It's a Small World (share your macros!)

[Szczur]

This was tricky. This spider was no more than 3mm across and was climbing down a mirror in our bathroom.... right in the corner of the room. It was pretty hard to get a tripod in the corner and still harder to focus my "poor man's macro" gear on him. I use a Tamron 70-300mm lens with a Nikkor 50mm reverse mounted in front of it. It gives tons of magnification, but the focusing distance is pretty much zero. Anyway, that's what came out.

This is a maybug (or mayfly) which I shot using the same gear I just mentioned above. This one worked rather better, I think that's because I had better light and more room to move the tripod around.

If you've ever wondered what a broken bone looks like at the point of breakage....
No, this isn't a bone. Not quite. This is an antler which is a bony process to be found growing from the pedicles on the skulls of male deer. After the mating season, antlers fall off and regrow through the following year.
What you are looking at is the (more or less) flat surface where this antler was attached to the skull of its owner.

Raspberries have little hairs, right? You're looking at them. This is a raspberry blossom before the fruit ripens.

A fly, obviously.


These last two are rubbish, technically, but I added them here to show that, probably, your camera is only limited by your imagination. The first is the skin of kiwi fruit and the second, even worse but even smaller, is of the hairs on the leaves of an African Violet plant (Saintpaulia).
I know a guy who works for Leica. He tells me the set-up I use produces 25X magnification or maybe a little more, which is micro, rather than macro. If you fancy playing with micro you may need to combine two lenses, as I did, in which case you'll need a way of connecting the objectives face to face. I used a male-to-male ring which cost almost nothing from some guy on Ebay. The kit I used can be viewed on flickr, here.

[Letrow]

Nice set-up Matt. 25x magnification, wow. I can only add wow.
Great pictures, how is focusing with these lenses?

[Poider]

This was attempting to enter my house, my first close up with my new Nikon D3100



Peter

[GeorgeM]

These last two are rubbish, technically,...

I really like the last one. Very cool!

[Szczur]

Peter - Focus with that gear is an absolute nightmare. The tripod is an absolute must - I'm sure a real macro lens would be more fun! As for range, as I said, pretty much nil. I generally have to have the front of the reversed lens within about 2 to 5 cm of the subject.

George - Many thanks.

Poider - Eek. What was the actual size?

[Letrow]

Bad weather yesterday, so I wasn't willing to get out of the house and my comfort zone. Luckily though there were some nice raindrops, which enabled me to try out my 105mm macro lens once more.


I was playing around with this shot (contrast, basic sharpening) when my son walked in. He is really into Gimp and showed me an easy effect that you get with Render - Difference Clouds. For this picture I think it works.


This one is as it came out of the camera. I only looked at contrast level and did some basic sharpening.

[Benjy]

Spring in Scotland?

[Letrow]

Spring in Scotland?

Nice, are those little frogs?

[Benjy]

Yes Frog Spawn,hundreds of baby frogs mabye.......

[Marie Hass]

Here is my poor offering. Kit lens 18-55. 4X magnification lens. Taken at sun up, heavy ground fog.
Minimal post processing. Colors are as they appeared straight off the card.

[Camellia]

Dragonfly



Canon 60mm macro lens

[Katy Noelle]

Dragonfly



Canon 60mm macro lens

Raylee, you got one!!! It looks lovely, too.

Peter, that's quite beautiful, actually.

Marie, those colors are amazing!

[Sonic4Spuds]

Not quite a dragonfly Raylee,


This would be a damselfly. I will give the species some research today or tomorrow.

-Sonic

[Camellia]

Not quite a dragonfly Raylee,


This would be a damselfly. I will give the species some research today or tomorrow.

-Sonic

Thanks Will!

R

[Poider]

Peter - Focus with that gear is an absolute nightmare. The tripod is an absolute must - I'm sure a real macro lens would be more fun! As for range, as I said, pretty much nil. I generally have to have the front of the reversed lens within about 2 to 5 cm of the subject.

George - Many thanks.

Poider - Eek. What was the actual size?

The actual size was about 6 cms or2 and a bit inches

[Sonic4Spuds]

Raylee,

I can't make a positive identification because of my lack of information on Austrailan species, but it appears that it is part of family Coenagrionidae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coenagrionidae

-Sonic

[Epphoto]

Nice pictures here !!! Keep them coming

[maloufn]

Dragonfly



Canon 60mm macro lens

Raylee,

Nice shot Raylee. I think you will find that that is a damselfly not a dragon fly. Damsels tuck their wings on landing and dragons hold them perpendicular to their bodies. Do you use any extension tubes. If you want to magnify even further try some tubes.

Nasseem

[maloufn]

Fly taken with a 100 Macro with extension tubes. C7C please.

[Dave Humphries]

Fly taken with a 100 Macro with extension tubes. C&C please.

Very good Nasseem,

On my monitor, it looks a little over contrasty, possibly a little too exposed on the bit in front of the eye and the shadows are very 'shadowy'. See what others think.

But I love the detail in the feet, I really must put my tubes on my 105mm macro and see what I get one day.

Not sure why, since there is a border, you have made your name a part of the image itself.
That siad, it is nicely done.

Good composition too.

Hope that helps,