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Understanding Closeup Photography

I wanted to deeply explore macro photography and jumped on this class when it was first offered. This class started on 3/6/2009 and ran for 4 weeks. Bryan Peterson was the author of this course (it's a companion course for an upcoming book) and was listed first, but he ran the Q&A board. Jon Canfield provided critiques. There were 25 students in the class, and I submitted 11 photos in all.
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  • Week 1: "For the Love of Coffee" Shot with a 90mm Tamron Macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Lit by an SB-900 strobe, fired wirelessly by the built-in flash. Another drip from this shoot was featured as my "photo of the day" for March 12, 2009.

    Week 1: "For the Love of Coffee" Shot with a 90mm Tamron Macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Lit by an SB-900 strobe, fired wirelessly by the built-in flash. Another drip from this shoot was featured as my "photo of the day" for March 12, 2009.

  • Week 1: "Skyward" Shot with a 50mm Nikkor prime lens mounted on a set of 36mm, 20mm, and 12mm extension tubes. Lit by the evening sun. This was my "photo of the day" for March 14, 2009.

    Week 1: "Skyward" Shot with a 50mm Nikkor prime lens mounted on a set of 36mm, 20mm, and 12mm extension tubes. Lit by the evening sun. This was my "photo of the day" for March 14, 2009.

  • Week 1: "Rust Belt." Shot with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted on a D700. Lit by the evening sun. This was my "photo of the day" for March 20, 2009.

    Week 1: "Rust Belt." Shot with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted on a D700. Lit by the evening sun. This was my "photo of the day" for March 20, 2009.

  • Week 2: "Christmas Lives On." Handheld macro shot of a Christmas cactus flower, still budding here in March. Shot with a 90mm Tamron Macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Lit by the Phoenix RF46N ring flash. Desaturated using the Color Mixer with heavy emphasis (80%) on the blue channel. A color variation of this shot with the complete stamen was featured as my "photo of the day" for March 19, 2009.

    Week 2: "Christmas Lives On." Handheld macro shot of a Christmas cactus flower, still budding here in March. Shot with a 90mm Tamron Macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Lit by the Phoenix RF46N ring flash. Desaturated using the Color Mixer with heavy emphasis (80%) on the blue channel. A color variation of this shot with the complete stamen was featured as my "photo of the day" for March 19, 2009.

  • Week 2: "Ready, Mr. DeMille." Rocky the cat loves ultra wide closeups. Shot with a Nikkor 14-24mm mounted on a D700. Ambient light only. Used wide aperture and high ISO to achieve minimum handholding shutter speed. Another shot with both paws on the lens was featured as my "photo of the day" for March 18, 2009.

    Week 2: "Ready, Mr. DeMille." Rocky the cat loves ultra wide closeups. Shot with a Nikkor 14-24mm mounted on a D700. Ambient light only. Used wide aperture and high ISO to achieve minimum handholding shutter speed. Another shot with both paws on the lens was featured as my "photo of the day" for March 18, 2009.

  • Week 2: "Jewell Grande." Shot with a 10.5mm Nikkor Fisheye lens mounted to a Nikon D80. Lit by the window behind Brian. This was my "photo of the day" for March 21, 2009.

    Week 2: "Jewell Grande." Shot with a 10.5mm Nikkor Fisheye lens mounted to a Nikon D80. Lit by the window behind Brian. This was my "photo of the day" for March 21, 2009.

  • Week 3: "Moonlit Blender." Shot with a 90mm Tamron macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Lit by a single strobe fired multiple times, once with a "medium red" gel and once with "medium blue." This was my "photo of the day" for March 26, 2009

    Week 3: "Moonlit Blender." Shot with a 90mm Tamron macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Lit by a single strobe fired multiple times, once with a "medium red" gel and once with "medium blue." This was my "photo of the day" for March 26, 2009

  • Week 3: "Bokeh House." Shot with a 300mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens mounted to a Nikon D700 via two extension tubes (12mm + 20mm). Frontlighting courtesy of the low evening sun. This was my "photo of the day" for March 27, 2009.

    Week 3: "Bokeh House." Shot with a 300mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens mounted to a Nikon D700 via two extension tubes (12mm + 20mm). Frontlighting courtesy of the low evening sun. This was my "photo of the day" for March 27, 2009.

  • Week 3: "Always Smiling Faces. Always." Shot with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Lit with an incandescent bulb not far from the gift card. This is the most substantial crop I've ever produced. The original was 12.1MP; this is 0.4MP. However, any solution that gave me more pixels also gave me far fewer interesting smiley faces. The set-up shot for this photograph was my "photo of the day" for March 29, 2009.

    Week 3: "Always Smiling Faces. Always." Shot with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Lit with an incandescent bulb not far from the gift card. This is the most substantial crop I've ever produced. The original was 12.1MP; this is 0.4MP. However, any solution that gave me more pixels also gave me far fewer interesting smiley faces. The set-up shot for this photograph was my "photo of the day" for March 29, 2009.

  • Week 4: "Canvas Footprint." Shot with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted on a D700. This is closeup of a small section of an abstract painting. A single strobe is providing light from above the work, skimming across the surface. No reflector.

    Week 4: "Canvas Footprint." Shot with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted on a D700. This is closeup of a small section of an abstract painting. A single strobe is providing light from above the work, skimming across the surface. No reflector.

  • Week 4: "Texture In Hand." Shot with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Sidelit (from the right) by the afternoon sun. Sidelit (from the left) by a 12-inch gold reflector. This was my "photo of the day" for April 5, 2009.

    Week 4: "Texture In Hand." Shot with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted to a Nikon D700. Sidelit (from the right) by the afternoon sun. Sidelit (from the left) by a 12-inch gold reflector. This was my "photo of the day" for April 5, 2009.

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