I'm new here. I've been an avid photography enthusiast for about twelve years now, and I've been fascinated with herps and herping for longer than that. I've decided that I'm interested in improving my macro photography as it pertains to photographing herps in-situ, and I'd love to see how different folks here go about getting their images! I searched this board to see if I could find any other threads featuring macro setups, and didn't see anything newer than 2011, and that thread didn't have too many posts. If I've missed a post, my sincerest apologies; please let me know! But if not, I'd love to see the setups all of you are working with along with some sample images.
Also, since I'm new, I'll share a couple of my favorite pics - is that okay?
I'm not sure what you mean by macro set-ups (lenses? lighting?). I use a Tamron 60mm or a Sigma 150mm macro. Most of my herp shots are not really macro since only really small ones need anywhere near half life size. Here's my set-up for aquatics using a CCTV dome on a Tamron 60mm macro. I do use it for near macro stuff:
Thanks for your post, Owen; it's exactly what I'm looking for. That underwater setup is brilliant... definitely beats the cost of full-on housing, and the results are quite nice!
By 'macro setup,' I'm primarily curious to see what lens focal lengths herp shooters are using, how they choose to arrange their flash(s), and the kinds of results different approaches produce. Even though I'm familiar with herps and photography, I've never thought expressly about herp-photography (or macro photography with a 1:1 lens), and I'd like to change that before I spend any money.