Last week, one of the Picture Spring prompts required us to find a dandelion that had gone to seed. None of mine had at that time, but they did a few days later, and I thought it would be fun to see what kind of images I could get, even though Picture Spring is over.
I started with the super macro setting on my camera. I use that setting a lot, because it allows me to get up really close – the object can practically touch the lens – and gives me a nice shallow depth of field that I can’t get with my camera normally.
Then I got out of super macro, zoomed out all the way to 20x, and snapped on the super macro conversion lens Neil got me for Christmas. These images are the result of that:
Pretty neat, eh? The depth of field is so exceedingly shallow with the combination of my 20x zoom fixed lens and the snap-on macro lens that I only had to move the camera a matter of a millimeter or two to get it to focus on the different areas of the dandelion.
I did the same thing with a tiny purple flower I’ve never seen before. The head of this flower was no more than 1/2-inch. Built-in super macro first, followed by zoom + macro lens:
I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with this snap-on lens as more and more flowers bloom this season…
Fabulous! I think I’ll have to add that to my wish list! So cool.
It looks like the price went up since I got it (I think it was around $50) so maybe it will go back down again. It takes some practice, and a steady hand, but once you figure it out, you can get some pretty amazing shots!
Very cool!
Darn it, Lisa! Every time I try to winnow out some of my daily blog reads and stop checking in over here, you ALWAYS ALWAYS are posting about something I exactly needed to know! Quit it will’ya! 😉
Your photos are spectacular! I really appreciate all the information you share.
Muahaha! It’s all part of my dastardly plan! Glad I managed to reel you back in for a while 😀
That is so cool! And I’m jealous. Do you think Neal will add me to his Christmas list?
Heh. Nope. He’s all mine 😉
WOW- those are amazing photos! I love my camera, but now I’m wishing it could do that too!
What kind of camera do you have? Mine’s a “prosumer”-type point and shoot, so it’s got a fixed lens unlike a DSLR. The macro thingy is great because it snaps on in front of any lens that’s 52-67mm, which means my fixed lens isn’t a problem (for once).
Oh my gosh it is amazing how one annoying weed, can have so much beauty when looked at from a new perspective. Thank you Lisa for letting us see things through yours (and your camera’s) eye!
Beautiful pictures. Had you really never seen the little purple flower before? My kids pick me handfulls of those little guys all the time. I might need to get my camera out and photograph them in a whole new way! BTW thanks for the advice about the camera – I got the Canon and I love it. But I’m still trying to figure out all of the cool settings.
Keila
Really! I never saw it before! Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention before 🙂 So glad you’re enjoying the new camera! I’ve had mine for about a year, and I’m still exploring some of the features and settings – that’s the fun of it 🙂