Yesterday I had the whole day off!!(sort of). I took the gf to work, grabbed the camera, and headed down to the Cumberland Knob in North Carolina. I made sure to bring my almost functioning Tokina 100mm 2.8 Macro(I got it sandy at the beach and now it won't focus to infinity:(.
The Cumberland Knob is located just south of the V.A./N.C. line on the Blue Ridge Parkway. There you will find a large picnic area, a 2.5 mile hiking trail, an awesome little creek at the bottom of a ravine, and TONS of macro opportunities! I also had the (soon to be replaced) Canon 24mm 2.8, and the Sigma 50mm 1.4.
I like shooting macro for a couple of reasons... One is, the 'Grand Vista' doesn't happen as often in the Southeast as it did back home, so I try to 'focus' on different, smaller things. The other reason is that I when I look through a macro lens at full magnification, I feel like I can see the backbone of our entire ecosystem, and that is pretty cool. Enjoy...
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| Close Focus with the Sigma provides wonderful bokeh |
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| It's difficult to match up the plane of focus with the subject sometimes(notice the blurry edges of the web) |
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| A single strand of webbing crosses in front of a completed web in the background. |
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| The green here is holding on strong, but the yellow is showing its face in spots.. |
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| Some TINY mushrooms growing on top of a stump. |
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| This was fun to photograph. I used live view and the Canon Depth of Field Preview to help me select the perfect focus point and aperture. |
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| I had the pleasure of watching a spider make one of these tightly wound webs. |
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| He hangs in a heart:) |
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| DUN DUN DUN!!! Fall is coming!! |
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| A colorful leaf(shot with 24mm) |
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| (shot with Sigma 50mm) |
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| A mushroom and a rock sharing some space on the forest floor. |
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| A splash of bright yellow in a dark green forest. |
This little photo walk got me super excited for the fall! But I will take the warm weather as long as it feels like staying:)
