The eyes have it

Day 30

Meet Kaa. He's a patient at work. He's a big, beautiful Diamond Python, but right now he's not feeling too good.

Today was an OK day. I had a bad start - could not get my xray factors to work. I was getting a little agitated as our oxygen delivery was late, and we were running low on gas for the anaesthetic machine. All the while no matter what factors I used, I could not get a decent exposure. Finally the server on the digital xray developer crashed, and I was then able to get one plate through with good exposures. They happened to be the first factors I used, funny. Or not.

I just assumed my run of bad days was continuing :) But then we had a lull in consults, and Kaa piped up and volunteered to model for me.

Shot with EF 35mm f/2 set at f/6.3, 1/200s iso2000! 580EXII on-board, bounced to ceiling, with FEC +2 from memory. Oh, and 31mm of extension tubes in behind the lens :)

You can see my hand, and camera, in the reflection, as well as Robyn, my nurse. I was holding my camera in one hand, using live-view to focus by moving the camera in and out. My left hand was holding Kaa near his head, and Robyn was holding the remaining 2 metres of him!

Day 12 - What a smartie

Or rather, an "m".. not sure why they are called M&M's when they're either just an "m", or lots of m's...

either way, here they are. Today I was just messin with an EF35mm f/2 lens, and stuck 31mm extension tube behind it too see how close I could get. The lens is basically resting on the plate here. No idea what the effective aperture of this set up is, though this is shot at f/8 on the lens. I think it is close to f/16 as far as light transmission goes. The extension tubes have no glass in them, just a tube, but they add a lot of length to the lens. Their purpose is to drastically reduce the minimum focal distance of the lens.

From memory the theory goes the longer the lens, the less effect extension tubes will have. I think there is a ratio going on, ie ratio of lens focal length to lens plus extension tube length. I think 31mm on a 35mm lens is a lot, but the same tube on a 135mm lens may make only a small difference in minimum focal distance. I will try it out one day, because really, 35mm is too close for macro - the lens is almost touching the subject here.

This was shot at iso160, f/8, 1/250s with a 60x90cm softbox held over camera. The shadow yo can see in the refeletion of the softbox on the orange m&m in pic is the camera :)

Just playin' today.