The devil is in the details

Detail of a flower

I recently discovered the - perhaps - cheapest way of starting macrophotography. It obviously requires a few lenses, but that shouldn't be a problem for just about anyone. This detail of a flower in my backyard was photographed with my D80, fitted with the 50mm. In front of the 50mm was a reversed Minolta AF 35-70 3.5-4.5, an old lens I used 15 years ago. No couplingrings, just a steady hand, some bluetack and a paperclip. In Memoriam MacGyver...

The Original Scrat

Curious squirrel looking at camera.

No experimental photography this week, although I still favor infrared photography at certain occasions. This time I settled for a classical photograph - a squirrel. I think it´s kind of cute.

Garden Still Life

Upward striving flower with old fence in the background.

At first I was trying to capture this image in infrared, but the fence in the background reflected just about as much infrared light as the flower itself, so the end result was not really that good.

So, I ended up with just a classical shot of an interesting plant. And I must say, I´m quite satisfied. This is another black & white shot, but with a hint of Sepia.


Nikon Nikkor 50mm/f1.8, ISO 100, 1/320 sec at f/1.8. PP includes ACR and a great deal of photoshop techniques.

Infrared landscape

Lake in the woods

Infrared photography i so cool! I´ve been adimiring beautiful shots in different Flickrgroups, most of them beeing created by semi-pros or really advanced amateurs. Many photographers swear by the IR-modified camera. To my delight, there is no need to modify your camera for IR-photography. All you need is a filter that you put in front of your lens. I bought my filter on eBay for 12 euros (including postage).

There are obviously certain challenges by using this specific method for IR-photography, the few I found most challenging were difficulties in composing, focusing and the long exposure. Composing the photo is not possible through the viewfinder when the IR-filter is in front of the lens. I solved this by using a tripod and locking the camera in the position that I wanted. Focusing is a problem. I haven't figured out why, but the image is no longer sharp after screwing on the filter, and this has nothing to do with clumsy fingers fidgeting with the focusring. I solved the focusproblem by trial-and-error and manually focusing according to the image on the display. The long exposure is not really a problem, not if you have a tripod, the method of finding the correct exposure thorugh trial-and-error was also used here. One tip I read on one of the many photo-mags writing on the subject is that when shooting RAW, if possible shoot RAW + jpeg, and set the camera to black and white. This way you get a feeling for what the photo is going to look like later.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm/f1.8 fitted with an IR INfrared Pass 950nm standard filter , ISO 400, 15 sec at f/4. PP includes ACR and a few photoshop techniques.

The Hands

Old hands carrying a baby.

Fine, so I missed my deadline. But hey, I´ve been on a vacation. I didn´t do as much photography as I thought I was going to be doing, but I found several more relaxing ways of spending a week in my native surroundings. The photo above is one of the photographs of my daughter in the hands of my grandmother. Very emotional to me and perhaps also other viewers. PP as usual.

I´m not sure if I´m going to be able to pull through my one-photo-a-week-project. It just seems so hard to be doing this all by myself. No-one but me is demanding anything. I don´t even know if anyone is enjoying my photography. If you are reading this, then please leave a comment. It´s okay to be anonymous.

Thank you!