Macro

In the last 2 years I've gotten more into macro photography - not just of bugs really but anything small (bugs just happen to be the easiest thing to find most days!). Unfortunately, I don't have a macro lens! So, I've had to make due with what I've got. (note: some of you may have seen these before on Facebook!). The first eight are from this summer, the last 4 are from last year.

Fruit flies in my kitchen

Thumbnail-sized mushroom in the yard

Bee

White-faced Meadowhawk

Crane Fly

Cool spider

 Green weevil of some sort

Fly sp.

'Red Rocket' flower

Water drops

Ok, so the water drops aren't really 'macro' when compared with the other photos, but it's still cool. It also wasn't taken with the same technique as I'm about to explain!

So, how did I get these without a macro lens you ask? Simple, really. I borrowed my mom's old manual-focus 50mm f/1.8 that she bought back in the 80's (which you can get for around $80 now), opened it all the way up and held it up backwards to either my 70-300 (last 3 macros) or my 18-55 (first 8) hooked up to my D2Xs, which I also hand-held. If this sounds like a lot of hand-holding, it is! Making sure the lenses line up perfectly while manually focusing on something smaller than your pinky fingernail with a depth-of-field of about 1mm isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world, but when it works out, you can get some great results! My 18-55 at 55mm backwards to the 50mm provided about a 45x zoom, as measured using the fruit fly. If you use a larger lens (like the 70-300), you will get a higher magnification, but a very tiny depth of field! (and fewer good results). This also works with any sort of magnifying device - if you even have a magnifying glass, your minimum focusing distance will be reduced enough to get some cool shots with a 300mm!