New (Belgian) member

Lets get to know each other better. Here's a forum to post images and short autobiographies of ourselves as well as any other info you would like to post about yourself.

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Henk Wallays
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:31 am
Location: Aalter, Belgium
Contact:

New (Belgian) member

Post by Henk Wallays »

Hai,

I'm a new member and have just discovered this forum. Seems like I should have found this one much sooner. Taking pictures in nature is my way of getting the heat of a hectic job. In my free time I help to maintain & document some little nature - reserves here in Belgium and my pictures are also used as a documentation / inventory of these little reserves. For laready a while I prefer doing close up and macro's (in nature) and have been very impressed by some of the high magnifications some of you use. I would defenitely try out some of that too.

Until recently I was using an old Minolta 100 mm macro on my sony dslr (Alpha 350) on top of which I attached the Canon 500D converter offering me about something close to 2:1 . 99% of my shots are made handheld either by using the build in flash or the natural light ( I currently have on flash gun) . As such I work alot with higher ISO settings (400 ISO).

I have to admit I am jealous of the MPE65 of Canon , but a lot of minolta glass and lenses prevent me to skip the brand (however....)

To give and idea of what I do I include an image made with that setup , handheld at 1/160 sec aperture F8.

Image

Through this site I hope to get some (better) insight in how you are working in order to improve my shots and maybe dive into some better background lighting and higher magnifications (even doing some studio work overhere ) . I would like to know more on that stacking software and microfotography...

I will now slowly rung through the archives ...
Glad to join in anyway...

Mike B in OKlahoma
Posts: 1048
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:32 pm
Location: Oklahoma City

Post by Mike B in OKlahoma »

Welcome, Henk!

Different brands have different minor advantages, but super macro photography can be done with any of the major camera brands! There are ways to rig old manual focus lenses to get higher magnifications, many of the folks here do that and can advice you, or you can read about it in the archives.

In a year or so (heh) when you've exhausted the archives of this site, you can check out our old site at www.photomacrography1.net as well. Thanks to Rik's work, it is preserved and available for us to refer back to.

Again, welcome, and I'm glad this site is truly multinational.
Mike Broderick
Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Constructive critiques of my pictures, and reposts in this forum for purposes of critique are welcome

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul....My mandate includes weird bugs."
--Calvin

Ken Ramos
Posts: 7208
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:12 pm
Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841

Post by Ken Ramos »

Welcome aboard there Henk! :o Excellent post and not to worry over the equipment. What ever works I always say or try to say, until I look at some of the other posts and then browse my B & H Photo Catalog. :lol:

Again Welcome aboard! :D

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23561
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Henk, let me add my "Welcome aboard!" :D

Your picture in this post is very good, as is the one in the macro gallery. In this one, I particularly like the effect of backlight on the antennae. It makes them seem to "glow" in a very pleasing way.

I am also impressed that you got it so sharp at this scale and 1/160 second hand-held. Not easy! I'm looking forward to a lot more. :D

--Rik

Harold Gough
Posts: 5786
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:17 am
Location: Reading, Berkshire, England

Post by Harold Gough »

Henk,

I too wished I had found the forum much sooner.

Your picture shows an excellent pair of subjects for clean lines and high impact colours. My personal preference is for smaller apertures and greater depth of field but I am in a minority.

Harold
My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

Cyclops
Posts: 3084
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2006 5:18 pm
Location: North East of England
Contact:

Post by Cyclops »

Welcome Henk,great photo there! I used to have a minolta film camera,they made some fine lenses!
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

rovebeetle
Posts: 308
Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 4:21 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: New (Belgian) member

Post by rovebeetle »

Another welcome!
Henk Wallays wrote:Seems like I should have found this one much sooner.
Had the same thought when I joined not so long ago.

Cheers
Harry

Jbailey
Posts: 520
Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:45 am
Location: Wisconsin, USA

Post by Jbailey »

Welcome aboard, Henk.

I'm sure you'll enjoy participating with the rest of us.

Jim

P_T
Posts: 461
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:13 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by P_T »

Welcome Hank. I must say that is a very lovely image you've captured. The colours are really complementary.

I'm a new member here too though I've bookmarked this forum since 2 years ago. I don't know why I didn't join earlier. :shock:

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23561
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

P_T wrote:I don't know why I didn't join earlier.
There's really no need to join unless you want to post or contact a member. All of the forum's resources are open to the public, except for the member list itself.

At present, we have about 100 really active members, if we define "really active" to mean 25 or more posts in the last two years. Another 280 people have registered, but never made even a single post. The remaining 100 have made 24 or fewer posts.

No doubt there are quite a few people who read the forum regularly, but have never felt the need to register.

--Rik

PS. Hello, y'all out there! You're very welcome to drop by whenever you like. We're glad you like the place! :D

AndrewC
Posts: 1436
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:05 am
Location: Belgium
Contact:

Post by AndrewC »

Hi Henk,

Whereabouts in Belgium are you ? I'm a transplant living in Brussels :)

Andrew

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