Neil with Nikon's R1 Closeup Lighting System in Costa Rica

We just finished hosting our second group on our Costa Rica Photography Tour. I’m now writing this on a short day off before our third group arrives and we’re back in to the Costa Rica rain forest.  I thought I would share with you some of the fun we’ve been having while visiting this magnificent land of birds, monkeys, frogs and more.

The is my first time in Costa Rica but having seen so many great photos from here I knew there would be ample opportunities for exploring the miniature world of macro.  Before we left Montana I started digging into the different options for closeup, macro lighting. I’ve owned Nikon’s macro lighting kit called the R1 Wireless Closeup System for a couple of years but never really put it through a good test. I ordered it originally for a special project that got cancelled and there it sat in my equipment closet until this past month.  It’s quite a large box with lots of extras including two wireless flash heads, several rings that attach the heads to different lenses, colored filters, small strobe softeners and numerous other incidentals that make closeup work relatively easy.

View a Gallery of Macro Photography from Costa Rica

Carlotta moves in close for a shot of a hermit crab on the beach in Costa Rica.

However, the biggest improvement that makes all of this worth while is the relatively new 105mm Macro Nikkor lens. This lens is so much sharper than any of the other macros before it, it’s hard to believe. I’ve had them all including the older 105mm macro, the 200mm macro and the 60mm macro. What sets the new  105mm light years ahead of all its previous counterparts is the use of Nikons new Nano Crystal Coating. When I first saw the press release on this updated coating it talked about improved color fidelity, reduced flair and increased sharpness. Quite frankly my initial reaction was it was just another white paper inspired by the marketing department. But I was wrong! Every lens I have with this new coating is much, much sharper and produces less flair than any of the other lenses of equal range. Without getting side tracked here suffice it to say that Nano Chrystal Coating is well worth the money.

Dan gets down to eye level with a hermit crab in Costa Rica

Along with the Nikon closeup system I also purchased two Metz Wireless Digital Macro Ring Lights. They aren’t quite as powerful as the Nikon kit but they are extremely portable, easy to set up and work wirelessly with Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, Samsung and Sony if you can believe it. The fact that they can be used with so many different systems was a huge bonus since not all of our students are Nikon people. With the ability to use all of these different systems with a single ring light I was able to hand the Metz off to our guests who didn’t come with a macro kit. Each who tried it went home vowing to buy one. For those of you who are interested I got mine from F/11 Photo in Bozeman, Montana. Marsha’s prices are fair and competitive, she’s trustworthy and has a great shipping department. An added bonus is no sales tax in Montana. Drop her a line if you have an interest.

The best way to use these lights is not necessarily attached to the lens as the manufacturers suggest. With both the Nikon and the Metz I much prefer to hold one of the flash units off to one side and slightly behind the subject. The other light is attached to the lens if it’s Nikon or set down on the ground if it’s Metz. Admittedly, attaching both of these system’s to the lens adapter is much easier to use but with a 105mm lens, you are far enough back form the subject that you really don’t get the wrapping of the light that produces the best results. Taking one off camera creates that beautiful side/back light that gives an image the look of  three dimensions.

Allan, Neil, Ed and Carlotta having fun with macro on the beach in Costa Rica.

The Nikon produced stellar results giving me more power than the Metz or at least it seemed that way. Something I plan to try in the next week is using the Nikon strobes and one Metz in tandem. My idea would be to use the Nikon on each side and one Metz behind the subject for a backlight effect. Should work great. Not only did these strobes make it easy to photograph little creatures but they were also fabulous tools for the many different orchids. I’ve created a page of some of the macro images I’ve shot over the past two weeks. Hope you enjoy what you see and if you have any questions just drop me a line via the comment form on our blog.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 4th, 2011 at 7:13 am and is filed under News Worthy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.