Lens Review - Canon 100mm Macro, 2.8 USM

Welcome back!

Over the years I've taken a few Macro shots on a variety of compact camera's, mainly due to the fact the built-in Macro facility was readily available as an add-on feature. 'Might as well have a try', was the attitude behind it, without really having an interest in this area of photography, it was interesting to see exactly what type of shots each camera would pull in. In most cases each model would deliver more than decent shots, until I downloaded them onto my hard drive and opened each one up to view them on a much larger scale. Although these Macro shots looked very tidy on a two inch screen, the truth was out on a PC monitor - not that impressive. Depth of field was always going to be a stumbling block, especially on a camera that wasn't specifically designed for 'True' Macro, so when the opportunity arose to test out a dedicated Canon 100mm affair, I was more than happy to put it through its paces. Then again, I had no previous experience of using a Macro lens on a DSLR, so maybe it was ME that would be put through its paces! I loaned the lens for a weekend, hoping to get try it out on the coast of Sunderland, among the rock pools and sand at Seaburn and Roker. As the weekend progressed, and other commitments narrowed down my 'Play time' with this lens, I eventually had time to fit in a session, although the tide table wasn't on my side, so I turned to Plan B. I made a visit to Butterfly World, Stockton On Tees, to grab some close-ups of plants and... you've guessed it...Butterfly's!

Arriving with little under an hour before closing time, I quickly got to work with the lens attached to my trusty Canon 5D MKII. It was apparent from the outset that this task was going to be a tricky one. Using a Monopod, and running with a pre-determined batch of camera settings, I was firing away in no time, but on reviewing my work when magnified on the LCD it was clear to me that achieving pin sharp images wasn't going to be straightforward. Again, even with a dedicated Macro lens, depth of field was a real issue here, but patience and a touch of perseverance usually results in improvement, as I know first hand from experience, so that was the route I went down in the short time I had to make my pictures. Butterfly World was busy, even during the last hour of play, with kids running amok and making every effort to grab a butterfly and take it home - those Smoggies have no shame. A swift elbow here and there got the message across, as I wasn't gonna let some snotty nose kid ruin my shots, he he. Do one!!!

And so, down to the nuts and bolts of this lens...
If you want to jump into macro photography making compromise in image quality, this lens is the perfect choice, and here is why:

Advantages
1) Fast Focusing - Utilizing the USM (Ultrasonic Motor), the Canon 100mm internally focuses very fast, quietly and very accurately.
2) Non-Extending or Rotating - When focusing at 1x subject distances, the lens does not extend, and the front element does not rotate.
3) Crisp and Sharp Images - the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro Lens is sharp wide open. The tiniest details in your tiniest subjects will come to life with this lens.
4) Excellent Optical Performance - Flare is very well controlled. Colour and contrast are excellent, although vignetting is apparent at f/2.8, but quickly disappears when the lens is stopped down.
5) Optimum Minimum Working Distance (MWD) - There are three macro lenses in Canon's range of USM lenses. The 60mm lens has a very short MWD of only 60mm, and insects may tend to scare and fly away prematurely. Also, the 180mm lens has a MWD of 240mm, and at this distance insects are not really close enough. The EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro Lens, on the other hand, has a MWD of 150mm, which is ideal for butterfly and insect photography.
6) Very good image quality, L rated.
7) Nice build quality.
8) Large focusing ring, very easy to use.
9) Pretty good for portrait too, or so I've been told.

The Canon 100mm Macro is well worth buying if you want to get into this area of photography. Although I enjoyed testing it out, I reckon I'll stick with Landscape photography. That's where it's at for me. And on that note I shall scurry away, to return another day...
Until then, Ash

More TV Exposure! (Parts 60-62)

Last weekend, Bank Holiday, was spent in the Lake District as part of a two night camping trip. The weather was brilliant throughout, with not a single drop of rainfall, which is quite a rarity in Cumbria, even in Summer. We pitched our tent at Castlerigg Farm, Keswick, which was our fourth visit to the site over the last two years and certainly one site we'll be revisiting in 2014. On Monday morning I was up early and heading out in pitch darkness for a sunrise at Buttermere. A 5am alarm call started the show, before the 40 minute car journey through Seatoller, then the climb onto Honister Pass, before descending through the valley and into Buttermere. Upon arrival visibility was very poor. I stuck around though, being a patient and persevering type of photographer (he he), and was duly rewarded with one of the best scenes I've ever witnessed - it really was something else. The Buttermere pines, reputed to be the most photographed set of trees in the UK, along with a still lake, giving a glass like reflection that was screaming out to be photographed. The mountainous backdrop added to the picture, so there was no time to stand on ceremony as the scene in front of me only lasted a short while before the water began to ripple and the reflection disappeared. By the time that eventually happened the shots were in the bag. I'm looking forward to opening the folder with the other shots in, to see if there are more gems to work with. Here is one that I sent in to regional TV, as a weather shot. My photograph, which is titled 'First Light, Buttermere', was shown on ITV Border at 6.30pm on Wednesday 28th August, then again on BBC Look North 30 minutes later! 48 hours later it resurfaced on BBC once again during another weather forecast. Here are the screenshots, along with the original, converted from RAW to JPEG and downsized for the web use.

A full blog entry of my Lake District camping trip will appear here shortly. Until then...take care

Ash

Black & White Icons

Hello again!
Continuing the Black & White theme...

I have a rather nice set of framed prints on offer at £45 each. One or two examples can be found on display at Clay's Garden Centre, Washington and also Penshaw Tea Rooms. Mounted in white and framed in black, each measures 20x16 inches and is part of an ever increasing set of 'North East Icons'. There are four available at present, with more additions planned for the very near future. I recently sold two to a customer in Lechlade, Gloucester, so it's nice to know my work is continues to be scattered around the UK and further afield. Here are the icons that are currently available. I will post photo's of the actual framed images during the next few days. Cheers!

Ash

1. Winter, Penshaw Mounument
2. Groyne Lighthouse, South Shields
3. Millennium Bridge, Gateshead Quays
4. River Tyne, Newcastle
5. Guardian Angel

Black & White Photography

Wot, two blog updates in as many days! I guess it must be pissing down outside!!!
Oh dear, the colourful language raises its naughty head again, tut tut. Of course, pun intentional, as this latest blog entry has nothing to do with colour, unless of course I refer to grey scale, also known as Mono, but more commonly referred to as Black & White. I've never been a big fan of this type of photography to be honest, but lately I've been dabbling more and more with B/W conversions, and quite liking the end result. A big part of a good conversion is picking a suitable image to begin with. Many images simply won't work, so get your selection right and you're half way there. I cherry picked a few recent shots of mine before giving them the B/W treatment, and I'm well satisfied with their 'New look'. The majority of these shots were captured on dull, cloudy days, which is a good start as a lack of available colour generally has me pointing in the direction of B/W anyway, coupled with the fact that these moody skies often add a sense of drama to the shot, lending themself to B/W more than colour. Another slice of criteria is contrast - I tend to favour strong contrast in B/W conversions and always look at the depth of shadow and highlight before making a decision whether to 'Convert' or 'Back heel' the image I am considering for use. Thinking rationally, if it doesn't work in colour then there's only one path to go down. I choose to do my B/W photography in post processing, rather than capture it at source with the aid of Yellow, Orange and Red filters. Traditional methods, such as the Y/O/R filter route, were the only way to achieve true B/W shots before the introduction of digital camera's, but now it's a whole new ball game when you can easily lay your hands on a decent editing suite such as Photoshop. The end result, with the help of Photoshop is just as pleasing on the eye and it's a lot cheaper than shelling out on expensive B/W filters (that is, providing you have a copy of Photoshop that you managed to download for free!). Did I really say that? (wink).

And now to the business end of this blog entry - the photo's. Here is a small selection of B/W images by yours truly. Don't forget to click them for enlargements. The list is as follows...

1. Tynemouth (above)
Standing on the pier next to the Groyne Lighthouse, Littlehaven, I waited a few minutes for the arrival of the Amsterdam-bound ferry, which eventually arrived on schedule.  Plenty of great detail in the sky!

2. Tynemouth 2 (above)
As the ferry approached the Groyne Lighthouse at South Shields, I waited til it sailed alongside, then I tripped the shutter.

3. Transporter Bridge, Middlesborough
Positioned on the south side of the River Tees. Some nice foreground interest, and the Transporter Bridge dominating the shot. Not too much sky detail in this one.

4. Temenos, Middlesborough
A dramatic artwork on the banks of the Tees, with the Transporter Bridge in the background.

5. River Tyne, Gateshead Quays
I shot through a glass partition to get this one. A storm was brewing, as you can see in the distant black clouds. The rain was well and truly on its way...

6. Baltic Arts Centre, Gateshead Quays
And the rain soon fell! I took the lift from the viewing terrace back to ground level, which took no more than half a minute. Within this short space of time the heavens had well and truly opened. Seeking shelter in the Baltic doorway, I grabbed this shot, with like-minded folk opting to stay dry.

7. Roseberry Topping, Near Great Ayton, North Yorkshire
(as featured in my last blog entry). Works well in B/W. I quite like the added effect of the overhanging tree, which almost 'Frames' the iconic hill in the background.

8. St.Mary's Island, Whitley Bay
And finally, an experimental shot. Taken in broad daylight with a shutter speed of 45 seconds!!!!
An ND filter was applied to achieve an extra long exposure time, thus smoothing out the water in the process. A very dull and overcast day, with very little detail in the sky, Poor conditions for my type of photography, but you have to make the most of what you've got to play with, and on this occasion I landed a decent shot...

 

 

 

 

And that's all for now. I'll be back soon...in colour!

Ash

 

Roseberry Topping, Nr Great Ayton

Welcome back to my blog page!
I have many new photo's to share, but finding the time to upload them is another matter, which is the main reason ashleycorr.com hasn't had the update treatment lately. But that is about to change. A busy July scuppered my chances of getting out with the camera, which obviously had a knock on effect with site updates. However, I got my arse into gear this week and ventured outdoors once again to catch some more of the local landscape, including sets from Offerton, Cox Green and Wearmouth. They'll be here soon enough, but first up is a selection of images I captured in North Yorkshire, at Roseberry Topping near Great Ayton, a fifty minute drive from my home. I'd visited this location as a kid, as part of a school trip to Captain Cook Country, and distinctly remember being shepherded up the hill by our teacher, who clearly wasn't enjoying the task due to a complete lack of fitness on his part. Roseberry Topping is a mere 320m in height, so hardly Mount Everest in comparison, yet our shepherd struggled big style, and was ready to collapse at any given moment, much to the amusement of me and my classmates, he he. Since then, I've had no connection with Roseberry Topping, other than marvelling at it in photograph form, taken by Joe Cornish (probably Britain's most famous Landscape photographer). Joe lived locally for many years, so the Topping was on his doorstep - easily accessible throughout the changing seasons, and ready to be captured in all its glory. I made three visits to this site between May and June. My first jaunt was for one purpose only - to photograph the bluebells, with Roseberry Topping as a backdrop. The result is shown below. The bluebells were on show for quite some time, but getting 'The shot' wasn't as easy as first anticipated, due to the fact that a fair few had been trampled on by idiots. Aye well, you get them everywhere, unfortunately.

From the car, parked in the visitor car park at the foot of the hill, it was a very mild accent through the bluebell woods and up towards the summit, taking around 40 minutes in total. There were families up there, dogs, pensioners et al. Great views from the top, panoramic style. Another visit saw me heading through the woods once again, but instead of climbing to the summit, I headed through more wooded areas and out towards the fields. I wanted to retrace the steps of Joe Cornish and to locate one or two of his vantage points that he photographed from. After studying one of his shots in particular I headed up a footpath towards where I thought the shot was taken. I found it in no time. The foreground trees were ideal for a landscape shot that I was about to land, so I got to work quickly before the clouds drifted over and killed what was left of the blue sky in my viewfinder. Click. My first shot (top) is without doubt my favourite one from the three visits I made. I converted it to Black & White, and it too made a great shot! Another visit followed soon after, as I was in the nearby town of Guisborough, so paid a visit while the oilseed rape was on show, also shown here. And no doubt I'll be back again, sooner rather than later. I reckon Autumn might throw up one or two surprises down there.

Finally, click this link to view the Joe Cornish shot, which I replicated above. A nice comparison - which one do you prefer?

See ya soon, Ash

Back To The Farne Islands

Following our recent and very enjoyable trip to the Farne Islands, me and the rookie photographer were at it again one month later. We purposely planned two visits to coincide with the 'Eggs' and 'Chicks' stage of the breeding season. In case you missed my earlier blog entry which covered our initial visit, click here. If that first visit was a memorable one, then we were treated to a lot more on our second trip, and the photo opportunities were endless, especially where Puffins were concerned, and after all, they were the main focus of today's trip. Yes, those Puffins are without doubt one of the most photogenic of all birdlife, and now that their eggs had hatched it was a case of grabbing those shots when the parents are actively to and fro, supplying their young with a diet of Sand Eels. I'd seen many photographs of Puffins with bills crammed full of eels, but never had I actually seen one in real time, until today. Considering the fact that there were thousands of burrows on Staple Island & Inner Farne, most of which contained a single puffling, the chances of me not pulling in some decent 'Eel' shots were almost nil, but some things are easier said than done, and although these birds are used to human visitors on the Farnes, they don't made the task any easier by keeping their distance. That's when the big lenses come to the party, and considering I was only carrying a modest 300mm Sigma telephoto, I was lagging behind some of the 'Big Hitters' who were flashing off their top of the range glass. But hey, someone once said it wasn't the size that mattered, but how you use it!

So it was different day, same script. The cruise past Inner Farne kicked off the bird watch, followed further travels which took in the Grey Seal colonies that were basking on the rocks at low tide. Cutting the chase, we soon landed on Staple Island, where a hive of activity awaited us. The Puffin count had rocketed since our first visit a few weeks back. Obviously the anonymity of many Puffins back then was due to the obvious fact that many were inside their burrows, incubating eggs. It was a much different story now though, as those eggs had hatched, leaving parent birds free to scan the North Sea for sand eels, before flying back to feed hungry mouths of chicks, deep in the burrows. There were thousands of Puffins in flight, but their speed of flight made them very difficult to track with the camera. Now this was a test! Lots to consider for someone who usually shoots landscapes and low-light stuff, so this was indeed a very different ball game. Many of the photographers around us were using tripods, which was definitely the way forward considering the size and weight of the kit they were running with on the day. Me, well, my modest 300mm lens needed no legs so I opted for hand-held shooting for the duration, hoping those mega fast shutter speeds would se me over the line. In comparison, I was the Conference footballer up against the Champions League money men, in equipment terms, but regardless,  I was confident I could land the shots I was hoping for, so my concentration from now on was purely blinkered in that direction.

In all honesty, my first few shots were a complete bag of shite. No kidding. A few of them were just blue sky, nothing else. I had missed the flight of the Puffin completely, he he. I knew this wasn't gonna be an easy task, but sky shots are quite boring, especially when there's nowt else in the frame, so I had to get my shit together, very soon. Things did improve though. I actually caught a Puffin bang in the centre of frame, although it was just a small black dot when I reviewed it on my monitor. In fact, it could have been a Common Spuggie, you really couldn't tell the difference, it was that tiny. Sharp focus was also a big issue here, but then again, you aren't gonna pull in cracking shots every time, especially in this area of photography, which I'm a novice at. By this time, my son Chris was pulling in some great shots with my old Sony F828 Cybershot camera that I took along for him to use. Looks like I'm being outdone by a twelve year old, he he. He was concentrating on the nesting Shags and Guillemots, as well as the Kittiwakes on the rock faces in front of us, but my decision to photograph Puffins in flight was proving a task too far, up to this point. We took time out to grab a spot of lunch from our backpacks before taking in some more photography. The scran must have had an effect on me, as my next batch of photo's were one big improvement on the last. Switching my drive mode to A1 SERVO, this allowed me to track the flight of the bird as it went, giving me sharp and accurate focus, which is a must in these conditions. I was also using a very fast shutter, beginning with 1/2000th, before cranking the dial to its max - 1/8000th of a second. Bingo!!!

I was now very much off and running. Those Puffins in flight weren't so easy to capture after all. They say that practise makes perfect, well, my shots were in no way perfect, but I was certainly heading in the right direction. I got some great 'In flight' shots, most of which are on my new 'Farne Islands 2' page at ashleycorr.com. Here are one or two of my favourite Puffins. I got there in the end - just needed that extra bit of patience and perseverance to get over the finishing line. And young Chris brought home a very impressive collection of shots too. I photographed him as he was ambushed by a 'Head Banger' (Arctic Tern, near its nest). He bagged an excellent shot of the angry parent, at the same time as I took this picture of him. Chris's photo of the 'Attack' is below, and a fantastic shot it certainly is. And he wasn't the only one who got his head pecked on Inner Farne. Check out the old chappie below. He must have been a bit miffed when another Arctic Tern dive-bombed him, as me and another bloke relished the chance to capture it with our camera's, he he. Oh well, I was on the receiving end of an arse kicking myself, and even got shat on at one point, so it's swings and roundabouts.

And on that note I shall make myself scarce once again, only to return with another helping of photographs and accompanying drivel, he he. Got some nice Black & White shots to share, plus my story of walking in famous footsteps, as I retrace one particular path that Joe Cornish had walked. Then there's the small matter of foreign travel. Just got back from a great holiday where I visited some great places such as Corsica, Sardinia, Rome, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, plus Menorca.
Stay tuned for that lot...coming soon...

Cheers, Ash

    

Caerlaverock Castle, Dumfries

Hello again, and welcome back to the blog page of a roaming Mackem photographer. A few weeks ago I was in Dumfries on the south east of Scotland, photographing a rather picturesque 13th century castle at Caerlaverock. Surrounded by a moat, the ruins of Caerlaverock Castle are surprisingly in good nick, so all angles presented decent photo opportunities, which I was about to take advantage of. This was my third visit to this castle, following two previous appearances back in 2002 when I was using Fuji Velvia transparency film, which I still have archived somewhere in my house. From my base in Houghton le Spring, the castle is approximately 100 miles - a journey which takes just over 2 hours to complete.  Anyway, a brief insight to Caerlaverock Castle...

Caerlaverock Castle is a moated triangular castle first built in the 13th century. It is located on the southern coast of Scotland, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) south of Dumfries, on the edge of the Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve. Caerlaverock was a stronghold of the Maxwell family from the 13th century until the 17th century when the castle was abandoned. It was besieged by the English during the Wars of Scottish Independence, and underwent several partial demolitions and reconstructions over the 14th and 15th centuries. In the 17th century, the Maxwell's were created Earls of Nithsdale, and built a new lodging within the walls, described as among "the most ambitious early classical domestic architecture in Scotland". In 1640 the castle was besieged for the last time and was subsequently abandoned. Although demolished and rebuilt several times, the castle retains the distinctive triangular plan first laid out in the 13th century. Caerlaverock Castle was built to control trade in early times. Today, the castle is in the care of Historic Scotland and is a popular tourist attraction. It is protected as a scheduled monument, and as a category A listed building.

Back soon with another blog entry - it's more of the Farne Islands!
Ash