On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
It’s Day 6 – let’s give a warm welcome to Jack Canuck! Today we have a study in black & white, and a wonderful reminder of how beauty can be found in ordinary things. ~WaterGirl
Jack Canuck
Since we’ve all been stuck at home to varying degrees for months now, I thought I’d share some of the photography I’ve done without leaving my home and yard. I enjoyed the challenge of finding interesting shots to take with my macro lens around the house and garden here in inner Melbourne. Since I couldn’t get out much even locally, much less get out of the city, it helped to keep me busy and give me something to do that let me get away from the work-at-home vortex.
For some of the shots, the subject matter is quite obvious. For others, the focus is so close up (and the depth-of-field so shallow) that they turn into abstracts. That’s one of my favourite parts of macro photography – changing everyday things into images that have virtually no connection to the object itself, to the point that you might not even know what it is if you aren’t told.
One of the trees on the street in front of our house gets loaded down with these seed pods in the fall (which has just finished here in Melbourne – we’re into winter now). I collected a bunch of them, put them in a Japanese ceramic bowl from the kitchen, and took it out onto our back deck in the late afternoon sun. I loved the textures, the contrast between the pods and the bowl, and the shadows from the setting sun.
This is actually the interior of a rose in our front garden, with the shot focused deep inside the flower. When you’re this close up with a macro lens, the depth of field is extremely shallow, leaving only elements on a very narrow plane in focus while the rest is blurred.
Inside the house for this one. This is actually a small part of the stopper and top of a small bottle made of so-called ‘depression glass’. My wife collects these, so there are a fair number around the house and they make an appealing subject. The actual part you see in this shot is probably only a few centimetres across.
I went out in the garden one morning after some rain, and this is one of the results. It’s actually raindrops on a plant called lamb’s ears (stachys byzantina, if you want the formal name). It has thick, furry leaves that let the rain collect as distinct drops. Again, the narrow depth of field of the macro lens resulted in an abstract almost unconnected to the actual plant. You may have noticed by this point that I also tend towards black and white, which also helps with the abstraction. I like black & white photography for the way it directs the attention to the shapes, to the composition, and to the interaction of light & shadow. Blame it on my Dad, he was/is a mostly b&w photographer himself.
Inside again, I was seeing how minimal I could go and still get an interesting photo. This isn’t quite the most extreme I achieved, but it’s the one I like best. You’re just looking at a 1951 Canadian silver dime, sitting on an old white-painted windowsill, with the natural light coming in.
Just to show that I do use colour sometimes! My son and I had gone for one of our daily lock-down walks (we had a regular route that covered about 2 kilometres, block by block), and I’d picked up some gum tree leaves that had fallen on the pavement. As the sun was setting, I experimented with them to see what I could do. This shot actually has the leaves set on top of a fossil (probably a piece of giant turtle shell, from what a palaeontologist told me) that I picked up in the hills in Drumheller, Alberta many many years ago when I was a boy living in Calgary. I love the colours and texture and light & shade in this shot.
Another colour one, this time of the clip on an antique pocket watch chain that I got from my grandfather long ago. Again, to give you a sense of scale, you’re seeing about a centimetre of actual size in this shot. This was just on my kitchen table in late afternoon (for the light); it was actually sitting on top of a black wool hat that I bought 16 years ago when I was living in Dublin – it made a good dark background that let me position the chain well to catch the light.
Back to black and white, this time of the flowers from the red flowering gum (corymbia ficifolia). The flowers are about a centimetre or so across, and they’re vivid red in real life. I picked a few up on a walk and brought them home to see what I could do, and this is one of the results. I really like how the tight focus is on the very tips of the flowers, with the rest receding into a blurred background.
Amir Khalid
These photos are fascinating. Had I not been told, I would have thought the watchstrap was perhaps a paving stone or patterned ceramic tile.
Wait. Jack Canuck is an Aussie?
?BillinGlendaleCA
Nice shots, are you using a dedicated macro lens?
Atticus Dogsbody
Do not open those seed pods! They are full of tiny, highly irritating, prickles.
JPL
Beautiful. I so glad that you explained each photo and the background, because I would have no idea what some were. I initially thought that the pocket watch clasp was some type of carved inlay.
prostratedragon
Beautiful shots. I also like b&w, and odd angles. Never had a macro lens to experiment with, though. Might have to start maybe next year.
terben
@Amir Khalid: The name Jack Canuck implies that he is Canadian. As well, no Aussie would call Autumn, ‘Fall.’ Mind you, because of the junta now in power in the US, many citizens of that country claim to be Canucks in the mistaken belief that their accent will not give them away.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@terben: He does say in one of the descriptions that he lived in Calgary as a yute.
terben
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Is he Ted Cruz?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@terben: Heh, I thought of that too; but he’s down your way now. So, you’d better hope not!
OzarkHillbilly
I like, quite a bit in fact, too.
terben
The photo of the leaves has aroused my curiosity. Eucalyptus leaves are usually smooth-edged. Those in the photo are toothed. I wonder what species it might be.
BretH
Lovely. Brings back memories of magical nights in the darkroom.
Albatrossity
Beautiful! Shallow depth of field can be a blessing or a curse, and you have mastered it.
Thanks for sharing those!
Wag
The Rose is fascinating and absolutely abstract. I live it.
stinger
I love all these photos! i like b/w to begin with, and the extreme closeups are fascinating. That dime looks like it’s floating above the atmosphere of a distant planet! Also, I want to know more about the giant turtles of ancient Alberta.
arrieve
I love these! I’ve been trying some at-home photographic experiments — yesterday I took pictures of rain bouncing off my fire escape. Nothing that interesting so far, but I do have a macro lens around here somewhere……
Thanks for the inspiration!
Dorothy A. Winsor
These are amazing pictures.
Sab
These photoos are wonderful.
I have a nineteen year old grand-daughter trapped at home baby-sitting her much younger sister during this pandemic. She has only a smart-phone camera but she uses it a lot. Any suggestions on what we could give her to upgrade her photography equipment?
MelissaM
These are really interesting. However, I want to know more about the turtle shell fossil!
susanna
These are a delight to calming while arousing curiosity. Thank you and please post more.
Steve from Mendocino
Nice. I’ve always loved this kind of exercise. I once did a series of 8 abstract shots of a toilet. It’s a great way to teach yourself to concentrate on compositional elements in the world around you. I hope you keep this up!
Origuy
I’ve been to Drumheller. It’s right on the edge of the Alberta badlands, a great place for dinosaur fossils. The Royal Tyrell Museum is excellent and conducts tours of the badlands. You can even work on a dig (in normal times.)
frosty
These are really cool! Nice way to mitigate the lockdown boredom and thanks for sharing with us. Kudos to WG for bringing the first-timers out, too.
cckids
These are lovely, and fascinating! Thank you :)
J R in WV
Interesting. Thanks!
TheRug
For me photography is a metaphor for life in many ways; e.g., lighting in pictures as context or perspective helps me understand my life’s perspective. Chuckle, it reminds me of the time I offered my “life is like eating an artichoke” parable at the dinner table.
Jack Canuck
@Amir Khalid: I’m Canadian, but I’ve lived in Melbourne since 2006.
Jack Canuck
@?BillinGlendaleCA: My macro lens is a Tamron 60mm f/2, on a Nikon D3500 body.
Jack Canuck
@prostratedragon: I only just got the macro when I replaced my dying twelve-year-old Olympus digital with a Nikon, and I love it. I’d wanted one for ages and finally was in a position to spend the money (though I’m stingy enough that all my camera gear is used, not new).
Jack Canuck
@terben: Ted Cruz? Hey now, no need to be rude!!!
Jack Canuck
@Albatrossity: Thanks! I tend towards small f-stops as my default for the depth-of-field, unless it’s a landscape or something that obviously calls for something different. Makes me appreciate a tripod though; you never notice how much you sway just with breathing and pulse until you’re trying to take a shot with a super-narror DoF!
Jack Canuck
@MelissaM: I’d love to know more about that fossil too. I lived in Calgary in the late 70s, and at that time you could just drive out to Drumheller and the Badlands (one of the best dinosaur sites in North America) and walk away from the road and pick up fossils just lying on the ground. That piece is about the size of my hand, and I’d always wondered what it was. Just last year they had a fossil show-and-tell at the Melbourne Museum where you could take pieces in and ask a palaeontologist. His best guess from the denseness of the bone, shape, etc was turtle shell – which was cool, because I’d always just assumed ‘dinosaur bone’!
Jack Canuck
@Sab: There are lots of good cameras out there (I’ve used Olympus and now Nikon digital SLRs). You can do a lot with a fairly basic model and a couple of zoom lenses – one or more usually come as part of a basic kit. I’d definitely look for used, it’s much cheaper. I’ve gotten pretty much all of my stuff via eBay, but camera stores often have used equipment too.
Jack Canuck
Thanks for the lovely comments folks, I’m glad you liked the photos. I’ll try to be a more regular participant in On the Road here, but I also put my work up on Flickr if you want to browse.
DaveInOz
Loved the photos – thanks for the post.
I presume you’re a member of the https://www.canadaclub-vic.org.au/
A friend of mine used to be the president so I’ve been to a couple of events (back in the days when we could have events). I should join myself having discovered I have Canadian ancestors going back to the 1700’s in Nova Scotia.
WaterGirl
@Jack Canuck: Please do!
I am so glad so many On the Road “virgins” have stepped forward!