Paul's SHOES. I'm a sole man...

As promised, this is a post entirely devoid of babies' bootees.

Nikon D70s
Sigma NiftiFifti
F/9.5 1/2s
ISO250

Shot with available light: a desktop angle lamp to the right and low so as to produce the texture you can see.

What is it? A tyre? Part of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin? No; it's actually the sole of a Birkenstock.

Nikon D70s
Sigma NiftiFifti
F/13 1.5s
ISO250

The same Birkenstock is here, this time with slightly more in frame to give the subject some, but not too much, context.

These images are the best of about 20 shots at various aperture/shutter combinations. Being so close to the subject, shallow DOF creeps in and attempting a shot at F/2.8 produced DOF so narrow as to make the picture too abstract.

See what I mean?
Nikon D70s
Sigma 50mm macro
F/4.2 1/15s
ISO250

Paul's UNIFORM...

...and just for once, nothing from the back catalogue.

I went out with the camera over to Dubai Mall with deliberate intent to find something Uniform to shoot.

Sweeties

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 80mm
F/5 1/30s
ISO 1000 (ISO Auto)

Mindful of the Tripod Police and their ilk, this close-up took some timing. I had to wait until all the security guards had turned away from the uniform colours of M&Ms. The shot is tweaked slightly in Photoshop to remove converging verticals.

Sweet Security

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 120mm
F5.3 1/30s
ISO 1000 (ISO Auto)

This is one of the many security guards. It's a worrying trait: a shop that sells multi-coloured sugary happiness needs high-profile security to ensure that nobody takes any photographs of the merchandise. I don't really understand it either, but here we are, with a uniform standing in front of columns of uniform sweets.

Photographically, this was tricky. It was shot from some distance away, and the guard is lit from behind. There's no opportunity to use flash at that sort of distance, and getting the guard correctly exposed blows out the background colours. So I got the best compromise I could and then selectively boosted the guard's brightness in Photoshop post-processing.

As with the other shot from the confectionery store, I set the camera on ISO-Auto with 1/30s as the minimum shutter speed, and used aperture priority. It's a useful trick where tripods are forbidden and there's not much light. The camera jacks up the film speed until 1/30s is possible.

Shabab

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 29mm
F/4 1/50s
ISO 200

Two groups of young gentlemen, all wearing the same attire. It was going to be these or else a group of hoodies, but the latter is Not Coming In Dubai^TM this time of year. Luckily, not a baseball cap in sight. Shabab, incidentally, is Arabic for Boyz or possibly Yoofs.

As with other shots taken in the mall, I had to be quick off the mark, so composition was adjusted afterwards in post-processing.

Frangipani

Nikon D300s
Sigma 50mm macro
F/3.2 1/250s
ISO 200

Do you like the uniform flowers? They do smell nice too. This was just an excuse to get out the Nifty Fifty and play with the macro. I shot this one late afternoon in the hope of getting some reasonable shadows, and cropped it close in the camera.

Miniature: Arachnophilia

Flower power

Nikon D70s
Sigma 50mm macro
F/6.7
1/350s

Just a shot to lure the readers of this august blog into a false sense of security. This is the flower that produces a curious green fruit; the fruit that Richard thinks is a tomato, but which isn't.

Ant on Deck

Nikon D70s
Sigma 50mm macro
F/4.8
1/250s

I only posted the least bad attempt because of the way the image so clearly illustrates the minimal depth of field available when getting really up close with a macro lens. The ant, which is horribly blurred and therefore not really appropriate for this blog, is one of the tiny termite-sized ones. It was running down the twig at an industrious nineteen to the dozen. I'm amazed I captured it at all.

Hairy Beast 01

Nikon D70s
Sigma 50mm macro
F/4.2
1/180s

Found in my bathroom, this is one of those tiny jumping spiders. I first encountered it on the window frame, so there's lots of natural light coming from the left side of the frame. As with all the spider shots, I used the technique of getting the eyes in focus. And with a spider, that leaves plenty of choice. This one is my favourite of the three.

Hairy Beast 02

Nikon D70s
Sigma 50mm macro
F/13
1/20s

The same spider got alarmed by my lens and moved on to the glass. So lit from beneath is perhaps a little unusual. To be honest, this is my least favourite of the three because the creature's head is so dark. I did try to burn it in (or is that dodge it in?) by lightening the head alone, but it just made the whole image look really weird. The picture makes the cut because the pedipalps and forelegs are pin-sharp, at least in the original.

Hairy Beast 03

Nikon D70s
Sigma 50mm macro
F/13
1/20s

Same as above, only approached from a slightly different angle. Inexplicably, the lighting is better on this picture compared with No.2 above. Check out the beast's red fangs: claws under the head and between the pedipalps. Aren't you glad that the whole creature is less than 10mm across, legs included?

Mini me

I have got my first couple of 'Miniature' photos in early. There were some plans involving Grand Stores and some macro extension tubes, but these plans went awry after visiting the shop. In brief, a Nikon D70 won't talk to its lens through the tubes, no matter what the catalogue might say to the contrary. Neither will a D40, D60 or D80. They work fine with a D300s, but this seems like a very expensive solution to a simple problem.

Options for macro lenses do not necessarily involve buying macro lenses. An adaptor ring enables a normal lens to be turned around so that the light flows backwards and the lens focuses on a very close subject. Extension tubes push the lens further away from the camera's focal plane, again decreasing the distance between subject and lens. Neither of these worked for me and my antediluvian camera, so I ended up going more expensive.

I now own a nifty fifty F2.8 with a macro facility. Two birds crushed to death under the same oversized boulder.

So this morning I wandered around the back garden, snapping at anything that didn't fly or run away.

Flower

Nikon D70s
Sigma 50mm macro
F/4
1/3000s

The shallow depth of field on a macro lens means that it's impossible to get the entire surface of one of these flowers in focus without aiming straight down at it, or else stopping down the aperture and having a long blurring shutter speed. So I shot from further away and got some bokeh background.

Fruit

Nikon D70s
Sigma 50mm macro
F6.7
1/180s

Shot looking upwards at these mysterious fruit. The tree is in the back garden, but I haven't the foggiest idea of its species. Regarding the photo, this one is the best of several attempts. Sign of the amateur: confessing to getting duff pics!

Mini mall

Nikon D70s
Nikkor 18-200 at 32mm
F4.2
1/45s

Heavily photoshopped with successive bands of Gaussian blur to fake the minuscule depth of field normally provided by macro lenses. The effect is, I hope, to make this aisle in the Mall of the Emirates look like a detailed model.