MACRO Update for September 2006

To bring you up to date I have spent the summer refining my MACRO Rigs
to maximize hand held stability. I have achieved my goal with the
following Rigs or Setups:
1. Canon 100mm Macro with 2X Teleconverter and Canon MT24EX Twin Flash
attached to a Cullman Shoulder Pod with a Bogen 486RC2 Ball head. (this
has proved to be a super flexible and stable Rig in the field).
2. Sigma 105mm Macro (same as above)
3. Sigma 150mm Macro and the same Rig as above but also works with a Mono Pod for even more stability as it is a heavier Lens/Rig.

After spending the summer shooting and testing I can recommend all the
above set ups. These along with correct breathing you can achieve super
sharp images that are correctly exposed and require minimal post
processing.

I chose as my subjects the many varieties of Flies to follow, stalk and
capture. I wanted to capture as much of their life cycle as possible
using the Henri Fabre, "Life of the Fly" as my basic guide. It has been
fun and has provided a number of moments of humor and astonishment. The
only thing that I have not done yet is capture a Fly in flight, and that
is a real challenge!

As soon as I have prepped the images for posting to the web, I will share some of the results.

For most if not all Macro Bug captures you must be prepared to have
patience and the ability to do slow stalking of the subject. To this end
you should read up on the basic habits of your subjects so that you are
able to anticipate where your subject will be and what it may be doing
at any given moment.

One of my Fly subjects that I found appeared to have a growth or
parasite attached to its eye. Very curious as I also captured one early
on that was scratching its eye to the point of moving it completely out
of the socket exposing what looked to be a small centipede type
parasite. I will post both of these soon as prepped.

Some of the Life Habits that I have viewed and captured are Mating,
Excreting, Blowing Bubbles, Laying Eggs,Etc.

All extremely fascinating
and educational. I would like to capture all of the activity that H.
Fabre documented in his book "Life of the Fly".

Well enough for now. I will be posting images very soon to illustrate
what I have discussed.

Good Bug Hunting.

Carole Blatchley
Photographer/Fine Artist
athoskat@comcast.net
carolecb@mac.com
http://www.carolebanksimages.com
http://www.athosimageworks.com
http://athosimageworks.blogspot.com//
http://urbanstreet.blogspot.com/

Urban Excursion and Hunt

Spring at Last

Please enjoy the images that I am presenting for viewing.

I am out shooting daily now. My first THEME of the season is Gazanias
Fully Explored. That is I am exploring the plant from all angles and
all color variations that I can find. It is an eye opener. The Folio
that I create will be made into a booklet and a calendar and a page on
my web sites. Net theme for me will be the Day Lily in all of its
glory. And of course in between my ongoing BUG hunts and capturing of
the JUMPERS that I encounter.

My equipment for these pursuits and hunts are:

Rebel 350XT + Sigma 150
MACRO + Canon Twin Flash and lots of 1GB CF Cards and batteries.

The MACRO world of nature is never ending enjoyment and discovery as you
seek and hunt. You must be prepared for the unexpected, as each time
that you venture forth you will surely encounter something new and
different. That is that each time you hunt your eyes become more tuned
into the detail around you.

So go forth and enjoy.

Carole Blatchley
Photographer/Fine Artist
athoskat@comcast.net
carolecb@mac.com
http://www.carolebanksimages.com
http://www.athosimageworks.com
http://athosimageworks.blogspot.com//
http://urbanstreet.blogspot.com/

SPRING AT LAST

SPRING AT LAST
The capture and making of images is my passion. And now that Spring has
finally arrived, my cameras are ready to go forth and begin to hunt and
stalk the BUG world for subjects willing or not. You should go for
intimate portraits of the selected subjects as well as one of a kind
images that occur as you are hunting. That is those special moments and
poses that may occur as you stay with one subject for a prolonged period
of time. Patience as you are hunting may well be rewarded with a very
special occurrence or pose or moment. Remember that the captures can be
done with P & S all the way up to the SLR's. In fact the main advantage
of the SLR's is that you are able to get and use the superb 150 -200mm
Macro lens that allow a good "working distance" from the subject
(especially the stinging and biting varieties). The P & S cameras with
the use of supplementary Close Up attachments (+1 - +10) you can create
a rig that is nearly 1X magnification. And you can achieve greater
Magnification by reversing a standard 50mm lens and an adaptor ring.
The possibilities and combinations are nearly endless. Check out Mr.
Plonsky's site to see what can be achieved with the P & S system:
http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/article.htm

Now as to how and what you use to fix and correct and prepare your
images for presentation and display is up to each individual and what
they may be most comfortable with. For me I use Photoshop CS2 with a
suite of preferred Plug ins that fit my workflow. I then take the
finished TIFF image and use it to print "Salon" quality prints for
display, or I convert my TIFF to a High Quality JPG sized for the WEB
and then use it on one of my sites or blogs to share with the world at
large.

Enough for now. More to follow soon.
GOOD HUNTING

Carole Blatchley
Photographer/Fine Artist
athoskat@comcast.net
carolecb@mac.com
http://www.carolebanksimages.com
http://www.athosimageworks.com
http://athosimageworks.blogspot.com//
http://urbanstreet.blogspot.com/

MID-WINTER BLUES

Well here it is the middle of a winter with lots of rain and cold. Even
the hardy Jumpers have disappeared. My daily checks of my various hunting grounds have proven fruitless. I am anxiously waiting for spring and the start of a fresh season of hunting and stalking the BUG world.
My time is spent organizing my images for my Custom Note Card business and working on and prepping new images for my catalog. But I would rather be out shooting, as that is my true passion.
My tools have been cleaned and overhauled and are ready for the HUNT. My main MACRO RIG is my Sigma 150mm MACRO w/CANON Twin Flash on my Rebel XT, Beautiful to use. Add 50mm+ of extension and you can achieve close to 1.5X magnification, which coupled with shooting in the RAW mode you are able to achieve extreme magnification. This is satisfactory short of getting the CANON MPE65 1X-5X Specialty lens. (I do want this one day...HAH!) Since I live in the MACRO world and my vision, even with my
general street shooting, I see the minute details and the beauty and wonder there.
I also spent this winter totally upgrading my system. Installed a new processor, doubling my CPU speed. Also changed out both of my internal hard drives to 120 GB each along with a general physical cleaning and clean up of old applications and documents that are no longer useful or needed. Amazing anew cleaner meaner faster system. The plug-in in my graphic apps now render more than twice as previously.

Well enough for now must prepare for a super cold night with filet maigon for dinner and curl up with my companion, Athos.

Good Hunting

Carole Blatchley
Photographer/Fine Artist
athoskat@comcast.net
carolecb@mac.com
http://www.carolebanksimages.com
http://www.athosimageworks.com
http://athosimageworks.blogspot.com//
http://urbanstreet.blogspot.com/