Sony 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens Shots

I did not own a macro lens until six months ago when I bought the Sony 100mm f/2.8 from my brother. He had little use for it, but it has become one of my favorites. I love shooting closeups with a shallow depth of field. The images look almost abstract sometimes.

The first of these I took at John Chesnut Park in Palm Harbor. It has a small butterfly garden. I saw no butterflies that day, but I did see some flowers. The rest I took at Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. I don't have all the settings in front of me but for most of them I did shoot at f/2.8 for the most shallow depth of field I could get with a Sony A77.

A photo posted by @photoquist on Apr 15, 2015 at 5:06am PDT

A photo posted by @photoquist on Mar 25, 2015 at 4:45am PDT

A photo posted by @photoquist on Apr 4, 2015 at 6:18am PDT

A photo posted by @photoquist on Apr 12, 2015 at 5:27am PDT

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A photo posted by @photoquist on Mar 28, 2015 at 5:26am PDT

Cardinals

I took these at John Chesnut Sr. Park in Palm Harbor, Fla. about a month apart. The one directly below of the female cardinal I took with a Canon 7D Mark II and Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS II USM lens. And, yes, I do know what all those letters in the lens's name stand for!

A photo posted by @PhotoQuist on Mar 22, 2015 at 5:10am PDT

I took the shot of the male with a Nikon D810 and 200-400mm f/4 lens. This one didn't need it, but I love the D810s massive 36MP size that lets you crop a lot and still have an file large enough to make large prints.

A photo posted by @PhotoQuist on Feb 10, 2015 at 4:13am PST

Another Day at the Races

I know it's beginning to look like the only thing I photograph are horses, I know. My father goes to the track frequently and sometimes I meet him out there. It is a good place to try to capture action and there is color and character around the track, too.

Tampa Bay Downs Photos

The racing season has begun at Tampa Bay Downs. I don't gamble much. Instead I play games of chance with my camera. Can I capture the action? Will it be in frame? In focus? Perhaps if I shot action sports more than a few times a year I'd be more proficient at it.

As it is, I got a few good shots, though some of these had to be heavily cropped to fill the frame as much as they do.

Previous PhotoWalk + Lowry Zoo Pictures

These are photos from last year's Scott Kelby Worldwide PhotoWalk in Safety Harbor. August 24, 2008, to be precise. I post them here for the benefit of members of the Riverview Digital Photography Meetup Group as we look for places to shoot.

I drove through intermittent rain to get to the town then walked several blocks down Main Street through a steady downpour to the meeting place. But I made it. Luckily for the 50 or so people gathered under the gazebo at John Wilson Park the rain stopped before we set off to document Safety Harbor.

I had an idea in my head that there would be some guidance involved but the only instructions we got were to meet at Crispers restaurant at 7 p.m., that whining was not allowed and to take care not to get hit by a car.

The restaurant is a good place to meet afterward. It is large enough to accommodate a group and people could fire up their laptops and share their results if they wanted.



A few months earlier I joined several thousand other price-conscious people when I visited Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa on a $5 admission day. Below are some of the results.