Sunday Sand Selection - and my new toy

· by Michael Welland

Comp
Last September, my report on a day out in Java was illustrated with the output from my new Sony a55 digital SLR camera (although strictly, it’s not an SLR because it uses Sony’s remarkable translucent mirror technology) – it’s an amazing camera that I’m still learning about. I bought it along with a superb Sony all-purpose wide-angle to telephoto lens, but recently became seduced by the idea that another lens might broaden my scope further – I settled on a macro. Now these things don’t come cheap, but Minolta’s AF 100mm/2.8 macro had excellent reviews and, given that it is now discontinued, could be found on the secondhand market. Now in Indonesia, that’s an interesting market, and an Indonesian photography enthusiast (a slight understatement) friend located several available possibilities and proceeded to negotiate on my behalf – for several weeks. The result was a very acceptable and reasonable price for what is a great piece of kit – it is a genuine 1:1 macro lens. For those interested, here’s the camera and the lens:

Camera
Now shooting with a macro takes some learning and experimenting, and I am just beginning. But as you might have guessed, one of the subjects I was interested in experimenting with is – yes, sand. And above are some initial results – a local selection, clockwise from top left: Bako (Sarawak), Bali (Cemagi), Bali (Jimbaran), Komodo, Satonda (Sumbawa), Satonda again, and, centre, Lombok. This is a reasonably high resolution image, so click on it to see more detail. I’m reasonably pleased as a start; I have been well advised by Siim Sepp’s excellent macro-photography post on his Sand Atlas blog. I had tried to get hold of a remote shutter release for the camera (even with a tripod, pressing the shutter vibrates the camera), but with no success – but I found a very clever suggestion on a photography website – just use the self-timer.

You might have noticed the little spheres in the Bali Jimbaran Beach photo – well, here they are, beautiful little foraminifera:

Bali Jimbatan 3
And what makes the sands of Komodo pink? Well, these soft corals do:

Komodo 6

[Thanks, Connie (one of my army of dedicated arenokleptomaniacs), for the Jimbaran sample.]

Comments

  • Steve Gough
    Macro is so much fun. Electronic shutter releases are very easy to come by, or even build now, at least for the Canon cams we use at LRRD.
  • Richard Bready
    I've had a lot of low-tech and inexpensive fun with magnifying filters on an all-purpose lens. If they work with the macro lens, you may want to try them. Depth of field is limited, but for sand...
  • F
    Completely off topic: Have you run across this? Temper Sands in Prehistoric Oceanian Pottery: Geotectonics, Sedimentology, Petrography, Provenance GSA Special Paper 406 By William R. Dickinson Sample: [http://books.google.com/books?id=-51Yo4lHmDoC](https://web.archive.org/web/20250912002302/https://books.google.com/books?id=-51Yo4lHmDoC) I ran across this looking for a definition of equatorial ocean siphoning. It looks very cool.
  • Sandglass
    As a matter of fact, I have. It's a superb example of meticulous, thorough, cross-disciplinary research that yields fascinating and provocative results. I talked about a little in my book - in the "Testaments" chapter. Thanks for the reminder - and I didn't know that it could be found online.
  • F
    Cross-disciplinary, indeed! Dickinson was the first resource I found which actually defined the term I was looking for!
  • Mohsen al-Dajani
    Dear Michael, I see that you are about to enter the realm of macro photography, you will find it a whole new world by itself at least in term of photography. Looking forward to some beautiful close ups from you...sand man ;)
  • Sarah R.
    wow, this is really sand?! these little pieces, they are perfectly round!
  • Emily J. Frantz
    Thanks a lot for the info posted here. And you know what? Your toy is just adorable! I also want a toy of the kind;) The review and the pics are awesome.
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