Matt Hunt wrote:
Hi

My name is Matt and I am almost a lurker.

I've been seen carry cameras since the age of 3 (a robust Agfa Silette) and have worked through that, an Olmpus 35 RC, and now have 2 Spotmatics and a Nikon F80. A D200 or 300 might get added this year.

I am probably best described as a photographic tinkerer, an urge made worse by having signed up to do a photographic course run by a certain UK magazine

An example macro shot here (hopefully):

TEASER wrote:
lanthier wrote:
New here to FM. Macro and close-up is what I love to do most. Here are some recent orchid samples from the US Botanic Garden.

Welcome to FM, I like your shots.


Thanks Keith. Kind of you to comment.

r

lurker...
I started photography goofing around with my dad's Nikon F1 about 25 years ago... He then sold it and all his gear when we came to the USA (I was quite upset at him for not giving it to me) in College I bought a Canon Elan II (which I still have), then 1.5 years ago i got into the Canon Rebel XTi, had a bunch of lenses including the EF 100/2.8 USM macro. Then got into old school lense (the 35/2.8, 50/1.4, 85/1.4 Zeiss T* lenses) Upgraded to a 5D this month selling off all of my EF lenses except the 100 Macro... sadly, don't know why but in my copy of the 5D, 35 and 50 zeiss aperture tab gets stuck on the mount and stays open at aperture and won't close so there goes that... returned the 5D (yes, I probably could have filed down the lense tab but didn't want to mess with them for resale), got a Epson R-D1 rangefinder... and so.. the only lenses that I have are the 35/50/85 zeiss, and the 100/2.8 macro with my Elan body.
So going back to film on the SLR and sticking with digital through the rangefinder... i'm confused =)

Born-again noob and lurker...

Did lots of photography aged 14-25, but then (for various reasons) stopped when my EOS1000 film SLR died a death 10 years ago...

I've just ordered a Canon 400D (Rebel in US?) with a EFS 17-85mm and... an EFS 60mm 2.8 Macro lens.

Very excited about getting back into photography, and in particularly to shoot some Macros again.

Not too sure how the EFS 60mm macro lens works with other macro accessories, eg extension tubes, 2x teleconverters and magnifying glass... I know my old 2x teleconverter doesn't work (even though it fits). I guess I will find out. At least my starting point, the 60mm lens, should be pretty good, I've had lots of people recommend it to me.

Look forward to having something worth posting on Macro world, its an excellent forum and some of the work posted is sublime.

Thank you for the invitation Tom. I am just like the majority of the posters in this thread: both a noob and a lurker. The funny thing is that I just got my Sigma 180mm yesterday and I can't wait for spring so I can't shoot some bugs now. I am intimidated by the talent I see in this forum and I hope I will have the courage and the pictures to start posting here.
I also want to thank Fred for the immense quantity of photography resources that one can find on this website, without any commercial interference.

I'm a lurker to...I have no idea where to start with macro. I have a fish tank and I'm trying to take some macro shots of the coral. It's really challenging. Anyway, I am amazed at the pics I see in this forum..I wonder if it's possible for me to become decent.?!

ok after reading this thread for a few days i decided to get out in the garden {we are in drought and there isnt much in the way of color at the moment all i could find was some near end of life bottlebrush flowers
so using just my P&S oly 5060 this is what i came up with

i'd love to learn how to create images that pop and inspire like so many on this site
so please educate me
so here goes

I'm a total noob, only just found this site, and I'm happy I did. At the moment, I only have a P&S camera, the limitations of which I often meet, but I've always loved macro photography. I'm a big fan of technology, and I love doing 'macro' shots of all my gear, but as you can imagine, that's exactly where my camera limits me. I'm looking into getting a Nikon D40 in the not so distant future, but I'm a bit hesitant since I don't know that much about photography, so I'm worried I can't justify the purchase just yet.

I'm not a Noob to this site, having spent a lot of time in the Nikon forum posting mainly landscape, architecture and various other snapshots.

I've dabbled with macro starting with a Sigma 70-300 APO macro, and now a sigma 70-200 macro mostly with close up flower shots. But I've wanted to do more proper macro for small flowers that 1:3 just doesn't cut it for.

So I've just ordered a sigma 150 2.8 that should be arriving soon. I can't wait to experiment. It'll hopefully give me something to work on when it's raining and horrible out (which is quite often here), instead of getting depressed about my photography. I have an idea of a picture I want to take for my girlfriends birthday present that I hope I can take in time, so that should motivate me.

This is actually my first post on this site. I love photography.... everything but the cost of lenses haha. I just got a Canon 100mm macro lense and since Christmas I've been going nuts trying to find things to shoot, so if anyone has any suggestions for things to shoot during the winter, I'm all ears. Though I did get lucky this year with a couple warm spells where some bugs did make it out for me to shoot. Here's a couple of examples of what I've been doing, I welcome any comments anyone has.

Hello all, I joined FM 2004 or 2005(cant remember) but newer posted anything here (except few things on lightning forum). I live in eastern part of Finland on small town. English is not my mature tongue so hope you understand what I write here.

I have been looking your gorgeous images quite much during the years. Tom Hicks and other photographers photos are awesome, I hope that I get some day good as you are. I also learned much from your postings (photos and tips/hints). Thanks for you all for that.

I bought Sigma 50mm macro lens on 2005 and then it has been most used lens (some inner parts even worn out due the hard usage and I need to replace them (warranty was good thing to have)) . I also ventured into extension tube usage. My main macro works are close ups from different objects and materials. Now I'm waiting 90mm ts-e lens to use with extension tubes. I hope it works well together.

Nowdays I shoot food and related things but I really like get close to my subject. But if someone wants look my images here is the link ( My food related images, some macros as well ) (I hope linking to my gallery is not prohibited on forum rules).

Best regards: Mikko Pitkänen

Hi,

I am new to FM and new to Macro. I belong to a local photo club, and enjoyed seeing some of the macro photography so I purchased a Canon ef 100 2.8 macro lens. Now I am lurking to get ideas of the types of pictures that can be shot with a macro lens, some ideas, and of course, any tips on macro shooting. Looking forward to learning more from this forum!

Jason

Hi Tom and FM

Tom, I met you at the butterfly pavillion near Broomfeild Colorado a few years back. Right around the time The Olympus 330 came out with Liveview and I showed you the one I was using.

At the time I didn't know of you or FM, I have lurked every sense.
I've never posted for two reasons.
Mainly the shots I see here blow mine out of the water. I also don't see many Olympus users here. I would hate to think my limited abilitys would give the brand a black eye.

I'll find some of my better shots for a post. I do love shooting and seeing macro.

Nice to meet everyone.

Jim

Lurker turned noob.
I just registered to reply to this post. I've been a lurker for some time but would not register because of the requirement of a "for pay" email address. I've had a yahoo email since the days when yahoo was a single page. It irritates me that a "modern" forum has to resort to blocking "free email" users to avoid spammers. There are better ways. By doing that you probably block 100 viable users for every spammer you block. Use "active" moderators instead of shutting out 3/4 of the photo community. Out of 10 or so photo forums I'm active in, none have shunned my yahoo email. I've also never seen a single spam post on any of those forums...

Love macro..

Hey arlon,

I can totally relate. I had to open a different e-mail account with my service provider for purposes of registering. As an FYI...I changed edited my profile to go back to my gmail account immediately after registerring and I have not had a problem. I suspect one of the reasons for keeping out free accounts is to try to avoid people comming in here with multiple accounts.

Anyway, from one newbie to another...hiya and good luck!
Jason

Hello! I not 'lurker' (I don't like the term, just me), I prefer to say I'm a 'closet photolyte'.

Anyway, here are a few examples of my work and I have a question.

Here's a link (not a subscriber, don't come often enough)

< http://gallery.mac.com/platos_academy#100018>;

Question: As an avid macrophotographer (I, so to speak, got the bug! ) I almost always buy lenses with macro capabilities though I know some of the tricks on how to make any lens a macro. I have more macros than primes. I love Sigma lenses (the 150mm macro is the best lens I have, it's amazing the detail it picks up when I pixel peep). Can't afford the legendary 'L' glass! I am now buying a macro ring flash. Looking at CANON MACRO RING LITE MR-14EX and the Sigma EM-140 DG Macro Flash. How limited are these? What I mean do they work with ONLY certain lenses (mm)? Canon one seems to but has adapters; the Sigma has more adapters so could use with more cams.

Any suggestions?

Cheers...

eugen197

Where diod you get the Sigma 180mm? It's am amazing lens. FYI.

But I found it for $519 at

< ;http://www.hotbuyselectronics.com/search_results.php>;

Couldn't believe the price - less than the 150mm I have! It's a deal and they ship quickly (but is costs).

Hi guys,
I am from Singapore and I am not really new to this forum, had been reading off its reviews since like 4-5 years back? I love macro and had recently purchase my second macro lense (first was a Tamron 90mm), Sigma 150mm f2.8. It's a great gem! Had been shooting with D70s until recently a friend loan me his D80.

One of my personal favorite:

">

long time lurker.

i like looking at the talent but don't feel worthy to post. i was huge into black and white film photography in highschool...won some awards too. when i went away to school i had no funds to process film and/or buy a dslr.

i just got my first dslr yesterday and my first lens should be in today. hopefully i'll be able to get some shots with it and post up. so many of you are far beyond my talent though...it's a little intimidating.

Do you want go and see my macro work? originality and poetry.... from live water of torrents. You can give me advices... Thank's.
Friendly
Claude
http://www.e-monsite.com/claude-delmas

I mainly haven't posted because I'm a slacker and haven't really visited for ages. Let's see if I have anything particularly fun already online:




Picked up a Tamron 90mm macro over the summer and have enjoyed it quite a bit.

Well I was a lurker up until a few days back so, here's one of my humble efforts.
It's not with a macro lens so I suppose it is really just a close up.

Soupdragon wrote:
Well I was a lurker up until a few days back so, here's one of my humble efforts.
It's not with a macro lens so I suppose it is really just a close up.





This is a great shot, toss it in the regular macro posts. You should be proud of that shot!

Karl

Yes indeed, I have lurked here for over a year. I live in Mendocino County, CA, and am an amateur photographer. I am awaiting the arrival of my first macro lens (Canon EF 100 mm; couldn't afford the 180 mm big gun). I have had a deep and abiding interest in wildflowers ever since I helped my son do his 9th grade science project, which involved identifying over 50 local wildflowers. We used a 3 mp point-and-shoot for this job, but the images turned out pretty decent.

Seems like the macro photographers are a pretty humble bunch; not not so top heavy with huge egos as some other categories within this craft.

i'm a noob. I lurk mostly.

i've posted a few times, nothing fantastic though

i own a d80 with 18-135 lens a 50mm 1.8 lens (also have a kiron 70-210, but can't figure out how to really use it)

macro photography is something that has always interested me, but i can't seem to get it right with the tools i have (i have a reversing ring for the 50mm, but focusing is REALLY tough without a tripod and rails)
i also have some cheap closeup filters for the 18-135...but the distortion on the outside is horrible

i'd love to pick up a 100mm phoenix macro lens if i could find one...but i fear that i would then need some special flash system to get the shots i want.