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Militoy

Aug 24, 2010
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I would never have picked up on the dandelion - I guess I've never looked really carefully at one up close. Had the scale of that one all wrong in my head. Your photo goes a bit beyond what I think of as a macro - almost a photomicrograph.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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Technically speaking, macro is where you have an image formed on the film plane at or near life size. It is the region in which you need to start concerning yourself with the impact of magnification factor on exposure, and where you notice significant changes of angle of view with object distance.

For some time, "marketing" has tried to redefine it as life-size on a certain size print, or merely something you can put on a lens to make it appear better.

Of those images, the dandelion is only just macro (the centre is a clip of the original image), the flowers certainly are macro (they're about 0.7 times actual size on the sensor), and the mass of flowers is only macro if you call any photo taken with a macro lens a "macro photograph"

I'm planning to print the dandelion at about 30x40cm which will produce an image somewhere in the order of 15 times life size.

Fortunately, these days the mag factor calculations can be ignored (TTL metering is unaffected) and you can get away with hand holding because image stabilisation is so good.

As an example of how good image stabilisation is, here is an image taken yesterday with my 100mm macro lens. The exposure was 1/8 sec and I actually felt myself wobble during the exposure (I was crouched down, not leaning on anything to steady myself). It's not the world's greatest photo, but I was really expecting a soft blurry piece of mush.

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The worst thing about macro photography is that you don't see all the imperfections in the subject until later.

Here's an example of a photo where the subject was nice and clean, but the focus is off. It is really a case where manual focus and a tripod would work wonders. Cutting the flower and bringing it inside would be even better (no wind).

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However you have to be really careful cutting flowers because Murphy's law means you'll get one like this:

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Ignoring the fact that the focus is all over the place without any good reason, there are black spots on the petals and more pollen scattered around than you could poke a (very small) stick at.

p.s. What edible plant is the first photo, and what flowers are the latter 2 photos?
 

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Mitchekj

Jan 24, 2010
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Never knew you could make dandelion wine. That sounds disgusting. But anyhow, those are top notch pictures!
 

Militoy

Aug 24, 2010
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More amazing shots! It's been quite a while since I've had a regular garden - but I'll guess the hairy-leaf plant is some kind of squash or melon. The flowers - some variety of daisy (Shasta???).
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Never knew you could make dandelion wine. That sounds disgusting. But anyhow, those are top notch pictures!

Yeah, not what I'd think of as a starting point for wine. Apparently they're quite edible. Maybe I'll try eating them next time I'm out weeding the bloody things from the lawn.

More amazing shots! It's been quite a while since I've had a regular garden - but I'll guess the hairy-leaf plant is some kind of squash or melon. The flowers - some variety of daisy (Shasta???).

Correct on the daisy -- no idea what variety. They're just growing under a tree on the verge of a neighbour's property.

The leaves are from a nasturtium. It's the growing tip, and the photo represents an area about 15mm across.
 

Militoy

Aug 24, 2010
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Again - the angles and scale fooled me on the Nasturtium. Also - the fact that I had no idea they were edible. I never have cared for the smell of them - though apparently they're considered good to eat - or to use to flavor vinegar. Supposed to taste spicy. I have actually made dandelion wine (years ago - when I lived in a more hospitable climate). I cheated though - and fortified the must with raisons to add additional enzymes. The young leaves make a pretty good salad - and the wine is refreshing and calming - like chamomile tea. My available materials are different now - In late summer I make Prickly Pear (cactus) jelly, and in some years wine. This year was a bumper crop - and a wine year.
 

Militoy

Aug 24, 2010
180
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Aug 24, 2010
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180
@ davenn –

Just got around to looking at your post in the “introductions” section – with the pix of your amateur gear. Very nice stuff – I get a little jealous just looking at it all. I’ve been mulling over getting back into HAM radio, and sites like yours tend to fire up the fever even more. My schedule has left very little margin for free time activities in recent years – so I guard my time accordingly. Still – after my current publishing project is behind me, I believe I might jump back in with the ARRL. I have a sweet 10 meter rig – a President HR2510 – as well as an AN/ARC-51BX UHF radio and an AN/ARC-102 (HF) that I would like to dust off, and fire up again. I also have several little homebrew QRP rigs – real “peanut whistles” in the 40 and 80 meter bands – that are CW only.

With the drop of code requirements in licensing, has CW DX-ing dropped off – or is there still interesting activity in Morse communication?
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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@ davenn –
With the drop of code requirements in licensing, has CW DX-ing dropped off – or is there still interesting activity in Morse communication?

I'm not into CW myself, the dropping of the code meant that I have an advanced licence now rather than a technician licence :rolleyes: the only difference was the 12WPM code
after the code drop I was active on 40m for severa years but that has died off and havent had an HF QSO in over 1.5 yrs hahaha. my main interests are above 1GHz. My latest project just started this last wednesday, is a 5.7GHz transverter from Down East Microwave in Florida. 7 days and the package was in my hands :) and as of now late friday nite its over 1/2 built. 2m (144MHz) is transverting to 6cm (5760MHz) lots of SMD components, great fun for my aging eyes haha.

anyway back to CW, you will still find lots of those signals on the bottom end of most of the HF bands :) more than enuf to keep you out of trouble ;) and with the solar cycle finally starting to rise up out of the doldrums the bands are getting a bit livelier

cheers
Dave
VK2TDN
 
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