CJ Diffuser

27/10/2024

Red ones go faster

Never seen one so vibrant

From this mornings macro walk around the urban parks.

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺

Helicon Focus methods , B,A,C and combined with B
Adobe PS
Topaz Labs Denoise AI

🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii

🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO

🍕 Hand held Focus Bracket of 49

⚡ Godox V1

⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood

©Craig Loechel



Have a nice day

26/10/2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbRO0LxmCbY

Tonight I stumbled across this Raspy Cricket emerging while I was investigating the eye shine of a Huntsman spider.Thank you to for the audio tra...

25/10/2024

Pretty cool find this evening. Got to test out a video lighting idea inside the diffuser. Had to shoot this from a long way off. Wow the Continuous focus in video mode using the 90mm OmSystem lens is on point! I am at the start of learning how to shoot video. The link to the youtube video is at the end of this text

The image below

Emerging Raspy Cricket

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺

Helicon Focus
Adobe PS
Topaz Labs Denoise AI

🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii

🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO

🍕 Hand held Focus Stack of 23 images

⚡ Godox V1

⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood

©Craig Loechel



Have a nice day


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbRO0LxmCbY

25/10/2024

A Blow Fly

Ugly but also interesting to view.

Another one from diffuser testing today

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺
Helicon Focus ---- Methods A,C and B combined using B
Adobe PS
Topaz Labs Denoise AI
🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii
🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO
🍕 Hand held Focus Brackets of 79 images
⚡ Godox V1
⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood
©Craig Loechel

Have a nice day

24/10/2024

One from the tmarus genus , Thomisidae - Crab spider

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺
Helicon Focus ---- Methods A,C and B combined using B
Adobe PS
Topaz Labs Denoise AI
🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii
🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO
🍕 Hand held Focus Brackets of 40 images
⚡ Godox V1
⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood
©Craig Loechel

Have a nice day

24/10/2024

Another from this morning.

A Hoverfly

Love the color that came out here with the angle of the lighting. Wings look like stained glass. Each color on the wings represents a different thickness.

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺
Helicon Focus ---- Methods A,C and B combined using B
Adobe PS
Topaz Labs Denoise AI
🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii
🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO
🍕 Hand held Focus Brackets of 30 images
⚡ Godox V1
⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood
©Craig Loechel

Have a nice day

24/10/2024

Testing changes to CJ Diffuser this morning thanks to some helpful feedback from a Photographer I respect a great deal. :D

I made it shorter and the main reflector body now splits in 2 pieces to allow for easier packing for travelling. Getting the templates right today on my pc as I do other things. It is now a smaller and lighter Diffsuer. And it is still producing that delicious soft serve of light.

Native Drone Fly

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺

Helicon Focus ---- Methods A,C and B combined using B
Adobe PS ---- Layer masked in a separate stack of antenna
Topaz Labs Denoise AI

🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii

🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO

🍕 Hand held Focus Brackets of 79

⚡ Godox V1

⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood

©Craig Loechel



Have a nice day

21/10/2024

Well that is another bucket list for me. She did not want to face the camera at first. Lots of patience with her and eventually she sat still.

I did several focus brackets. The first few where not deep enough and I did the best I could put a number 1 in front of the 79 to get this one. I did not require all of those images and I knew that but I was not wasting the chance to get this image so the settings got changed as swiftly as possible.

Reminds me of a shampoo add for Wolf spiders.

"It doesnt happen over night but it does happen"

Kind of like me wanting to get this image and heading out hoping each night to finally have what I was after. It didn't happen over night but persistence paid off.

It is even better than I can ask for.

Tech details

1/50th ==== F9 ==== ISO 200 ===== Flash @ 1/64 + 0.7

Methods B,C in helicon saved as tiffs to be used as slabs

The 2 slabs assembled again in Helicon using Method B

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺

Helicon Focus
Adobe PS
Topaz Labs Denoise AI

🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii
🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO
🍕 Hand held Focus Brackets of 69 images
⚡ Godox V1O
⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood

©Craig Loechel


Have a nice day

21/10/2024

Runcinia insecta ?

Holding up a Long Jawed Orb Weaver for a pic?

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺

Helicon Focus Methods B,A,C and combined with B
Adobe PS
Topaz Labs Denoise AI

🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii

🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO

🍕 Hand held Focus Stack of 125 images

⚡ Godox V1

⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood

©Craig Loechel



Have a nice day

18/10/2024

I am extremely happy with this one. I have Dorsal and a Palp shot to get done also. Will try to do a Ventral also as he has 2 interesting spots there.

At first glance I thought this was a female. It was not until I noticed the spike on each of his palps I realized adult male.

For them that do not know the 2 limbs out front that look like little legs are palps and on males it is his bits. Some spiders are more obvious than others to see as some can look like a bit pair of pom poms!!

A females bits are beneath her abdomen which means palps will be slender which makes it a challenge for people like myself that know a great deal more about photography than ID'ing spiders. BUT I am enjoying learning about them.

Also at first glance we thought Clubiona genus of Sac Spider (Leaf Curling) but it may not be the case. Which is why I am doing more detailed shots for the Spider Pro's to look at Eathan Douglas and Ben Kurek and co...

Tech details

1/50th ==== F13 ==== ISO 200 ===== Flash @ 1/64 + 0.7

Methods B,C,A in helicon saved as tiffs to be used as slabs

The 3 slabs assembled again in Helicon using Method B

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺

Helicon Focus
Adobe PS
Topaz Labs Denoise AI

🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii

🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO

🍕 Hand held Focus Brackets of 69 images

⚡ Godox V1

⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood

©Craig Loechel



Have a nice day

18/10/2024

Dolophones - Wrap Around spider - Orb Weaver Family ♂️

Good to see the boys are back in brown town

Location , Wodonga , VIC , Australia 🇦🇺

Helicon Focus
Adobe PS
Topaz Labs Denoise AI

🔫 Olympus EM1 Mkii

🔎 OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO

🍕 Hand held Focus Bracket of 69 (Camera resting on support)

⚡ Godox V1 O

⛺ CJ Diffuser V2 + CJ Lens Hood

©Craig Loechel



Have a nice day