Super Macro

Since I bought my Canon 100mm f2.8 lens, it totally changed to way I look at things around us. All the time, I thought Macro lens is simply a "magnifying glass" for SLR camera but I was totally wrong. If you visit my Flickr photostream, you will know what I mean. Not only does it make things bigger, it allows me to "play" with light and compose shots from different perspectives. Insects, flowers and leaves have never looked this good to me before! I have reviewed a fair bit about the lens in my previous post, so I won't dwell too much in this area today.

What I wanted to share with you today was a technique which I have come to love in macro photography. That's to shoot "super macro" combining the 100mm with a reversed medium telephoto lens, such as a 50mm prime lens, a cheapo Canon 50mm f1.8 will be a fantastic prime to experiment with. The trick is to focus both lens to infinity and held together tightly, in my case, by hand :) In this set up, I can get even closer to action and a much higher magnification value without spending anything substantial. The downside is of course, you would not be able to use the AF function of the lens and so the only way to focus is to move the whole thing back and forth. A word of warning though, I am not sure if there is any other easier way but if you do the way I explained above, it's definitely not for the faint-hearted :)) Working with extremely narrow DOF or smaller aperture with limited ambience light is always going to be a challenge in macro photography, well, for me anyway. Persistance and patience will help you a long way!! :))

P/S Thank you Arturo for showing me the secret!!

Christmas comes early :)

Introducing the newest addition to our family : Betty :))

Betty is a budgie, a small Australian parakeets given to us as a Christmas present by KC, one of the pharmacy assistant at work.

Because she is only a baby right now, we are trying hard to train her as much as possible so she will not be afraid of handling by human. Apparent like certain species of parrot, budgie can learn how to talk as well!

Today, we got her a brand new home and a hanging stand!! When she has become more domesticated, I will bring her out to shoot more photos and post them on my flickr page. But at the moment, Betty is pretty much confined to her cage :)