Minute Detail

"Tiny Droplet" by Wes Aldridge

Here is another look into the fascinating world of macro photography. Even the most common item can take on a different dimension when it becomes larger than life in a macro photograph. Thank you Mr. Boshier for letting me use your extension tubes once again to achieve this interesting up-close-and-personal shot... and no, you shouldn't start charging me for the times I want to use the tubes!

Shooting with extension tubes is extremely difficult. Focusing with the front ring on the lens is more or less out of the question. I fix the ring in the position closest to the subject and move the camera back and forth by centimeters to focus on a subject. The extension tubes allowed me to get the front element of my lens about 1 inch away from this tiny 1-inch leaf on the potted miniature rose plant that I received for Valentine's Day. I used my E-TTL 550EX flash shot at 1/128th power as the light source pointed dead on to the subject with a diffuser screen, shot at f/3.2 at 1/200th of a second.

The water droplet itself was probably less then half an inch in actual size and the depth of field for the shot is crazily shallow. I used my 50mm f/1.8 lens, which has a normal minimal focusing distance of about 1-and-a-half feet without the extension tubes. If I had shot the lens wide open at max aperture, I don't think the water droplet would have even been decipherable, as you can see how difficult it is to make anything out in the shot at f/3.2 as it is.

With this shot as support, I think personal studies into macro photography must continue to be examined. There is a whole new world just waiting to be shot out there.