I made a new friend :) Then he flew away... :(

Destin · Jul 23, 2011

So I was sitting on my porch tonight, enjoying the cool night air (a pleasant break from the last few 95 degree days), when I happened to see a grasshopper sitting on the railing next to me. I stared at him for like 5 minutes, amazed by the fine detail in it's body and wings. Finally I decided to go grab my camera. I threw on my closest focusing lens, a Sigma 70-200 2.8 "macro", and took a few shots of him. All shots taken handheld at 200mm, 1/250th of a second, and F/8-F/11, iso 800 with an off camera SB-600. Keep in mind, I'm FAR from a Macro photographer. It's just not my thing.

It was pretty Hit and miss because of poor lighting and the fact that He kept moving around. A few other grasshoppers joined the party though. I took about 100 shots in 20 minutes. Here are the better ones:

1.)

2.)

3.)

4.)

5.)

6.) shot through dirty glass

7.)

EPPhoto · Jul 23, 2011

1 and 3 you missed the focus by just a tad. You were a little deeper than you needed to be. You gotta be careful where you lock focus when you're shooting macro shots, it's easy to miss. And in 2 it looks like you lost some details due to it being underexposed.

Destin · Jul 23, 2011

EPPhoto said:
1 and 3 you missed the focus by just a tad. You were a little deeper than you needed to be. You gotta be careful where you lock focus when you're shooting macro shots, it's easy to miss. And in 2 it looks like you lost some details due to it being underexposed.

Totally agree with, and had already noticed everything you mentioned. Heck I knew it was gonna happen while I was shooting, just because I was shooting these handheld in crappy light. If I wasn't so lazy I might have pulled out my tripod, or at least my monopod, to get better results. But I didn't feel like going to get it.

I appreciate the critique though man. I'll have to try this again sometime when I'm more patient and energetic