

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 100, 105mm, f/8, 1/250s

Found another pink flower on the way back.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 100, 105mm, f/8, 1/400s

Same photo at 100%.

The final shot is a slice of an orange. Flat objects are easier to focus on. I also tried taking a photo of a teaspoon of kosher salt, but too little was in focus, even when using a tripod.

Nikon D800, AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED, ISO 100, 105mm, f/8, 1/60s

From an earlier trip to Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona.

Nikon D7000, AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VRII ED, 18mm

This was taken around noon when the sun was high and bright. I took several photos (0 EV, +2 EV, -2 EV) and used Photomatix Pro, an HDR application, in an attempt to recover some details from the shadows in the canyon.

Disneyland is a man-made theme park in Anaheim, CA. Not the type of destination where you should spend much time pondering the one lens question. For fun, I brought along the 28-300mm and took some photos just to see how the camera and lens would perform.

In good light, the 28-300mm had no problems. For that matter, an iPhone could do the job for outside snapshots. Indoors, it’s all about trade-offs. The first task is finding the slowest acceptable shutter speed. The French can-can girls look acceptable when cropped and reduced. At 100%, the noise is quite noticeable.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 6400, 65mm, f/4.8, 1/50s

It’s a Small World-version of Cinderella.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 6400, 28mm, f/3.5, 1/50s

Disney waterfall in Toon Town. Would have been more fun with an ND filter and tripod. I did try to slow down the shutter speed as much as possible.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 100, 32mm, f/25, 1/5s

Construction crane towering above Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which was closed.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 100, 45mm, f/5.6, 1/640s

During each ride, there’s a series of initial adjustments. I wanted the shutter fast enough to stop movement. The boat was moving. The characters were moving. However, I didn’t want the shutter to be so fast that the resulting photo would end up completely underexposed. Pirates of the Caribbean was particularly challenging because the entire ride was dimly lit. I started the shutter speed at 1/100s, increased it to 1/50s, and again to 1/25s.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 6400, 28mm, f/3.5, 1/25s

While waiting in line for the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride, I saw the parade pass by.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 180, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/500s

At Innoventions, I sat through the Honda ASIMO robot presentation while waiting for my Autopia FASTPASS time to arrive. I was impressed by the mobility of ASIMO. However, I was underwhelmed when the host was video conferencing with his family. Facetime is already here. Video conferencing is the technology of today, not tomorrow. And, using Facetime certainly doesn’t trigger a ridiculous video and audio special effect. I guess the swirling effect was to make video conferencing appear futuristic.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 5600, 116mm, f/5.6, 1/500s

Sleeping Beauty’s Castle during that wonderful moment after the lights are turned on but before the sky has gone dark.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 6400, 105mm, f/5.6, 1/125s

Next time, I’ll bring a prime lens for fun.

Getting closer and closer to a full moon. After taking a Waxing Gibbous Moon photo a few days ago, I decided to head back out again.

The colors are all off because I took this around 6:30 PM, about an hour before sunset, when the sky was anything but black.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 100, 300mm, f/8, 1/320s