Lens converted Macro

Whilst taking some photos with my cousins today, I was reminded of a way to produce macro photos without using an actual macro lens. The trick is to turn a 50mm lens back to front and take the photograph this way.

I decided to try turning my own lens back to front (18-200mm zoom) but my camera wouldn't allow me to take photographs without the lens connected (there goes my pinhole idea). So, I borrowed my cousin's 50mm and stuck it in front of my own lens at 18mm - here is what I got (this has not been altered - the circle is how the image was produced).



I then tried it again with my lens at 200mm and found that it was too hard to focus. It seemed that I couldn't get close enough to the subject with this lens and the slightest movement was caught at this focal length - here is the result (this is one of the stamen at the base of the bell-shaped flower).



You can still see the vignetting at 200mm but it's not as bad as with the wide angle. I will try a range of focal lengths and techniques on my next experiment of this type of macro shot.

Liquid Motion

Something different with the camera today.

I set up the tripod next to the window as the light was quite bright and got the macro lens onto the camera. The subject (an 80’s, coloured-liquid toy) was placed on the window sill with a sheet of white paper behind it to diffuse the harsh backlight.


Getting the shots was a bit of a challenge. I had to turn the object upside-down to start the liquid motion and to capture the droplets/bubbles in action I had to have a fast shutter speed. This meant I had to have a small depth of field and trying to get the image focused every time that I turned the object was so difficult. The toy is also pretty small so the time-frame for this was only seconds.

Another problem I encountered was, even with the continuous frame setting on, the shutter release cord wouldn’t always take a photograph. Sooo frustrating. You would think it was a matter of life or death the way I was carrying on, hehe. “Shoot, SHOOT Dammit!!!!”

I missed a number of amazing shot opportunities, like a droplet forming with loads of tiny bubbles inside then bursting slowly!!!! I am so gutted I missed that one – damn camera!!!

However, lots of swear words and several shots later, I managed to produce the following images.

Wet Nose

I'm going out to photograph using film today so the images won't be available for a while.

In the meantime, I'll show you a pic that I should've included in my last post to show you the detail brought out by the macro lens. It's a bit grotty, to be honest, but it's nature. My little Cat Features nose :)



I'm not sure cats are supposed to have wet noses, though, are they?

Chloe

I was trying to take some photographs out the back today as it was so sunny but Cat Features (Chloe) wouldn't give me any peace. Tail in the face. Head under the lens, bopping up just as I'd be pressing the shutter release button.

Sigh.

Well, I got my own back on her. When she decided she wanted to lie out and enjoy the sun-rays, comfortable in the knowledge that Spot (her nemisis) would never dare enter the garden to annoy her when I was around, I got up close to take some photographs of her happy, little face. I managed about 3 images before she got annoyed and left the scene.

Garden spider

It took quite a bit of patience and steady hand to take this image. There was a little bit of wind that caused focusing issues and I didn't have the tripod out with me. I've learned that, when using the macro, it doesn't matter how high the shutter speed you will still need a tripod. I can't believe that even less than a millimetre of movement can throw the subject out of focus. It's absolutely amazing.

This little garden spider (not fully sure what the actual species is) was only about 1cm in length. His web was in a prime spot because he seemed to be catching all the greenfly. Unlike his friend, whose web was empty. He was running about like crazy trying to fix his little web, which was obviously in a poor position compared with Mr."wind-blows-them-here-first". I wonder which spider built his web first!!

Macro =)

I am now the proud owner of a macro lens!! I haven't had the chance to give it a good try-out yet but I did take a couple of shots of Cat Features last night (that's what I call her, hehe) to see how it copes in darker conditions.

So far I'm loving it just as much as I expected and I can't wait to try out some more images on the plants and beasties outside.

I've included a few of the images that I took of Chloe (Cat Features). I love the darkness and grainy quality to them. It's becoming a regular theme in my photography.