Processing old stuff

Haven't had much time to shoot lately. but took the time to do some tidying up and found some old photos that had not been processed, including one of a very nice katydid i found in an abandoned quarry once. 


Moral of the story: getting the shot is just half the story - finding the time to organise and process them properly is the more important other half. 


K-X, Vivitar 105 + Kenko 1.5 TC

K-5, can't remember what lens =P

K-5, DFA-100WR

Beetle - Salad Dinner

Took a short detour after work to check out my usual hunting ground near my apartment. Main intention was to try out the new panagor 55 that arrived some months ago, but never got to use.

I first came across this lens abt a year ago - it belonged to a friend and after taking it out for one test shoot, i could not get it out of my mind. 

Its small, light and VERY sharp. The only limitation was that its a PK lens with no A contact so that complicates matters when using a flash. nevertheless, its a very good lens.

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New lightweight setup: GXR + A12 50mm Macro F2.5

After spending a few months lugging a heavy DSLR setup for macro shoots, i got to the point where i wasn;t sure if there was a point to all that weight. 


SO enter the new lightweight setup =) the GXR + A12 50mm macro module.


The GXR system needs no introduction to enthusiasts. And oh, about all the terrible things they've said about the A12 AF speed - its mainly true - its terribly slow... but i've never used AF for macro before so it makes no difference to me. 


I just set the thing to MF, turn it to the min focusing distance, which gives 1:2 magnification.


My 8-legged friend dropped in to gimme a chance to test out the macro capabilities... some tweaking needed to improve the lighting but seriously, not bad at all...

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Early Morning Shoot at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserves

Haven't had a chance to update for some time as my newborn princess demands my time and attention. Nevertheless, managed to find time to make an early morning trip to the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserves 


The reserve is located in the north-west of Singapore. It is very popular among bird-watchers. 


Macro opportunities are pretty good too :)  


#1: Common sun skink - sun skinks are most easily found and photographed early in the morning, while they are sunning themselves. They're very shy and skittish so its important to approach gently when attempting to photograph them. 

#2: Jumping spider: very common resident of the local nature parks. The "high jumpers" of nature. This one's female, judging by its abdomen.

#3 Orange Fly: I see these flies often, but i don't know much about them other than they're probably Family Lauxaniidae.

#4 Leaf Footed Bug - I nearly mistook this for a assassin bug on account of its needle like mouth-part. But on closer examination (and subsequent research), its actually a leaf-footed bug nymph :)

#5 Brown beetle: a rather unexciting shot of a pretty unexciting brown beetle :)

#6 Black and yellow mud dauber: named for the nests which they build from mud, this attractive specimen landed in front of me just as i was preparing to pack up and leave :) 

More shots with the Voigtlander

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#3 - Stacked - 3 shots to bring rear segment / legs into focus.

Early morning shoot with the Voigtlander 125

I love this lens... ok... that felt good... let me say it again... I LOVE THIS LENS! *phew*


I had problems getting used to the minimum focusing distance - 38cm... its pretty long - which makes composition very challenging. Solution: PK-A extension tubes. Shortens the minimum focusing  distance to a more manageable distance, magnifies the subject and thanks to the PK-A contacts, passes the aperture information back to the camera so p-ttl still works :)


The challenges of using this lens are:


- Weight: its 600+ grams - double the weight of a D-FA100


- Focal Length: at 125mm, it works out to 35mm equivalent of 180 on an APS-C... its a little long for hand-held and when using it for macro, support is a must for me.


- Reputation: its a sharp lens. anyone who manages to screw up their shots with this lens can only have them-self to blame.


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Who am I?

I could not get a positive ID of this fella... so if anyone knows what it is, appreciate if you could just drop me an msg :)

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