So while I was out on the carport today I set some fruit out to attract whatever. Got a few flys so I snapped some pics of those. For those of you who set up a spot to attract your insects, what is your setup like? I did not think mine through much and put some fruit at the edge of the table. Ended up flash attachment and lens would not allow me to get close as I wanted. So tomorrow I am going to elevate the fruit off the table to give me some room to work with. Any tips on what else I should do? I will be using my Sigma 17-70 with various extension tubes and might try my Tamron 70-210, but with tubes on that the focus range is small. I do have my tripod, macro focus rail, and my YN24EX flash. My backdrop isn't too pretty, with yellow siding of the house, but I will fix that with some poster board or something else. I will post up a image from today in a little.
I don't do macro. But the way that I would approach this is that I would try different gear and just play around with what I own and see what sort of results I get. See what combination works for you and what you like to use. See what insects come along. How big are they and do they stay still long enough to photograph them? Once I have done that, I would then pick a part of the process that I think could be improved on and work on that. That could be your background as an example. Once you are happy with that, then look at the next part of the image that you think could be improved, such as the lighting, and work on that. You may have to buy a few things, but is that a bad thing? Just my thoughts. Gary
On;y thing I really need is a new macro lens. I should have never sold my Tokina 100 2.8. That was a stupid mistake. Well that and giving away my nice Manfrotto tripod and ball head. I am saving up for a new macro lens, leaning to the Tokina again but will look around and see what all I can find. I had my eyes on the Sigma 150 and 180 macro lenses long ago, but those are out of my price range these days unless I find a good one at a used price. But O will see about that when the time comes. I never had a macro lens till 2012 and before that, I just used primes with extension tubes. But back then I mainly did flowers and the like, but more interested in insects now. And ke being in Texas, we do get some interesting bugs.
As another option, to the Tokina. Have you considered the Sigma 105, or the Tamron 90? Both of which you can pick up at a good price used. Gary
I looked at them, but it just all depends on what is available at the time. What I can find on the used market since the Sigma and Tamron new are both out of my range. I really need to supplement my disability income or get rid of some ham radio gear I have sitting around gathering dust.
