Adventures in Macro

Extreme close-up images are known as macro photographs. If you are fascinated by nature, as I am, then the prospect of getting an inside look is irresistible.

You can purchase specialized macro lenses, but I've made do so far without one. I discovered early on that if you extend your zoom lens to its maximum but focus on something close by, such as an insect or flower, the effect is similar.

Sometimes you also have to get lucky, as I did for the following shot of a raindrop hitting my balcony railing.

Focus can also be tricky, as when you want to capture that caterpillar swinging on a thread in the breeze. Insects are wonderful macro subjects as they reveal detail rarely seen by the naked eye.

Flowers are a little easier, as they tend to stay put. You can even get a two-fer with a bee who is too busy to care that you are hovering nearby. You can see the proboscis which is the bee's straw.

I don't do spiders as a general rule, but you can find one lurking below near the bottom left of this web. The RAW image needed some Lightroom help to make the silk stand out.

Water, however, remains my greatest source of interest. In all three states - frozen solid, liquid, and gas (fog) - it proves the most versatile and ever-changing subject.

Close cropping helped make this image of water droplets suspended on a spider web even more macro.

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