Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

Earlier this spring I kept an eye on some tiny flowers that grew up in the cracks between bricks near my house. The flowers were at the end of fairly long stems, and when they opened were just a few millimeters in size. However, they were pretty uninteresting and did not look like a good macro subject, so I passed them by. A few days ago I took another look, and found that the now fading plants with tiny seed pods where each flower had been. The empty seed pods had an interesting shape... Here's a photo of one (click on the image for a larger view):

 This particular pod was 5mm in dimension, the image was taken at approximately 3x lifesized with a 50mm macro lens reverse mounted on extension. Thirty nine stacked images.

A few days ago I tried some systematic (for me, at least) experiments with higher magnification macro photos. In the past few months I've gotten more comfortable with stacking images up to 3.5x to 4x lifesized. I'd like to increment that to the 5x to 6x range.

My most used lens - a 50mm - becomes somewhat unwieldy at those magnifications due to the amount of extension needed. While I have routinely photographed snowflakes at magnifications of 5x to 10x using a reverse mounted 50mm lens, in that case the camera is mounted in a straight vertical position and little stacking is used. For insects and plants, I've been mounting the camera horizontally and combining several dozen sacked images - all of which is difficult with extensive bellows and extension tube setups.

Here's the output from one experiment using an Otamat lens, a 20mm f1.7 on two medium extension tubes. Magnification was about 5.5x (click on the image for a larger view):

This is a 70 image stack. The stack was processed in Zerene Stacker, using both DMap and Pmax processes. The two output files were stacked in Photoshop PS 6. The original 70 exposures were also processed in Photoshop Camera Raw prior to being combined in Zerene Stacker. The image was taken in horizonal orientation and cropped to a square format.

Here are a couple of photos of the setup using the Otamat lens:

The led ring light is used only as an aid to focus - the amount of light it puts out is inconsequential to the exposure. A pair of flashes is used to obtain accurate exposure.

I have not found the Otamat lenses that I bought a few years ago to be as useful as I had hoped they would, but I am favorably impressed (and somewhat surprised) at its performance in this test. I should note that the images taken with the Otamat were extremely low contrast and I would up making some pretty notable adjustments to the images when preparing the raw files. The system with the Otamat lens was fairly easy to work with, being light and compact.

I plan to continue to experiment with this lens, and also with the Otamat 10mm f1.7 (I bought both of these a year or so ago, but have done little with them since.) A quick summation of the pros and cons of the 20mm lens: Pros - very good detail in a setup that  is much more compact and stable than an SLR lens reverse mounted on extension. Cons - lacking in contrast and color saturaton (though this can be  corrected in post exposure processing.

Since this is tagged as a review: I have no connection to Otamat or whatever company manufactures and distributes these lenses.

This colorful moth is an Ailanthus Webworm Moth (Atteva  aurea). These are becoming more and more common in Michigan, though from what I read they cannot survive our winters and so migrate north in the spring. I found this specimen on the wall of my garage a few days ago:

Sixty-six stacked images, made with a Pentax K-3 and reverse mounted DFA 50mm macro lens on about on extension tubes.  Magnification is about 3.5x lifesized.

Lots of these flies were buzzing around my yard a few days ago, so I caught a couple an dfroze them for studio macro shots. There are two wings and a pair of halteres, which would seem to place this into the order diptera. While I have looked through seveal websites, I have not been able to form an opion beyond that - and I'd rather admit to not being able to identify a subject than to offer a mis-identification. So - it is just a fly. All I care about is the photography, anyhow...

Pentax K-3, reverse mounted F 28mm f2.8, extension tubes. Approximately 3.6x lifesized. Cropped.

Heres a view of the entire insects - any suggestions about ID would be appreciated:

The last fiddlehead for 2015 (most likely):

Trillium are among the latest of the spring ephmerals to appear, and I took this photo over a week ago. Surely another spring wildflower season is coming to a close. Well, it's been a good one. Click on the image for a lager file:

Another closeup of Blue Eyed Mary (Collinsia verna), taken last week:

This is a photo of a field of winter wheat at the edge of forest that was logged 15-20 years ago and which now has been overtaken by aspen trees.(Click on the image for a larger file.)

A little explanation... I routinely photograph in the Allegan State Game Area, a 50,000 acre (202 square kilometer) area of state land made up of forests, wetlands, pine barrens and oak savannas. The forest is actively logged and the land is used for various recreational purposes - hunting, horseback riding, snowmobiling, etc.

A few years ago the state plowed up some of the open fields and planted winter wheat - I really don't know why. Maybe it attracts game for the hunters. So - this is a photo of a field of winter wheat at the edge of forest that was logged 15-20 years ago and which now has been overtaken by aspen trees.

When I first started visiting the forest twelve years ago these trees were only about 8 feet tall and were home to many wonderful bird species. I saw more indigo buntings in those aspen in a few hours one afternoon than I have seen in all the other hours of my life combined.

The winter wheat is remarably green this time of year, and a few days of recent rain has made it more green.

And those aspen can be devilish if you wander into them without a compass or GPS - a disorienting maze and barrier of strong small trees.