Jan. no 2, Mendoza Fig Tree,

I have visited Mendoza many times, but never this time of the year.

We have a fig tree in our backyard, a beautiful tree, every time we staid here the tree had fruit, I look at it 2 weeks ago, and saw small buds, I was very excited as I never saw a fig tree blooming,

Few nights ago sitting on the balcony, I saw some flowers, at first I wasn't sure it was from the tree,
we have a lot of different plants in the backyard, but it was,  it amazed me how beautiful fig tree flowers are.

The next morning I decided to do some macro shooting using different lenses, "Canon 100mm macro lens, Lensbaby soft optic and Lensbaby double glass optic.

My fig tree

Canon 100mm Macro at f3.2, I like the crispness of this lens, at f3.2 it also have a beautiful blurry effect

Canon 100mm Macro, this time at f2.8 keeping only the front flower in focus.

Lensbaby soft focus at f4, everything is soft with this optic.

Lensbaby soft optic f4, I added texture to this one to add to this already dreamy look.

Lensbaby double glass optic, f4, keeping only part of the image in focus.

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Mendoza Week 14,

Park San Martin in Mendoza, not the best time to shoot it was around noon and the sun was very strong but I couldn't resist such a beautiful place.

This week start like always, shopping, I also got some news from the immigration office for our visa extension, we are not illegal yet, we can go to the office till one week before our 6 months is up, we will go in a couple of weeks, we may have to start the residency paperwork if the law doesn’t allow us to get in and out every 3 months like it was before.

I also got my first prescription from the best Doctor in Town my friend Gisel, went to the drugs store with my passport, the pharmacist didn’t even look at it, she took a fast look at the prescription went in the back store to pick up the drug, and that was it I paid went back home with my passport, my prescription and my drug, half price compare to Canada and no hassle.

We took this week to relax, after the big party we had last Sunday, I did some of my class project, shadowing, multiplicity, and Droste effect.

Shadowing, a lot of fun,

Multiplicity, at San Martin Park

Droste effect "Time"

I decided to try an Osso Buco recipe, I couldn’t resist the sale at the butcher store “offerta Osso Buco 19.99pesos per kg, I had to buy some at that price why not, and it was amazing.

The ingredients, I used what I had in hand

Some of the ingredients

1 Kg of Osso Buco, 1/2 bottle of dry white wine, 2 cups of hot beef stock, 1 can of diced  tomatoes,  2 large onions chopped, 4 cloves of garlic chopped, 4 carrots, 2 large potatoes, half of a butternut squash, 1 green an 1 red pepper, 300g of asparagus,  200g of pastrami, 500g of spinach/Swiss Chard, olive oil,paprika, oregano, ground pepper etc… 

Fry the Osso Buco in Olive oil about 2 min. per side, set a side on a warm plate.

 In the same pan fry the onion and garlic for about 2 min.

Add the wine and reduce for about 5 min.

Add the tomatoes, cook for about 3 min.

Add the meat, cook gently for 2 more min.

This is my slow cooker system, put the gas low heat.

Transfer everything into a big pot, add the seasoning, paprika, oregano, what ever you like add the 2 cups of stock, or hot water.

Add the green and red pepper mix gently

Add the potatoes, carrots and squash cover and cook at low heat for about 3 hours.

Add the asparagus, spinach, Swiss Chard and pastrami and cook for another 30 min.

Very healthy, economical comfort meal.

I also had a meet up Saturday morning, macro and multiplicity, we did it at the San Martin Park, one of the best place to relax in Mendoza. 

Macro Photography at San Martin Park

Macro Photography at San Martin Park

Macro Photography at San Martin Park

Macro Photography at San Martin Park, soft focus using Lensbaby soft focus optic.

Macro Photography at San Martin Park

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TELEPLUS PRO 300 AF 1.4X DGX

From Kenko Global Website

“KENKO Teleplus Pro 300 DGX converters are made with precision quality multi-coated optical glass supplied by Hoya Corporation, the worlds largest manufacturer of optical glass. These glass elements were designed to match the optical quality of the prime lens (even at the edges) and telephoto zoom lenses. The optical design of the elements and light path is wide enough not to cause vignetting.

The PRO 300 family are designed specifically to be used with prime telephoto lenses of 100mm or above, such as 300 mm f/2.8 lenses, and work best with telephoto lenses of 200mm to 500mm. The PRO 300 can be used with telephoto zoom lenses as well as prime lenses. However, Kenko does not recommend them for zoom lenses that have a range starting under 50 mm.”

The problem with converters is the image quality, preparing my gear for my South America adventure, adding a 1.4 converter if the image quality remain will be a plus.

I decided to do some tests using a tripod and manual focusing at the same aperture, for all the lenses.

I tested my favorite lens the Canon 24-105 extended range with converter 33.6 - 147mm, I also tested my Canon Macro lens 100mm that will extend to 140mm, and the last one was Canon 16-35mm that extend to 22.4 -  49mm with the 1.4 converter.

I heard great reviews about “KENKO Teleplus Pro 300 DGX converter but I had to make sure that I was getting same image quality using it on my Canon lenses.

I am more than happy with the result, the image quality remained with all the lenses tested, just to give you an example the following cropped tested images using my Canon Prime 100mm macro attached to Canon 5DMarkiii.

Both images were took at f4, 1/13sec, ISO200, process in batch in Photoshop Raw.

The first one was done with only the Macro Lens attached, second had the KENKO Teleplus Pro 300 DGX converter attached. For me that's close enough to put that little converter in my camera bag.

Price is not bad less that $200US at Adorama.

 

To get Perfect Effect 4 for Free click on the link on the right of the page