Sunday 24 January 2010

Adventures in macro


I started taking photographs seriously again in mid-2008, and my involvement rapidly increased in February 2009 when I bought myself a brilliant DSLR (a Nikon D700 for those who are interested).  With a standard 50mm prime lens and a zoom lens I was managing to get close to the sorts of photographs I love - but not quite close enough.
Last week I took delivery of a new macro lens, and I can see already, after only two or three outings, that it is going to transform my image-making.  I love the shallow depth of field and the impact of the close-up view - the structure of plants is fascinating, and now I can get into close-combat with the veining, patterning and texture of leaves, flowers and, in this case, seedheads I can see that I'll have to force myself to take photographs of anything else!
One of the unforeseen pitfalls is that at this scale almost everything is of note - this doesn't mean that everything is picture-worthy, but you can spend a long time looking at the minutiae of things before deciding what you want to photograph.  It's a big world when you see it through a macro lens, and if you can only see it one minute fragment at a time, you could spend lifetimes in the most unpromising settings looking at the beauty of things in miniature.
So, here's to continued adventures in macro - I hope that you enjoy the work...

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