Macro Studio on NO budget

I wanted to try out macro photography but needed to do so on the cheap, so I bought some close up filters (25 dollars at Ritz). One thing I quickly learned is that I wanted really small apertures to get everything in focus or at least as much as possible in focus. This meant using a lot of light or long shutter speeds. I of course opted for increased light. You put that strobe close enough to your subject and even at the lowest setting you have more light than you could ever ask for.

I had to come up with cheap way to create beautiful light and I was thinking green. So what did I do to save the environment and get that killer light I wanted? I used a left over gallon of milk.

Bonus; if you cut the carton right you can keep the handle. Another slick thing about these milk cartons is you have built in raised pedestal for whatever it is that you plan to take photos of. It is like the dairy industry knew that there are thousands of poor photographers out there looking for a simple solution to their macro studio needs.

Here is the setup…

You can see I am using a basic cross lighting technique but shooting through the milk carton. I plan on trying a whole array of lighting angles. It is so easy to make minor adjustments. Some of the shots I used a 1/2 CTO filter to warm things with a custom WB to get different lighting feel.

Once I cut the top off the milk carton and everything was all setup, I needed a subject. Lucky our home has a lot of flowers that are available for testing out the macro studio.


Manual F29, 1/40 of a second WB set to custom, ISO 200

Yup, F29 is the aperture and this was still blowing out. Strobes were set to about 1/32 power. Why such a slow shutter speed? No reason in particular. At this shutter speed without the strobes the pic would be a very dark grey.


Manual F25, 1/80 of a second WB set to custom, ISO 200

So simple a cave man could do it…

Getting outside again

A few weeks back we spent the weekend at Palisades, car camping style. With kids you take what you can get and Dani and Jason have those twins that are a real hand full. We broke tradition and actually arrived at the campsite early enough that we didn't have to pitch our tents in the dark. When we woke up the next morning, the tents and nearly everything else was covered in frost (it got into the mid to low 20's that night). Of course Jack didn't mind...



The twins were very cold and unhappy for a long time but they eventually warmed up. One of the twins was fighting a cold, the other was happy as a clam (think perma-grin).



Look, a bird, a plane no it is...




My balloon is flying away!



Once it warmed up it was off to the sand box to look for buried treasure.





Clayton had a blast just being with his cousins.

We tried bubbles but the only one interested was Camus.



Clayton managed to overcome his fear of slides while with Jack, Emma and Elli. It was awesome seeing the little guy work up the courage to go down the slide. Clayton is one cautious little dude.



Of course the twins aren't afraid of any slide anywhere. No fear for those girls



The kids played so hard that they completely wore themselves out. The boys (Me and Jason) took the kids for a ride to see if they would fall asleep. Clayton slept but the girls managed to tough it out (they are stubborn Grotepas girls). We had a bit of an adventure while driving to get the kids asleep. Jason decided to see how far his Sequoia could go after the digital read out said No Gas, 0 miles. I was positive that we would be pushing the Sequoia the last mile to the gas station.



It was so nice to get out and camp. We are definitely going to do this again soon!

Flower power

This is keeping with me trying new things. These are wild sunflowers or daisies that you see growing on the sides of the roads in Utah. We have had a couple of storms come in and now these beautiful happy little flowers are growing everywhere. I love these flowers. I picked these and put them in a vase for Anji to suprise here when she got back from NE (Ya I allready told you I am cheap). Besides Anji told me that I shouldn't spend so much on flowers so I thought spending nothing should really fit the bill.

Next will be a few more pics from our visit to NE. Just in case any one is wondering these flowers were cross lit with two strobes that had homemade snoots attached (if you are wondering what I am talking about take a look at strobist blog I have linked in my meager photo links list).

Have a good one!