Macro madness

[Reef Bass]

Had to de-prioritize picture taking for a while. I clicked off 200+ in the past week and feel much better now.

Apparently my desire to share is greater than the posting capabilities here. I'll post another thread.

Constructive criticism always welcome and appreciated.

Colors and textures:

ORA Purple Plasma

This Montipora was teal colored and is now fairly green with a light blue rim

A red, tan and green Acan with pretty mouths

Fruity Pebbles Zoanthids (please pardon the scratch in the glass on the left)

Check out the growing tip of this peach / pink A. millepora. This is what I call explosive growth. The shot was tough exposure wise as the tip of the branch is in the direct light of the overhead MHs, so it's very bright but the polyps in the background are in the shade of the piece, so it's quite a lighting contrast. I ended up letting the brightest parts of the growing tips blow out, metering the polyps on the tip and then boosting the brightness in the shadows a bit during post.

Sunset Monti

 

[Recty]

Looks very nice. I love the acans from this thread and the other one and also the sunset monti.

For what it's worth, to post more than the 10 pictures RC allows per post, just do your post then do a reply and post the remaining pictures. You dont have to start a whole new thread to insert more pictures, you just can only have 10 per post

 

[Reef Bass]

Yeah, thanks, I realized that after I had already posted the second thread. Duh. But I appreciate the polite pointing out of that which should have been obvious in the first place.

The sunset monti has been an encrusting fiend, which I'm quite ok with. I automated my dosing and my corals are reacting well to a more stable, consistent and appropriate water chemistry.

At the risk of hijacking my own thread, how's your pregnancy doing?

 

[Recty]

Very well so far She isnt real far along, around 6 weeks, so we havent even had any doctor visits yet. I think our first appointment with the doctor is Sep 30th? She will be at 9 or 10 weeks or something like that.

So really, it's all going pretty easy. She hasnt had any morning sickness yet which is great, but a lot of women we've talked to are attributing that to the fact that she has been taking prenatal vitamins for a couple months now in preparation for pregnancy.

I'm not sure how much the father's genes come into play in morning sickness, I imagine very little unless there is something the baby does which causes the morning sickness, but for what it's worth my mother had no morning sickness at all with either me or my brother.

My mother in law, on the other hand, was sick almost the entire 40 weeks... so we are just glad my wife isnt having to deal with that.

She's having the usual enlargement and subsequent soreness of certain body parts and is just barely starting to show a baby bulge, it's really only noticeable to me and to her but I can tell it's there

 

[Bn251]

very nice pics! what camera are you using?

 

[Recty]

Canon 50D and the 100mm macro.

 

[papareef]

what are your setting?

 

[Reef Bass]

Yup.

Recty, that's great that your pregnancy is going well. Of course, it's still early. And don't worry, it will all be your fault eventually.

Every pregnancy is different. I thought I knew what to expect when my second wife was pregnant with our second (my third) child. I worked hard to do better with the things I didn't do as well with during the her first pregnancy yet those previous issues were't issues with her second pregnancy.

The best advice I can give is simply to be with her, assist her however you can (however she'll allow) and be that rock for her that she knows she can lean on when she needs to.

Her body (and her mind) are going to go through tremendous changes over which neither of you have signficant control. Recognize the changes. Laugh when appropriate. Love always.

Eventually she'll get her body back and the intensity of hormonally motivated thoughts and feelings will subside. I'd pay attention to her mood 6 months after giving birth as well as both my wives suffered substantial post partum depression which they had a hard time shaking.

Pregnancy and the birth process (like many other life events) can be times which when shared can bring you two even closer together.

I found Lamaze / birthing classes helpful, partly from a "here's how the birth usually goes", but also from a "and here are the ways in which it often doesn't go as planned and the options one has in those situations".

Good luck man! You are embarking on the most significant and substantial, and potentially the most rewarding, journey one can make in life, imho.

 

[Reef Bass]

papareef, the settings I use generally change with each shot as the amount of light varies with the location of each coral in the tank.

With my lighting (2 400w MHs, 2 T5 actinics), the depth of my tank (24"), and because I'm shooting stationary subjects using a triopd, I typically use shutterspeeds between 2 seconds and 1/2 second, and fstops between f4-f16. I tend to use f13 a lot as a minimum aperature (to avoid lose of detail due to diffraction). I try to use ISO 100 all the time if possible.

I typically use Av mode (aperature priority) to set the depth of field and let the shutterspeed vary to match the selected aperature. If I'm shooting light colored corals near the top of my tank I'm often using some negative exposure compensation to reduce the tendency of the light colored areas to blow out.

I should stop using Av mode like the crutch it is for me and go with completely manual exposure. There are times when either I tell the camera to meter the wrong spot, or the camera doesn't get the exposure right or the way I think it should be. Those times are very frustrating because if I were using manual exposure mode then that wouldn't have happened.

Hope this helps.

 

[snorvich]

Colors and textures: for me the foreground out of focus is a bit distracting. If it were reversed, it would be awesome as the foreground would pop. The purple plasma works well for me for that exact reason.

 

[Recty]

Thanks for all the good advice

 

[Reef Bass]

snorvich, I hear what you are saying. I like the Purple Plasma also because of all the "in your face" foreground action with the polyp tentacles and color.

In the Colors and Textures pic I intentionally set the focal plane on the spikey coral. I agree that in a composed shot, the super bright dino egg was not the best choice there in right front. That's how it lay so I played it.

You're welcome Grant. Just relating my experience.

 

[Emster]

They all look great. I love the sunset pic. Thanks for the settings info, I just got a 40d with macro lens today and already got some pics I'm pretty happy with but I know I will get better with time. Man there is a lot to this DSLR thing What kind of camera and lens are you using?

 

[Reef Bass]

Thanks Emster. Have fun with your 40D! Post some pics when you've got some.

I use a Canon EOS 50D body with Canon F2.8 100mm USM macro lens.