Water droplets + 100% crop

Shot with the zeiss macro and off-camera 580EXII shooting through a white brolley. Included a 100% crop to show the detail in the droplets - it's worth clicking-through to see it large!

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, f/5.6 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 400, Flash

Old Typewriter Details

I like the slightly abstract nature of these close-ups. These were taken handheld (not recommended) using a manual focus lens (Zeiss Planar 100mm) and live-view. Flash was bounced off the ceiling. I managed to get the desired effect, but it would have been lots easier with a tripod!

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/4.5 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 400, Flash

anon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 400, Flash

Flower patterns and family portrait

Taken with a beauty dish from front. Pattern created in photoshop elements by copying the layer and expanding the canvas. I used the 100mm Zeiss Makro Planar ZE for this shot.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/6.3 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 100

Next up a family portrait I took for a work colleague. Lighting groups can be tricky and with restricted space it is best to go for a large soft centrally-positioned modifier. I used a large octabox and lit the background with a couple of bare studio flashes. I used the Sigma 50mm f.1.4 for this.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/8 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100,

Old typewriter and flower with xmas lights

Firstly a shot taken handheld (should have got a tripod really, but got away with it) using the 100mm Zeiss Makro. To light it I bounced flash of the ceiling to avoid glaring from the metal keys.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/9 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 400, Flash

Secondly a shot in low light when I really should have used a tripod. Even at ISO1600 and a fast aperture (f/2.0) it was still exposed at 1/30s - much lower than the 1/200s I would have wanted for hand-holding. I braced myself against a chair and tried not to breathe!

The flower had some fairly lights about 2 metres behind it. I love the way they've turned into disks of light.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/30, ISO 1600, No Flash

Portrait of Alison

This is a portrait of my cousin, Alison. The shot was taken handheld using the manual-focus Zeiss Makro Planar 100mm f/2.0 ZE. To ensure accurate focussing I used live view at 10x magnification.

There is a very slender depth of field shooting at f/2.0 at a relatively close distance - notice the near eye is perfect sharp (the Makro Planar is ridiculously sharp when correctly focussed) but even the far eye is starting to slip out of the depth of field.

Some might argue I should have stopped down to f/5.6 or so to get both eyes sharp, but I rather like the effect as it is in this particular photo.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/2 @ 100 mm, 1/300, ISO 200

Mono Rose

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/7.1 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 100

Lilly in studio lights

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/8 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 100

This shot was taken using the Zeiss 100mm f/2 Makro Planar. The detail when view up-close is incredible. The shot is worth clicking on and seeing full size - it is a 100% crop.

Here is the lighting setup. Just out of frame on camera right was a reflector to soften shadows on the right hand side. Basically a studio flash with gridded dish on subject left. Black cloth background also draped over a table with a clamp holding the flower.