BWPS News Archive

The BWPS Macro Night will be held Wednesday, February 15, 7:00PM at the Framingham Elks Lodge, starting at 7:00 pm. This event is open to all members and there is no fee.

The night will begin with a presentation by Ron Todd covering macro equipment and techniques, and then the bulk of the evening will be spent shooting macro subjects. Members who are familiar with macro photography will be available to try to answer your questions and guide you through a successful evening of macro shooting.

Six shooting stations will be setup for your use:

1. Copy Stand This is a vertical setup for top-down photography of subjects from 1/3 to life sized (1" to 3" across). Subjects include coins, stamps, feathers, crystals, rock slabs, jewelry, thread, beads, watch gears, carvings, and circuit boards.

Equipment: Any manufacturer camera with a macro lens (SLR or Point-And-Shoot). Canon and Nikon macro lenses will be available at this setup.

Samples of shots with this setup:

2. IC Wafer This is a horizontal setup with an IC wafer (an array of computer chips) as the subject. This item is like a diffraction grating, in than it reflects light, producing colors of the rainbow that vary as you change lighting angles slightly.

Equipment: Any manufacturer's camera with a macro lens, or a close-focusing lens (SLR or Point-And-Shoot). Canon and Nikon macro lenses will be available at this setup.

Sample of what you can shoot with this setup:

3. Mini Studio This is a horizontal setup with a soft-box strobe and various backgrounds. Please bring in subjects you would like to photograph. Various crystallized minerals and figurines will also be available.

Equipment: Any manufacturer's camera with a macro lens or close-focusing lens (SLR or Point-And-Shoot)

Sample of what you can shoot here:

4. Bellows This setup lets you get to higher magnification (up to 5x), but can only be used with Nikon bayonet mount bodies. Subjects include fabric swatches, feathers, and microscope slides.

Equipment: Only Nikon bayonet-mount bodies will work on this setup. (Note: Bayonet-mount is the type of mounting system that most modern camera bodies have.)

Sample of what you can shoot here:

5. Laboratory Microscope This setup will let you experiment with various microscope illumination methods, at 8.5x magnification. Subjects include a variety of microscope slides of bugs and plant and animal tissues. It is compatible with both Nikon and Canon bayonet mount SLRs.

Equipment: Either Canon or Nikon bayonet-mount bodies will work on this setup.

Sample of what you can shoot here:

6. Basic Macro Lens This is a horizontal setup for mild macro through twice life size. Subjects include flowers, fruit slices, shells, matches, and whatever you would like to bring in to photograph.

Equipment: Any manufacturer's camera with a macro lens (SLR or Point-And-Shoot). There will be a fixed tripod at this setup that will fit any camera with a tripod mount screw hole on the bottom of the camera.

Sample of what you can shoot here:

What to Bring

• Camera
  
  • Both SLR and point-and-shoot cameras will be fine
• Means to trigger strobes
  
  • PC outlet built into your camera
  • PC outlet added to your camera with a hot shoe attachment (some will be available to share)
  • You can use your on-camera strobe to trigger slave (you must turn off any pre-flash)
• Any macro-focusing lenses you have
  
  • Both Nikon and Canon mount macro lenses will be available for your use
• ISO Setting
  
  • ISO 100 will be good for most setups
  • For the microscope setup, ISO 400 is recommended
• You don't need to bring a tripod
  
  • Tripods with Arca-Swiss and standard mounts will be available
• Any subjects you have that would be fun to photograph
  
  • Fist-sized and smaller
  • A pet lizard / tarantula / flea
  • Figurines
  • Flowers (especially unusual flowers)
  • Grains of sand
  • Natural sponges
  • Sea shells
  • And just about anything you can imagine