Sea Salt Macro Pix Revisited

Since I wasn’t completely happy with macro photos of the sae salt I took last week I’ve decided to give it another try. I think it worked out a little bit better. I have placed the salt in clear glass dish that was sitting on top of Plexiglas box and then I put halogen flood light directly underneath. Still, not what I wanted so I placed flash to the front and side and set it at 1/128^th power so it will not overpower the bottom light. Much better, but not there yet. Next, I have placed 67mm 80A blue Kenko filter I have from SLR days underneath the glass dish so that halogen light will pass through before hitting the salt. That did it. Next option was to try flashing some colorful backgrounds placed under the salt to see what will happen. I used same card as in my “Oil on Water” shot, colorful golf balls, and it turned out OK. I have tried another card with red flowers and it was different. I don’t know how far I can go with this project but it surely was fun.

Himalayan Mountain salt with halogen light moved to side.

One flash lighting the card at full power and second flash from front and right at 1/128^th power. Sea Salt.

Red flower card underneath.

Setup for picture #1 and #2.

Blue filter under the salt.

Another Winter Project

As I was thinking few days ago where I am going to set-up my microscope mounted with camera to photograph single snow flake I received email from my blogger friend challenging me to do just that. What an incredible coincidence! Looks like we shutterbugs think alike. So, out I went, let the microscope and slides cool down to below freezing temperature, got the lights set up and started collecting snowflakes. But I was out of luck. The snow we got overnight was more like a frozen fog and all I saw was tiny ice crystals that reminded me of sea salt. Eureka! I will shoot salts instead, who knows, it might even make a decent image. Well, it wasn’t to be. It was interesting but I am not sure I would print them. Still, here they are.

I have expected to see beautiful, clear crystals but what I saw looked more like sand. (Oops, another macro photography project: sand. That one has to wait few months, though). I will be watching weather forecasts for some nice heavy snow, I am all set up and ready to go.

Himalayan Pink Mountain Salt Crystals are the same size as regular table salt.

50mm macro with 2X extender and 31mm extension tube, f/22, ISO 400, lighted by 1,030 lumens halogen spot light. Focus was assisted by macro focusing rail and focused in live view zoomed down to maximum and 2 sec. shutter delay.

Coarse sea salt, same camera settings as above.

Setup.