Final project from Photo II (my second darkroom class . . . 5 decades after my initial darkroom tinkering)

[Ms. Toad]

(Cross posted in the Artists forum)

My focus was on macro photography in three different climates: NE Ohio, the rain forest, and the desert. I used a shallow depth of field to create a soft focus in the background, or a stark black background (even though most of the photos were taken between noon and 3 PM - e.g. the rose.) In many I also focused on a different part of the plant than most - for example the edge of a leaf - so the subject is familiar but not necessarily immediately recognizable, and becomes more a study of form than of the subject. There is an anchor shot to represent the geographical area/climate for each set of images which were also taken with my macro lens. It does a pretty decent job on distance shots for being primarily a macro lens.

Since the class is a darkroom class, these are cell phone images of the physical print. At least one of them has a shine from the light in the classroom.
Eventually I'll scan the negatives so I can make better electronic versions of the images.


NE Ohio
















The rain forest (The initial image is just a foggy day in NE Ohio - given time constraints it was the closest I could get to anchor shot of a wet, rainy space)
















The Desert

[dchill]

1. Excellent 👍

[Ms. Toad]

2. Thank you! n/t

[wendyb-NC]

3. Wow

That's some captivating photography. Good work, Ms Toad.

[Ms. Toad]

4. Thank you!

The rain forest ones were taken inside of a greenhouse-type structure . . . and we don't really have enough sun in NE Ohio to get good images. So many of those were taken at the last minute when we had one sunny day in the middle of about 2 weeks of gray. But it was worth waiting to get those!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. These are phenomenal photos, my dear Ms. Toad!

You get A+ in my book!

I recently got an Olympus 60mm macro lens. I've been messing around with it, without really knowing what I'm doing. Can you refer me to a basic book on macro lenses and how to use them? I think that would help me. Or do you know of any YouTube tutorials that could help? I'd sure appreciate it.