Macro Mania

A fellow birder photographer friend of ours, Ann, offered me a macro lens a couple weeks back.  She happened to take notice that I enjoy photographing insects during the summer.  I jumped at the offer.

The lens is a Tamron 180mm 1:3.5, macro 1:1.  Which really doesn't mean a whole lot to me because I just don't understand all the technical talk.  It doesn't sink into my brain.  I find, like with most things, the practical means goes a lot further with me than the theory.  Practice makes perfect or as good as I can get with what I got.

Here is one of the first shots I took with the new lens, as soon as I got home, with the Butterfly bush out front of the house.  I am quite certain it's a "Painted Lady".

And soon after, I sought out a Spider in the shed.

I learned fast that a steady hand helps; but even better would be a tripod and a remote shutter button. The slightest movement and most of the shots are crap. New settings must be learned when photographing the invertebrates with this lens.

My friend Brian, who is much better at this kind of stuff, gave me lots of info over the weekend. And also gathered up a "subject" for us from a window sill. A small House Fly. We had a blast this past Saturday night with the little guy as the drinks flowed.

I am constantly seeking out other creatures in my travels through the yard. I see everything so much differently when in this "mode". The plants out back are the homes to these little creatures, their entire worlds for one season. And the detail on these guys is astounding. Insects half the size of my finger nail, being so colorful, having so much detail. Wow! Check it out...

Here is "Ash", one of our Fire Bellies.  I never knew he had tiny black spike looking things about his body.  And the pores are so visible too.

A Bee inside a Pumpkin flower sure looks like he's enjoying himself.

Not a clue what kind of Beetle thing this is, but he was chilling on the Milkweed.

Another mysterious creature out back.

I found this Moth resting on the lid of our BBQ.  The eye is huge.  But even cooler in this image, at least I see it and maybe you do too, is the bottom right corner, that squiggly stuff sure looks like my name.  Its either webbing, as you can see some on the Moth, or inside BBQ cover fluff.  I checked back for the squiggly stuff this morning to see what exactly it is, but its gone now.

And last is this really tiny colorful creature.  He was maybe an eighth of an inch long.  And I just found out he is called a "Candy Striped Leafhopper".

This summer is blazing hot and disgustingly humid but more tolerable for me when I get lost in the world of macro.

A big thank you to Ann for the Tamron!