Now I'm getting somewhere

[wornways]

Here's a shot of a dead subject (leaf hopper if I'm not mistaken) taken from a web outside my door made using a tripod and hand-held remote trigger. It's about 4.5mm long and 1mm at its widest (including left over webbing):


008 (cropped) by Wornways, on Flickr

Once I saw this, I decided it was time to go freehand. Because if I'm forced to use a tripod out in the bush when I'm walking around with my monster camera setup, I might as well forget it. So I had to see if I could get a photo of similar quality now that I knew what should be possible. Knowing what's possible can spur my determination like nothing else. This is what I managed:

Freehand #1 from about the same angle:


013 (cropped) by Wornways, on Flickr

I figured out that I could use continues mode to snap three to five shots in a row (six per second with this camera) and just slowly rock my way into focus as I did this. I ended up with some comparable shots from other angles:


025 (cropped) by Wornways, on Flickr


029 (cropped) by Wornways, on Flickr

Seeing that these looked clear, I decided it was time to try it on a live subject. I bolted outside freaking with excitement (because I now realized I might be able to pull this off!) and saw a mayfly, whose main body was maybe 7mm or 8mm long, and tried a similar but slightly improved method:


034 (cropped) by Wornways, on Flickr

A tiny little sucker on the brightest part of the bulb. This guy couldn't have been larger than 2mm long:


036 (cropped) by Wornways, on Flickr

I tried again with higher output to the flashes on the ring (four SB-R200s) but the flash became too powerful. In retrospect I realize I could have turned one of them off to get the right lighting. But I went back to the lower flash output and got the above. I then chased after an inch long moth that was frantically flying about the light fixture, but freaked out whenever the flash went off, so I didn't get an ideal shot, though my best shot with that fella was better than any moth photo I'd ever managed before.

So I returned to the mayfly to see if I could do it again:


040 (cropped) by Wornways, on Flickr

Glaring success. I think I've finally found my way with this lens.

 

[cgipson1]

Glad you are making progress! You can also improve your lighting with better diffusion also.

 

[wornways]

Glad you are making progress! You can also improve your lighting with better diffusion also.

I have diffusion filters for the four flashes, but I really hate them. They force me to jack up the flash power as high as I can get it, which has its own unpleasant issues. If Nikon made a less diffuse diffusion filter that diffused while allowing more light to come through, then I'd be all over it. For the time being, I just hing the lights away (outward) from the subject, which has a similar effect without forcing me to sacrifice the short flash time.