May 15 2009
Macrophotography and the Nikkor 105 VR.
The little world that surrounds us has always been attracting my attention like a big magnet. This little world that lays right under our eyes and nonetheless we don’t get to see it. You have to look for it to be able to see something. You have to slow down and enter that world that just runs in an other dimension.
Some months ago, after I had been playing around with a AF 50mm F/1.8 and some cheap chinese extension tubes, I decided that I had to make the big step and get a real macro lens. The market offers different choices for all sort of budget. In the Nikon lineup, the 200mm is probably the lens that you want to get to do some serious close up, but at the time I was looking for it, I was shooting with the D2X so a 300mm macro lens (with the 1,5x crop factor) would just have been too much for my un-expert hands.
I finally decided to get the Nikon AF-S 105mm F/2.8 VR.
This lens is just fantastic. I used it for everything from portrait to landscape and obviously for macro. The VR allows me to just get out there and bring back some shots without even having to think about carrying my tripod. This way I’m more free to move around and faster so I don’t lose the action. Too many times my subject just flew away while I was setting up the gear…
Some handheld shots with the 105 VR.
I was out climbing and while resting I saw this little bug just fooling around on the grass. Captured by D2X.
The 105 VR just needs a little help by cropping or adding extension tubes to get good close-ups with tiny bugs on FX format. Captured by D700 + crop.
The 105 VR on FX format at the full pixel capabilities of the camera allow you to let the viewer discover the surrounding environment. Captured by D700.
You don’t have to move around too much to get interesting shots. This fly just landed on my laptop monitor while I was surfing the web. Captured by D700 + 2x extender + sb-600.
Some backyard action. Just look carefully around and you’ll discover plenty of little subjects to play with. Captured by D2X.
Another little creature from my garden. Captured by D700.
