Agate Abstract
It seems as if the weather just does not want to cooperate with me! I am back in New Jersey now, and I had hoped to make a trip down to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park while home to photograph Harlequin Ducks and whatever other seabirds I could find near the jetty. But Tuesday (my first day home) was completely overcast all day, yesterday it just rained and rained, and today has been horribly windy. The next few days are supposed to be windy as well, and Barnegat is just miserable in such conditions. The wind makes the water choppy and ugly, unbalances you on the already slippery and treacherous jetty, and blows tons of sand into your camera gears and onto your lenses. So unless the weather changes, it looks like Barnegat will have to wait.
Its been a while since I’ve photographed anything and the absense from shooting has made me feel a bit jittery. Nature photography is almost entirely weather dependant, and in cases when the weather just won’t cooperate, the opportunities can stink. Because of that, I have what I call a “bag of tricks” to allow me to shoot even when I’m stuck inside. My bag of tricks is just a collection of some natural odds and ends – bones, feathers, rocks, etc. - that I can photograph indoors. By placing the object near a softly lit window, within a softbox, or on a light table, and using a macro lens and extension tubes to allow for extreme close ups, I can shoot regardless of the weather.
The most recent addition to my bag of tricks is a nicely patterned, natural brown hued piece of thinly sliced agate that I purchased at a craft store in Harpers Ferry for $1.50. Today, I decided to photograph it, using a salvaged display stand that doubles as a lightbox.
This was my first time photographing agate, and it proved to be trickier than I thought it would be. In the beginning, all of my shots were soft, despite using what I thought was good macro technique. The lines of the crystals were fuzzy and blurred and I couldn’t figure out why. Then, it occured to me – the natural patterns of the rock changed ever so slightly in between the layers of stone. By using a small apeture to obtain maximum depth of field, I was capturing all the slight changes instead of isolating a single layer. In order to do that, I actually needed less depth of field. I switched to shooting with a wider apeture, and my results improved instantly. Once I figured out the technique, I managed to get some nice usable shots, like the one above.
Canon 1D Mark II N, Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon 12 & 25mm extension tubes. To order this print, purchase stock rights, or view other photos I have for sale, please visit my website at www.karipost.com.