Garry Black Photography

SOUTHERN AFRICA PHOTO SAFARI

Instructional Tips – Wildflowers, Namaqualand
Now I don’t want you to start thinking that Namaqualand is like the flower scene from the movie “The Wizard of Oz” where the fields go on and on forever in every direction that you look. There are some fields like that, but there are also other fields that are just farm fields with planted crops and no flowers. But the fields that are filled with flowers are absolutely amazing!
Your immediate reaction to the masses of wildflowers in Namaqualand will be one of visual sensory overload. It’s sort of like shooting the fall colours in a really good year, you just don’t know what to photograph, as everything that you look at is just so beautiful. The normal tendency of photographers in these situations is to include the entire scene that you see in front of you in your picture. While this shows the overall scene and gives a sense of place to your picture. If this is the only approach that you will have to photographing the flowers, I know that you’ll be very disappointed with your shots when you get back home. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t photograph the huge expanse of flowers; just don’t limit yourself to those types of pictures. What I want you to do when you’re standing in one of these wildflower fields, is to close your eyes and click your heels together and say over and over again “Less is More”. Well you don’t have to do the Dorothy from Oz clicking of your heels, but you have to think about how you can show less in your picture, but still capture the beauty of this floral display. When we’re in one of these fields I’ll give you some shooting ideas and suggestions, but here are some techniques that you might want to practice this spring an summer before going to Africa. The first approach is macro or close-up photography. Now with this technique you can photograph anything from just part of a single flower to having several flowers in your composition. Now you don’t need to own a true macro lens in order to do macro photography, there are alternatives and I might add good alternatives, if you have looked at the equipment that I am bringing you won’t see a macro lens listed.
WARNING - I’VE TRIED THE MAKE THE FOLLOWING AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE, BUT IT IS A LITTLE ON THE TECHNICAL SIDE. Lets start with Extension Tubes (that’s what I’m bringing to do macro photography) they are nothing more than hollow metal tubes placed between your camera body and the lens, any lens. There is no optics involved with tubes. There are several manufacturers of extension tubes. Since there are no optics involved I see nothing wrong with using an off brand tube if you don't want to make the larger investment of purchasing the camera manufacturers tubes of Nikon, Canon or others. You will probably lose auto focus with most extension tubes but for macro photography it really doesn't matter. The way that magnification works with extension tubes is dependant on the focal length of the lens that you are using. Lets say that you have 2 lenses, a 50mm and a 200mm, if you have a set of 3 extension tubes the total length of all 3 combined is usually around 50mm. So if you used all 3 tubes with your 50mm lens you would get 1:1 magnification. What that means is what is recorded on your film is life-size. Now if you used the same set of 3 tubes (50mm combined) you would get 1:4 magnification, that means what is recorded on your film is ¼ life-size. Now you don’t have to use all 3 tubes at once, I rarely do. Have you ever tried focusing with your zoom telephoto lens on something that is 2 feet away from you, you just can’t do it, the lens won’t focus that close to you. That’s the time to try using just 1 of the tubes, it will allow you to focus closer than the minimum focusing distance of the lens. The technique that I use when photographing flowers is to use my 80-200 zoom lens with one or two extension tubes, I sit down in front of a bunch of flowers and run the zoom in and out and as I’m doing this I’m also changing the focus, from close to far all the time looking through the viewfinder to see the changes. When focusing on a flower(s) that is far from you (8-10 ft away) you will be shooting through all the other flowers that are in the foreground. If your aperture is set wide open (F2.8 – F4) your final picture will look exactly as you see it in the viewfinder. This is something that you can’t pre-visualize; you have to look through the viewfinder in order to see the effect. Another option for macro photography is a close up diopter; some refer to it as a close up filter. This is a circular magnifying glass that is placed in a filter ring; therefore it’s a filter! There are two types of these diopters, a one element and a two element. The one-element is simply a single piece of glass making it the less expensive of the two. The second has two pieces of glass making it a two-element diopter. These are a little more expensive but the better than the single element. As far as I know there are only two manufacturers of these two-element filters, Nikon and Canon. Several off brand companies manufacture the one-element filters. It doesn't matter which brand you purchase as long as the filter size fits the lens you will be using it with, (the 80-200mm zoom is the most common lens used for this filter). The problem with the one element is it is difficult to maintain edge-to-edge sharpness with the center being the sharpest. The two-element has better optics and helps maintain edge-to-edge sharpness. I suggest you use either the Nikon or Canon diopter. The diopter can be used by itself or it can be used in conjunction with extension tubes and/or teleconverters to achieve different magnifications. Another way of sort of achieving macro or at least a larger magnification is by using a teleconverter. A teleconverter has optics involved and like the extension tube it is placed between the camera body and the lens. What do they do? They increase the magnification and/or focal length of the lens it is attached to. There are basically 2 magnifications of teleconverters, the 1.4x and the 2x. With the 2x teleconverter a 200mm lens turns into a 400mm lens, and with the 1.4x, a 200mm lens turns into a 280mm lens. There is a downside to teleconverters. One is that you loose light, 2 stops with the 2x and 1 stop with the 1.4x. Which isn’t so important when you’re shooting flowers, does matter when you’re photographing wildlife. Another downside is image quality; as they dramatically soften the image, a problem with general overall sharpness. This problem is by far worse with the 2x; I don’t recommend that you get this teleconverter. The problem is far less noticeable with the 1.4x, and for that reason I would recommend its use. Extension tubes, close up diopters and the teleconverter can all be used individually and/or together to achieve different magnifications. I would suggest starting with the extension tubes and then a 1.4x teleconverter. You don’t need all 3, I never use my close up diopters, and in fact I always leave them at home, but then again that’s just my opinion.
Other Considerations Filters – Polarizing, Red Enhancing and 81A Tripod – The top 2 images were made using a tripod, for the bottom 2 (close ups) I had the camera off the tripod and the camera was resting on the ground. Which meant that my head was also on the ground trying to look through the viewfinder. You can always use a right-angled viewfinder if you don’t like the idea of your face in the ground. Film – My preference is for Velvia (50 ISO) and secondarily Provia (100 ISO)

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