Macro/close-up photography = what to kit up?

I’ve been shooting macro for a while now. Most people just wear their regular clothes, any type of footware and stuff. Other than the usual macro lens, flash and bag, here’s a short compilation of what I use and bring along for macro/close-up photography.

1) Long pants – important to protect your legs from insect bites and the occassional fall (i fell through a bridge once and had my leg stuck in it, good thing i had the pants on and it protected me from futher injury. I had a week long huge bruise from that).    The pants has to be dark coloured as it’ll always be dirty. Beige might be good too to blend with the sand.

2) Top - long sleeves are important too. You don’t want to be a walking mosquito buffet, do you? And you won’t want to get dark under the hot sun. Wear cotton as you WILL sweat a lot especially if you are shooting for more than 2 hours. Colour of top/t-shirt doesn’t matter, the mosquitos will bite you anyhow.

3) Footware - Don’t wear flip-flops. I tried it and its not practical. I prefer sneakers or my waterproof crocs. You have to protect your feet from snake, centipedes and other insect bites. And mud!

4) Towel – a must have to wipe off sweat, protect your neck from the sun and mosquitos.

5) Plastic sheet – in case you have to sit on the wet ground

6) Knee pads – VERY important as most of the time you will be kneeling on hard surfaces. Don’t buy those meant for skate boarding as they are unsuitable. Buy those that comes with 1/2 inch paddings.

7) Pepper spray – for protection against unwanted “friendly” passerbys. One can never be too careful.

8 ) Wet wipes – important after you shoot. For cleaning up.

9) Tripod – for low light that needs slow shutter speed shots

10) Mosquito repellant – Numero Uno important!

11) Cream for itch - You’ll need it after you have been bitten by the mosquitos

12) Spare change – Keep some money in your camera bag.

13) Spare battery and memory card - remember to charge them and that the cards are clean of photos

14) Sunscreen – you will need it if you are shooting during the day.

15) A regular, light lens - if you want to lighten your load, just pack the macro lens and one other smaller lens, eg. 50mm just in case.

I think that’s about it!

These are what i’ve been shooting lately. What do you think about it?

Click on the image if you want to view it sharper.

I like the outdoors

It makes me happy somehow … plus i like the smell of fresh air.

I managed to shoot this one close to the ground by laying almost chin/elbow down on the grass. It helps if you bring along a piece of plastic to lie on. Keeps you dry (but not always clean). One thing i realised about doing macro/close-ups of nature is that you must not fear getting dirty.

Pink lotus, an early morning shock of colour

I took a shot of this one early morning. Couldn’t use the tripod as I was tottering too near the lake.

The picture still looks better on flickr somehow.

A walk in the park

Here’s what I usually see when i go to the park. Photo taken using my really lousy phone camera which oddly enough managed to “capture” a decent sunset. I just realised that the horizon line is not straight. LOL.

View out

 Taken on one of my trips out about.

Busy bee

My Sunday so far

Not bad… took a few shots. I like this one. Shot handheld. Had to wait in front of a bush to get this shot. Image’s uncropped. Best go to flickr for a bigger image lah.

If you look hard on the right foot of the insect, you’d see a smaller insect there too – don’t know what its doing there lah.

Peranakan Museum …con’t

Inside the museum

Weddign headgear & jewelry

Our museum tour

Looking up

SG Peranakan Museum

Carrot brought me (and her mom) to the Singapore Peranakan Museum. It was a very very interesting visit. I love looking at old stuff. If walls (and things left behind) could talk, oh the stories they would tell. The carvings, jewelry and just about everything Peranakan was exquisitely made. The Peranakans took pains to create the best they could. Nothing was too small, too bothersome to be made beautiful. I saw some knee pads and they were the most beautiful i’ve seen.

I’ve resized the photos by 50%. Can say that I’m a bit “kiamsiap” with the space allocated by wordpress (yes, I want to stretch it as much as I can). Exif data?Between ISO 100 -160. Shutter speed about 1/10 – 1/80. Aperture f/2.8. All shot handheld, no flash fired.

I had a great time!

Beautifully beaded spectacle holder

Banister