Critique Summer Dragons

TimmyG

TimmyG

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Tim
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I was in Spain for a short period a few weeks ago, and I had packed my small travelling kit consisting of my Canon EOS M3 and all my EF-M lenses. I was desperate to try out my latest acquisition, the EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM. This is the M mount equivalent of the EF-S 55-250, but obviously in a more compact form at the cost of it being a touch slower and with slightly less reach. The benefits of having a smaller, lighter solution especially when travelling far outweigh these compromises as far as I am concerned, but I hadn't actually put it to the test in a real word situation before.

Thankfully it performed admirably. It's not as sharp as i would like (I'm a big fan of prime lenses for maximising detail) and I know I will struggle in low light with it. It's not even a macro lens (I had to use some extension tubes to bring my minimum focus distance down), but it did a sufficient job and better than I was expecting. I own the original EF-S 55-250 and never really got on with it. Thankfully the EF-M lens seems to be an improvement in sharpness and I could even get it to autofocus with tolerable responsiveness (yes, even on an M).

Anyway, I didn't see as many individuals as I had the previous year, and I didn't have much time to experiment with compositions as much as I would like, but I was glad to come away with some shots I even grabbed a short video, although wish I hadn't shot hand held again for that!

Red-Veined Darter by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

Red-Veined Darter by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

Red-Veined Darter by Tim Garlick, on Flickr

 
Lovely set Tim and congrats on the Exlpore
 
Love the first one Tim superb great angle :)
very nice video too
I do agree with Nick about using a tripod for video but its still an excellent video
 
Nice set mate! The 1st one is stunning!!! Nice vid too! I've been working on some natural light videos with the MPE, doing it all handheld too which is a pain in the a$$.
 
Thanks all!

GardenersHelper said:
Excellent write up Tim. Very informative.

I love the colours and compositions in the first two. I've vaguely been thinking of trying video so it was interesting to see this one. Looks like it would be time to get the tripod into use again, especially for smaller subjects.
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Yeah I think a tripod is a must have for video. I still haven't figured out what kind of setup Im going to be able to use for filming collembola. I need something stable but i can move very quickly and easily (as the little b****ers move in and out of the plain of focus all the time). Think I'll need to stop down as much as possible and just flood the whole area with as much light as possible. Only problem is they don't seem to be overly fond of the light...

Neil Burnell said:
Excellent shots Tm especially the 1st.
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Cheers Neil!

tman said:
The video is EXCELLENT Tim as are the images :clap:

:canon:

:exit:
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Thanks Tony. I'm trying to do more video, but I usually forget. I remembered to do a few seconds, but it wasn't doing anything interesting other than sit there and flick it's head around every now and then. I was also worried about filling my card up as my spare one was full from the previous days shooting and I hadn't had chance to offload it all yet. Anyway, short but sweet...

alfbranch said:
Lovely set Tim and congrats on the Exlpore
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Thanks Alf! Always nice when that happens. A friend told me you will get in explore if you post on the 9th day after your previous explore. Not sure how true that is but might have to test his theory ;)

LCPete said:
Love the first one Tim superb great angle :)
very nice video too
I do agree with Nick about using a tripod for video but its still an excellent video
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Thanks Pete. Yeah tripod is a must for video, more so with macro. I did try uploading it to YouTube as they have a very good stabilisation process you can pass the video into. It worked, the dragonfly stayed a bit more central but the stick was warping and looked very strange. I think it works better with more standard video, this just wasn't a particularly good example so decided to stick with it as shot.

mattd85 said:
Nice set mate! The 1st one is stunning!!! Nice vid too! I've been working on some natural light videos with the MPE, doing it all handheld too which is a pain in the a$$.
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Thanks Matt. I must confess the first was a happy accident. I was trying to overpower the bright sunlight with my flash (making use of my diffuser to give more even light) but it wasn't working. I don't think my tiny flash was powerful enough, and I was still getting harsh specular highlights on the eyes. You can see these in the eyes on the second image. The flash evens the light over much of the subject better, but the sun is still creating those highlights! After a while the battery began to go and recycle times where getting longer. This was a shot where the flash didn't fire (despite what the EXIF says) so the subject was in shadow (cast from my diffuser). This meant the subject was darker than the background and usually I would have ditched this one, but thankfully I noticed that my nasty highlights had at least gone. A bit of work in Lightroom enabled me to lift the shadows on the subject and balance it better with the background. Although not a technically brilliant shot, I think it made for a pleasing image in the end and I think next time I will take along a big sheet of diffusing material to work with the sun rather than use my flash. It also gives me hope that if I get my act together, I should be able to tease out some better detail with this lens :)

P.S. I have never had any luck with natural light and the MP-E, certainly not hand held anyway. I think it doesn't get enough light, even at it's minimum magnification and I always end up with camera shake from the slow shutter speed. You might have more luck if you can ramp up the ISO on your 6D though. A better approach might be to use just a bit of fill flash. I've been doing this recently with a bit more success. Just expose the scene one stop under before switching your flash on. When you then use the flash with ETTL it will try to expose correctly by 1 stop and this seems to provide a nice amount of light for the subject, make it stand out but still give a good exposure on the background. I'd only do this at the lower magnification end though, might be a bit more challenging at the 5X end!
 
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It's not too bad for filming, check out a few clips on my macro page, usually around the ISO 8000 range, I haven't tried to do an actual photograph at that type of ISO yet, just filming.
 
mattd85 said:
It's not too bad for filming, check out a few clips on my macro page, usually around the ISO 8000 range, I haven't tried to do an actual photograph at that type of ISO yet, just filming.
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ISO 8000??? My goodness. Yes for video it might just work, gonna have to do some testing to see what I can squeeze out of the new canon sensor.

Just been watching your video clips! Facebook has a habit of just showing me loads of dross and I've been missing all the good stuff! Really looking forward to your show real now ;) Are you using higher apertures that you would ordinarily for stills too? I always stop down a bit with video, but not experimented enough to know where the limits might be...
 
Great shots Tim, always a pleasure to see your shots and these don`t disappoint (y)
Still got loads here of dragons/damsels, and will be for at least another 2 months.
 
Yea Facebook has a habit of that, the more you interact with a page the more it shows up in your news feed, and vice versa.

I shoot between f8-f11 and ISO range from 2000-12600 and the noise isn't even that bad! I'm looking at doing filming more than the stills now! The camera I have my eye on however is around 14k lol! Anyone after a kidney?
 
Really like #1/2 and video is good for a handheld my vids are all over the place...

Glad to see your back and getting some of the things I know you wanted to be doing this year.
 
mattd85 said:
Yea Facebook has a habit of that, the more you interact with a page the more it shows up in your news feed, and vice versa.

I shoot between f8-f11 and ISO range from 2000-12600 and the noise isn't even that bad! I'm looking at doing filming more than the stills now! The camera I have my eye on however is around 14k lol! Anyone after a kidney?
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Is that the new Sony one then ;)

Tintin124 said:
Really like #1/2 and video is good for a handheld my vids are all over the place...

Glad to see your back and getting some of the things I know you wanted to be doing this year.
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Thanks mate, yeah managed to get at least some dragons but I've yet to find a good spot local to me that I can get up early for and get some up close and personal portraits :(

Glad you are back too. I saw your holiday snaps on FB! Hope you had a good time!

ChrisA said:
Very nice shots Tim. The first is excellent and my favourite of them all. Video is good too, some wavering about - but good to see all the same.
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Cheers Chris, yeah video was just one of those "might as well while i am here" moments. I really must plan ahead and come suitably equipped!
 
Really nice set Tim love the eyes in that first one, they are mesmerising
 
TimmyG said:
Glad you are back too. I saw your holiday snaps on FB! Hope you had a good time!
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Thanks and yes I did... only phone pics on FB so far so need to get my proper camera shots with new 17-50mm f2.8 tamron.
 
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