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December 7, 2009 11:08 PM   Subscribe

Thomas Shahan's Photostream - Macro Insect Photography
posted by You Should See the Other Guy (19 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
I changed the URL from their photostream to their tag "macro" so this URL makes sense 2 months, years, and decades from now.
posted by mathowie at 11:16 PM on December 7, 2009


Beautiful stuff. Thanks.
posted by GeckoDundee at 11:46 PM on December 7, 2009


Great FPP timing for nightmare fuel.
posted by cmgonzalez at 11:55 PM on December 7, 2009


Really nice photos, thanks. Kudos to the photographer for releasing them under a liberal Creative Commons license too.
posted by mattn at 12:42 AM on December 8, 2009 [2 favorites]


The reason insects are small is so that we don't have to see them this way.
posted by zaelic at 1:45 AM on December 8, 2009 [1 favorite]


I really like these shots a lot and always keep coming back to them on flickr but I never quite understood just how he got them. in the nbc piece he says he takes prime lenses, extension tubes and screws them on backwards. okay, prime is clear, the extension tubes are probably the 1.4 or 2.0 canon extenders but backwards? huh? anyone?
posted by krautland at 2:02 AM on December 8, 2009


THIS IS NOT THE PAPER I SHOULD BE WRITING.
DAMN YOU, THOMAS.
DAMN YOU, ME. STOP GETTING DISTRACTED.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 2:02 AM on December 8, 2009


I changed the URL from their photostream to their tag "macro" so this URL makes sense 2 months, years, and decades from now.

From the link: Thomas Shahan doesn't have anything tagged with macro.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:16 AM on December 8, 2009


Now I know it wasn't the dust that drove the Okies out of the "Dust Bowl" back in the 30s. Nuh-uh. It was the jumping spiders of Oklahoma.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:53 AM on December 8, 2009


@krautland ...

If you have a canon and a 50mm prime, just take the lens off the front, turn it round and hold it back in place ... you now have a hard to use macro lens ... like what I did here ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/revdancatt/980838757/
... see also http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/poormansmacro/

Far more information including the extension tubes, glue and other tricks here: http://www.insecta.co.za/ZArticles/revers/revers.htm

(ObGoogle)
posted by RevDanCatt at 4:12 AM on December 8, 2009


kinda related, with a couple of links that might count as previously.
posted by scruss at 4:39 AM on December 8, 2009


If you have a canon and a 50mm prime
oh man, that's intense. I am way too scared about getting dust inside my 50mm f1.2 or 7D for that matter to try that. what I do wonder though is if the magnification is larger than that of the 180mm macro canon has on offer.
posted by krautland at 5:29 AM on December 8, 2009


Wow. I dabble in macrophotography, but I've got nothing on this guy. Plus he can actually identify the critters he shoots. Hats off.
posted by jepler at 5:42 AM on December 8, 2009


krautland,
The 180mm macro provides only 1:1 magnification and with 25mm of extension tubes gives 1.21x. I'm not sure of the limit of the reversed 50mm, but in one of his photos he mentions achieving a 5:1 magnification.
posted by jepler at 5:46 AM on December 8, 2009


This is GREAT!!! Thanks for posting.
posted by WyoWhy at 6:21 AM on December 8, 2009


Krautland: you can buy a reversing ring if you are worried about dust, e.g. http://www.dvdtechcameras.com/other/adapter/43/43.htm (I haven't tried it myself, yet, though I plan to).
posted by Ella Fynoe at 7:01 AM on December 8, 2009


It is like evolution made bugs and just went wild in the eyes and legs department.
posted by munchingzombie at 7:06 AM on December 8, 2009


yeah i got a reversing ring for my nikon. i also got a reverse reverse ring that lets me put filters on the back end of the lens to keep out dust. problem is, i put them both in the same bag and they vanished.
posted by sexyrobot at 9:16 AM on December 8, 2009


Krautland: the lens brings the image to a focus on the "film" plane / on the imaging chip.

By turning it around, you're reversing the optical path - so an object 20-30mm in front of the lens is now in focus, and you throw the image the other direction, through the other end (through what USED to be the front) of the lens.

This reverses the magnification factor of the lens - normally, the lens renders large objects as a very small image on the imaging chip; but by reversing it, it now renders small objects as a very LARGE image.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 6:11 PM on December 8, 2009


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