Seems it was a bit ambitious on my part to think I could do this every day. Sorry - not dropping out per se, but will certainly only be limited participation. Will try to catch up on comments.
Not a great image, but I'm so glad my new camera fits my bellows, as my D200 is too tall to use it. One bad thing however is that Abode ACR nor DNG converter supports the D60 yet (and I'd never install camera software). I forgot and shot most in RAW (my normal workflow), but right as I was running out of light I switched to RAW + jpg basic and got three images before exposure times were over 15 seconds.
edit to add: Sorry I've been a comment bum, but its been crazy at work and my wife would kill me if I spent the evenings in front of the mac. I'll catch by the weekend I swear.
No time to shoot or comment today, and tomorrow don't look so good either at this time. It's the harvest season, and the couple of months of year that I make the money that gets me thru the leaner months.
I will try to do some commenting when time allows, maybe over the weekend. This shot is from a while back, but I think it to be one of the nicer ones from my "tiny flowers" collection. It's some kind of clover growing in my yard with the grass.
Sorry I haven't been able to get a shot in everyday. Been very busy but when my mothers cat had kittens today I wanted to get a picture of them after they were cleaned. This shot was taken only hours after being born. I consider this a macro since the kitten is only about 1 1/2" inches long. Sorry for the perspective, the best I could do without being clawed by her mother. :)
I am sorry for being slow today, but finally I was able to get down into my much loved cactus garden to take a few shots, just after a recent rain shower.
OK. I need some help. I rec'vd a reversing ring in the mail yesterday. Hooked it up to my camera and the 105mm lens. Perhaps I just don't know the capabilities of the lens in it's natural state, but reversed, I can't even focus on something unless it is over 4 ft away and if I then turn the lens around, the reproduction ratio is the exact same size. Correctly oriented, the lens can focus on items much closer and I get a far better macro!
Have I missed something in the translation of the reversing ring, or do I also need a special lens?
OK. I need some help. I rec'vd a reversing ring in the mail yesterday. Hooked it up to my camera and the 105mm lens. Perhaps I just don't know the capabilities of the lens in it's natural state, but reversed, I can't even focus on something unless it is over 4 ft away and if I then turn the lens around, the reproduction ratio is the exact same size. Correctly oriented, the lens can focus on items much closer and I get a far better macro!
Have I missed something in the translation of the reversing ring, or do I also need a special lens?
Reversing rings are for normal to wide lenses that are better optimized for high magnification with their optical formulas reversed. Your 105mm 2.8d, besides being a telephoto, is a highly optimized lens for high magnification in its normal mounting position. Looking at your lenses you really don’t have a good candidate for reversing. Zooms usually don’t work well at least not across the zoom range, and your best candidate the 18-70 is a G lens so there would be no simple way to keep the aperture open.
One of the best (and cheapest) options would be getting a normal lens. 50mm f1.8 Ai, Ais & series E lenses can often be found on ebay for less than $50. They also can be reversed on your 105mm for a magnification of a little over 2x with your micro focused @ infinity (it would be harder to calculate magnification ratios at closer focusing distances as the 105 micro uses focal length shortening to gain magnification as you focus closer).
I highly recommend getting the book Close-Ups in Nature by John Shaw. It is almost considered the bible for macro photographers and includes great advise, optical formulas, proven combinations, etc.
