I like to live in a house with a lawn, either at the front or at the back, or better still, on both sides. I like to see the grass grow, of small flowers opening up to the sun, of tiny leaves shooting from the branch or falling off it, and various other small wonders that you could train your lens and snap away your pictures of the day.

Grass would attract animals and they too are a joy to photograph.

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When you look at it up close. This close-up picture of a tip of a ball point pen is possible with the use of a macro lens, the one I bought the other day. There is some problem at the fringe — they call it purple-fringing, not for nothing because it’s purple — but that can’t be helped. It could be the lens, or the camera.

If you still could not find the purple-fringe in this picture, look at the bright side of the object (the tip of the pen) and you would see it. So whoever invented the phrase “looking at the brighter side” ought to rethink phrase because what is in the bright side is not always — well — the bright side.

Nevertheless, I am quite happy with the lens which now enables me to shoot even closer.

What is purple-fringing?

According to Wikipedia:

“Purple fringing is the term for an out-of-focus purple ghost image on a photograph. Images taken with high-contrast boundary areas involving daylight or gas discharge lamps are particularly susceptible, since chromatic aberration is worst for the shortest wavelengths that a camera is sensitive to (violet and/or ultra-violet light).”

It also known by its other, more glamourous, name, “chromatic aberation”. Accoding to Digital Photography Review:

‘”Chromatic aberration” or “color fringing” is caused by the camera lens not focusing different wavelengths of light onto the exact same focal plane (the focal length for different wavelengths is different) and/or by the lens magnifying different wavelengths differently.’

How to get rid of purple-fringe?

Here’s one way to rid the problem. Google ‘em!

Posted in Still life Macro 2 Comments »

I seldom shoot in RAW for a number of reasons. First, I don’t have a high-capacity memory card. The only one I got is a 256MB CF card, so I can only store a limited number of shots, at most 30.

Secondly, it takes a long time to write a RAW image on the card. For a resolution of 3072 x 2305, it takes about 10 second to write. It’s one of the many setbacks of using a point-and-shoot camera. Which is a pity because RAW images really are a stunner.

Posted in Sky No Comments »

A day before my trip back to Malaysia at the end of my tour-of-duty in Singapore, it occured to me that it might be useful if I buy something, perhaps as a parting purchase so to speak, something which I could later proclaim, “I bought this in Singapore…”

I didn’t know what to buy… a book maybe, a watch, a suit, a pair of Dockers pants, how about a small bottle of Hugo Boss perfume, or a macro lens.

A macro lens. My heart jumped with joy at the possibility. I checked my wallet, counted about SG$250 (SG$1 = US$0.68) plus several notes in tens and twos in it, and decided that that would be the highest amount I’d be willing to part for the lens.

I was working on the 15th floor of Tower B in Ngee Ann City, so I rushed downstairs and jaywalked across Orchard Road to Lucky Plaza, one of several places in Singapore where you can shop for cameras and camera accessories and lenses till your are poor.

To cut the short story evern shorter, I got my macro lense plus a 58mm conversion lens or lens adapter as well as a wide-angle lens for SG$260. “It’s all in the package,” said the shop assistant.

I looked at the items on the table — they were not from a brand I recognise but what did I care. I would want something from Canon but I don’t think I could afford them.

But up till now I still haven’t got around to really play with the lens but here are two of my earlier shots taken with the macro lens mounted on my Powershot G6. The pictures are of a bath towel and of a 1-cm towel threads coming loose.

I hope the lens won’t turn out to be a disappointment. Because if it is, there’d be nothing I could do but to remain using a sub-standard lens because I could no longer afford to invest in a better one… budget a bit tight these days after my return to Malaysia.

Posted in Macro photography accessories No Comments »

I gather that by weekend next week, I should be able to get my home Internet connection installed, and running. So, I’m excited at the prospect of being able to blog again, and to update this blog again regularly.

So, watch this space sometime end of next week.

Once I get my home Internet connection running, I’d be blogging here possibly every day.

So come by again, next week. There’s going to be something awesome coming… I promise!

Posted in Blog 4 Comments »