macro | Dan Bailey's Adventure Photography Blog

I like to joke that I’m part hobbit, because in addition to the often unplanned adventures that I find myself on, I also have a special fondness for things close to home like music, laughter, good food, beer and cheer, and things that grown in my garden. Plus I’m a little short.

Whether it be growing the greens and vegetables that we eat all summer alongside the salmon that we catch, I also love the random, freeform, whispy colors of wildflowers that grow in our yard. Few things at home bring me such visual comfort and pleasure as stepping out the door and seeing a mass of bright orange poppies or watching pollen drunk bees dart in and out of the borage.

Occasionally I delve in and try to capture these colors with my camera. A couple years ago I hauled a couple of speed lights and big softbox into the yard and got some very nice results! Often, I like to shoot them as closeups. My little Fujifilm X20 (which has just been updated to the X30) is perfect for this, because it has an incredible macro mode that focuses up to 1cm away. It’s by far the best built-in macro capability that I’ve ever seen on any camera.

Crouching down in the grass, I try to get as close as possible. However, if I get too close, sometimes I start to see the shadow of the camera on the plant and have to back off a little bit. I’m not using a tripod here, just handholding and doing my best to be sharp. That’s always tricky with macro, though, because focus can go in and out as your body sways the tiniest bit. I’m not too concerned, though I’m mostly just having fun out there. Photography just for the love of photography. Nothing more.

Here are a few of my favorites from this summer. I shot the sunflower and the bottom bee picture last year. Enjoy. I hope they motivate you to step outside and try some new creativity with your own camera.

If you’re interested in flower photography, I recommend checking out his very good book by Harold Davis called Photographing Flowers. I’ve got this book and it’s certainly inspired me to try different approach with this kind of photography.

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Welcome to Day 5 of Landscape week.

So far this week we’ve covered three essential tips for shooting landscapes, and looked at a number of great photography books, tripods and camera backpacks that are all designed for outdoor photographers. Today we close out the week with a lens review of the Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f4G ED VR, written by guest blogger, Dan Moughamian.

AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm f4G ED VR lens

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As a photographer I spend much of my time outdoors, exploring the landscapes and cityscapes, photographing as I go. I rarely know ahead of time exactly which focal lengths I’m likely to use, how close I’ll need to get to a subject, etc. For this reason I have always used Nikkor zoom lenses from Nikon. The zoom provides the flexibility I need to keep from constantly swapping lenses on my Nikon D700. One of the drawbacks of pro zooms though, is that they tend to be heavy, and they usually cover a somewhat limited focal range when they carry a fast aperture.

For example, the Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 is a fantastic lens, but if you need to really reach out and grab a distant subject, 70mm is not going to cut it most of the time. It’s also fairly large and heavy as standard zooms go. A full compliment of Nikkor pro zooms could include the above-noted lens, the AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8 on the wide angle side, and the new AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II on the telephoto side. That camera bag will get heavy in a hurry!

Enter the new AF-S 24-120mm f/4 zoom with 2^nd Generation Vibration Reduction technology from Nikon. Rarely does a lens come along that has both a wide focal range and professional grade optics, while maintaining a relatively fast aperture through the entire focal range. This lens has all of those qualities and allows me to shoot close-in macro shots and wide landscapes equally well.

The first thing I noticed is that the lens balances very well when hand-held on my D700. It doesn’t create a front- or back-heavy feeling, and the zoom and focus rings are situated in the perfect spot. Essentially I can balance the lens near the base of my index finger, while using my thumb and index fingers to quickly rotate either the zoom or focus ring without moving my hand around. Also worth noting is that the Manual/Automatic focus switch, the VR switch, and the VR Mode switch are all easily adjusted my thumb as well (on the balancing hand).

The only complaint that I have about the ergonomics is that the focus ring is narrow and can be a little difficult to find by feel, if you have any kind of glove or protective outerwear on your finger tips when shooting. This past weekend I was shooting in a wet, snowy environment with fingerless gloves and one covered thumb, but I did have to stop, look and place my (slightly numb) fingers on the right spot two or three times. Not a major issue but worth noting if you’ve had this problem with other lenses before.

Performance-wise, this lens does a great job, considering the focal length it covers. It even does well with some Macro subjects, although the minimum focus distance (about 1.5’) is not comparable to a true macro lens. The Vibration Reduction feature is pretty amazing. I’m out there shivering in the snow, trying to use my elbows (pulled into my chest) as the makeshift tripod, and I’m thinking, “there’s no way the VR is going to work like this”. I could see clearly through the finder that I wasn’t holding the camera steady, but it worked. Repeatedly. I think in most shooting situations, you won’t need the “Active” mode, which really kicks the VR into high gear.

The auto-focus also works seamlessly, which is what you’d expect from an AF-S lens. During two full days of relatively low contrast lighting, I only had one or two instances of “focus seeking” where the lens focus switched rapidly between adjacent objects or textures, forcing me to change the zoom slightly and refocus. Bokeh at F4 and is decent when zoomed in on close-by subjects. Optically the glass produces very sharp detail and accurate colors, with modest vignetting at the low end of the aperture spectrum.

While the MSRP isn’t cheap, at $1299 this lens is a solid value considering what it delivers. High quality optics, easy to work with on the camera, light weight, and can work equally well for portraits, landscapes or macro. How many lenses can you say that about? Highly Recommended.

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Dan Moughamian is a photographer based near Chicago, and is the author of Adobe Digital Imaging How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques for Photoshop CS5, Lightroom 3 and ACR 6. You can read more of his writings and check out his free Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials at Colortrails.com.