Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

Looking out of my window this evening I thought I saw an unusual sparrow and went outside to check it out. I steeled down in the passenger seat of my car, parked in the driveway, hoping to get a closeup view of the bird - but it apparently departed when it saw me coming out. In a few minutes the house sparrows, grackles and jays came back and started feeding, and then this mourning dove. Here it is, shaking its head after a drink form the bird bath. Click on the image for a larger file.

Pentax K-5, Tokina ATX 400 f5.6.

We’re still waiting for spring here… At least the houseplants are flowering! Here is a close up of the patterns and textures found within a peace lily bloom:

Pentax K-01, SMC D-FA 100mm macro, and 65mm of extension tubes. Click for a larger image.

Spring has been slow to come to west Michigan this year. Yesterday temps hovered around freezing and the sky spat out a mix of snow and rain. Today started the same but in late afternoon the clouds broke and under a warm mid April sun the temperatures rose quickly, even into the mid 50’s. I toured my little backyard looking for some photographic subjects and found a few tiny midges sitting on the fence.

The midges were small - maybe 3 to 4 mm from toe to toe. It was breezy, but I thought I’d give the Pentax Q another test. Initially I shot with a 50mm macro lens, but the magnification was not enough for these tiny insects. So I changed up to a 100mm macro, added an extension tube to get beyond 1:1 magnification, and took a crack at it using the Bolt LED ring light. Here is the best shot out of about 100 tries - after about an hour the temps got even warmer and the midges flew off into the late afternoon. The bushy antenna suggest that this is a male midge.

Click on the image for a larger file.

Gear used to make this photo was a Pentax Q, D-FA 100mm macro, 25mm extension tube, LED ringlight and a tripod. taken at f4 and ISO 125. The image is not cropped.

As I mentioned in the prior post, I try get a few shots of honey bees in crocuses each March. I think of it as a little spring training to get ready for more serious insect shooting in the warm months to come. The crocuses are later this year but I managed to spend a little time chasing bees this weekend. This time I used the tried and true Pentax K-5 and A* 200mm macro setup, along with a conventional flash.

I have to try to teach the bees some new tricks, because they all did the same thing - dive into the crocus head first, rummage around, spin ’round counter-clockwise and then buzz off to another flower. That made it easier for me to practice. Here are the better shots from Sunday afternoon (click on the images for larger views):