I'm feeling a little guilty not having used my big girl camera in, well, since before the pandemic - you can do the math. Though it is getting a little old my Nikon D800 is still a great camera, and I have the full spectrum of lenses to go with it for (almost) every occasion. For those interested in the details, they are a nifty fifty 1.4, a 70-200 VR 2.8, a 16-35 VR, and a 100 mm Zeiss Macro. But who wants to lug all that around all the time? Not me! To be fair when I went for a shoot I usually only took a selection but still - and I'm not even talking about lighting or a tripod.
Looking at these photos I am getting the itch to get out my DSLR again. But these days I'm just a very casual photographer using my iPhone. Of course, I would never show up at a model shoot without my DSLR but for a casual stroll around town or the park in broad daylight, my iPhone is more than fine.
It gets tricky when it is getting dark but that's for another post. In this post, I thought to focus on macro photography. With spring starting to show up here in the northern hemisphere I am sure that a lot of you photo enthusiasts are getting ready to hunt for those beautiful blooms. Count me in!
All photos above were shot a few years ago with my Nikon + Zeiss macro lens. All shots below were taken with the iPhone (12 pro) and different lenses attached.
First up are four photos that I took with a macro lens attached sold by Moment last spring. And I think they came out good. Look at that bokeh in the top right photo - that reminds me of my DSLR lenses! The Moment lenses are great, a bit expensive, but what I don't like is the fact that you need a dedicated case for them. I mean it is good and bad I guess. Good = the lenses attach to it very securely and are 100 % in place i.e. over the built-in lens. Bad = I cannot use my favorite phone case and the Moment case selection is limited.
So I bought another macro lens last week. This time an inexpensive clip-on from Xenvo and I went out to take a few shots of the daffodils that have just started to bloom using the same iPhone. As to be expected the handling of the clip-on is a little finicky and easy to bump out of alignment, the mini flash is a nice add-on. As for the macro photos - I think they're not bad at all. I didn't quite get the bokeh shot I got with the Moment lens but that could have been just the different lighting - there is a little bit of it in the top right photo.
So, how about you? Are you a photographer shooting with your phone camera or a DSLR, a bridge, a medium format? What lenses do you use?
Cheers,
(Ocean)Bee
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