Adventures with f/1.8, macro, and lighting

Got another batch back from Snapfish! This roll was Fujicolor 400 Superia, again. I've also started keeping an exposure log, which is a pretty sorry substitute for EXIF tags. The analog world: pure barbarism!

This one was shot with my new 50mm lens wide open at f/1.8. It's illuminated by sunlight through a curtain to the right. And you can see how shallow the depth of field is! Not even the whole avocado can be in focus. Also, it turns out I'm not great at judging focus through my camera's viewfinder (Nikon N65). I should start using autofocus, especially for stationary shots like this.

Also, what happened to this avacado pit? The avacado tasted a little funny, too. But we ate it anyways!

These two show the fish tank taken at 28mm f/3.5 (top) and 50mm f/1.8 (bottom). Faster shutter speed (1/30 vs. 1/8, both hand-held) accounts for the increased sharpness.
Other notes: bright streaks in top photo are reflections of bright room in tank glass. Better to take these photos at night. Also, some exposure compensation (say, -1 stop) may be in order.

  

  

  

These are taken with a +4 close-up filter at 50mm f/1.8, so the depth of field is quite short. The close-up filter is 58mm diameter to fit the 28-80mm zoom lens, but the 50mm prime lens has a 52mm diameter thread, so I had to hold the two together by hand. These we taken with manual focus, which means they are a bit out of focus.

80mm, f/5.6, afternoon light. Dark bird against illuminated leaves. Not great.

 50mm, f/4.8, 1/90, with flash. Super washed out, but why?

80mm, 1/90, with flash, noon light. The fill flash is much more subtle in this shot. I think it's because the zoom lens is an AF-D model, whereas the 50mm prime lens is an older non-D model. The -D version provides focus distance to the camera, which uses it for metering (including TTL flash metering). I think this is the type of situation it's designed to compensate for. Still, doesn't illuminate the bird as I'd like.

80mm, 1/90, f/8, during a 30-minute window where the late afternoon sunlight illuminates the feeder directly. I guess photography is more of a patience game than I had thought, because this is so much better looking than the other shots. Next time, maybe I'll try taping a white card to the railing for fill lighting and shooting from a lower angle to reduce background clutter.
This also seems like a pretty good shutter speed for blurred wing motion. Since it is the camera's flash sync speed, it must take ~10 ms for the shutter curtain to traverse the frame. So if the hummingbird fills 1/5 the frame, it'll take 2 ms + t_exp to capture him. Assuming a 55 Hz hovering wingbeat typical of the ruby-throated hummingbird, the wings will complete 0.66 cycles at 1/90, 0.33 cycles at 1/250, and 0.17 at 1/1000. So without a flash, it's pretty hopeless to try to freeze wing motion. Speaking of shutter speeds, I think rolling shutter motion distortion effects are kinda interesting, though I'm probably not going to see it on hummingbird wings.