Shelter From The Storm*

| paulamyes
Shelter From The Storm
A mosquito shelters from the wind and rain on a leopard orchid. Dodges Ferry, Tasmania. Olympus EM-10 with OLYMPUS M.60mm F2.8 Macro lens and Metz 44-AF1 flash. Exposure: Manual mode 1/180 s at f/8.0 ISO 200.

I first got my Olympus 60mm macro in May 2013 and wrote about it here. It is an amazing lens, but I was using it initially on an Olympus Pen EP-2 with the less than stellar 12Mp sensor I really wasn’t seeing what the lens was capable of. The picture of the mosquito on the Leopard orchid above was taken with the same lens but now mounted to an OMD EM-10 with the latest iteration of the 16Mp sensor. Tripod mounted and using flash I can now see how much detail the lens is able to resolve – you can see the hairs on the leg of the mosquito. Up until this morning when I processed the shot I never knew that mosquitos have hairy legs.

Lepopard Orchid
Leopard orchid (Diuris pardina), Dodges Ferry, Tasmania. Olympus EM-10 with OLYMPUS M.60mm F2.8 Macro and Metz 44-AF1 flash. Exposure: manual mode 1/180 s at f/8.0 ISO 200.

The other thing that I’m really taken with is the Olympus flash system. When I migrated from Canon I was particularly concerned about the flash capabilities and it was one of the reasons why I held onto my Canon kit. Now I have two dedicated speedlites for my Olympus kit, a Metz 44-AF1 (which I really do like) and a newer Olympus FL-600R (which I’m still getting to grips with and will be the subject of a separate blog entry a little later on). Like most things Olympus when you initially use the flash system the choices offered are quite daunting, but once you’ve set everything up it really is quite easy to use. The remote control for off camera flash is very sophisticated and make it very easy to get good results. Its only down fall is that it is radio controlled and there are no reliable third-party TTL radio controlled flash triggers. The day they arrive the Canon equipment will go.

Trip The Light Fantastic
My Olympus EM-10 tricked out for macro flash using a Custom Brackets Mini-RC, a Metz 44-AF! flash, an Aputure TTL sync cable and a cheap Chinese no name flash modifier.

The above shot shows how I had my camera set up to take the shots of the leopard orchids. The flash and the camera are mounted to a Custom Brackets Mini-RC via Manfotto quick release plates which makes setting things up a quick and easy affair. The TTL cable is by Aputure and was only $30 and the flash modifier is a cheap Chinese no name knock off of a Rogue FlashBender that I got off eBay for $5 including postage. What I like about it is that it is easy to use either handheld or tripod mounted.

As usual clicking on a photo will take you through to my online gallery.

* Apologies to Bob Dylan

SHELTER FROM THE STORM BOB DYLAN from Rita Giuliana on Vimeo.