January 2012 Home
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This month we finally got some vaguely winterish weather. No snow in the area but perfect conditions for frost and ice crystals. I spent a lot of time in the Bowland and Silverdale areas. This month my photography has been dominated by two new lenses. Getting to grips with the Canon MP-E 65mm hyper-macro lens, and a new addition, the Samyang 14mm f/2.8. Both very interesting bits of kit, both requiring a fair bit of practice to get the most out of.
I don't want the below image to be misconstrued as an environmental criticism. I am sure it is part of the responsible conservational management at Beacon Fell. I took the picture because I was stopped in my tracks by how well the frosty logs reflected the sky.
These images were all taken with the Canon MP-E 65mm, an absolutely unique lens which allows greater than 1:1 macro magnification. It opens up whole new worlds to macro photography, but is incredibly difficult to use. Images #1 and #4 are of frozen Fern leaves and the ice crystals forming around them. Image #2 is the remains of a Holly leaf, having been disintegrated by a specialised fungus. What you see that is left is just the system of veins. Images #3 and #5 are pure ice crystals growing out of felled trees (above) at Beacon Fell. They were shot at 5x and 3x magnification respectively.
This month was the first time I had visited Hutton Roof, a spectacular limestone pavement in Lancashire (image #1). The bryophyte (image #2) and the bracket fungus pores (image #3) were also taken with the Canon MP-E 65mm. Bryophyte is defined as a plant with no vascular tissue. They are the tiny antennae-esque plants that you see all year round, but are some of the first ones to emerge after winter. They will consist a large part of my 303 project on micro-seasonality.
This first image (along with the one at the top of the page) was taken with the new Samyang 14mm f/2.8. It is a fully manual (focus and aperture) lens, and hence requires more thought and effort, but produces great results. Image #2 captured the sunrise light entering the dense pine forests at Beacon Fell. Image #3 is a group of Cormorants sunbathing on literally the first nice day in a month! (the 5th of January)
I have started in-depth reviews of both the Samyang and the Canon MP-E 65mm on
my sister-site, pixeldensity.net. They can be found below
Review of Samyang 14mm f/2.8
Review of Canon MP-E 65mm
I have also registered as a contributor at ARKive. Although my speciality isn't endangered species, I had a fair few uncommon species (mostly invertebrates) in my collection that weren't represented on their site.
My Getty Images collection grew by another 58 images this month, and now I am almost caught up on uploading my backcatalogue.
The last big thing is of course, competitions. The season has begun with Wildlife Photographer of the Year due to close for entries less than a month from now. I have already sent mine in nice and early (although I have since changed 3 or 4 images since then).