This year I’ve been working at learning to use my DSLR cameras “off auto”, to one extent or another. Learning to calculate F-Stop, Shutter Speed and ISO settings has been a challenge. Sometimes it’s easiest to let the camera choose one itself – usually ISO set to “Auto”, and concentrate on F-Stop and Shutter Speed. But there’s a LOT of other things to learn as well. I find myself gravitating towards capturing bits and pieces of the world around me, using the equipment I have on hand.
One aspect of photography that has long intrigued me is macro photography. Capturing minute details of flowers and other things gives the natural beauty around us another dimension to contemplate. This is indeed “my Father’s world”, and seeing how intricately He has created things is eye opening. It’s difficult to comprehend how anyone can see this beauty in detail and declare “This happened by accident. There’s no Designer behind the universe!”
One problem with photography can be the cost associated. The “latest and greatest” cameras and lenses run into the multiple thousands of dollars each. Even a simple macro lens (simple, yeah, right) can be anywhere from a couple hundred dollars for a used lens to over a thousand for a new Canon L series. That’s much more than I can justify for a hobby. But wait, there’s options!
There are a couple of options available that allow for one to use one’s existing lenses to capture macro photos. The one I’ll talk about briefly in this article is the Reverse Ring. It allows you to take a normal lens and use the threads on the front of it, the ones usually used for a lens filter, and screw on an adapter ring that allows you to mount the lens backwards onto your camera. And these adapter rings are fairly inexpensive. I picked one up for the typical Canon kit lens filter size of 58mm and today for the first time I mounted an EF-S 18-55 kit lens to the Canon EOS Rebel T1i and went out front to see what could be captured with it – hand held. That’s right. I’ve no decent tripod available so I hand held the camera and did my best to snap pics of flowers dancing in the wind. Quite a challenge, but here are a few images that pass muster.
