I've start on a bit of a macro photography kick as of late so I thought I would share a few of the macro shots I did the other day. All of these shots where taken in my backyard, thats the great thing about macro photography, you don't have to travel very far to get interesting subjects to shoot. You own backyard is a wondrous natural studio just waiting for you to explore.
All of these photographs where taken with a Canon 5Dmk2 and the EF 180 f3.5 L Macro lens with the Extender EF 2x II which doubles the focal length of any lens thats its attached to and reduces the aperture of the lens by 2 stops, turning my 180 f3.5 into a 360 f7.1. Even with an aperture of f7.1 the depth of field is very shallow so you will want to have the camera mount to a tripod and trigger the shutter with a remote. Even the slightest movement ( pushing down the shutter button ) of the camera will throw the focus out so do use a remote trigger of some kind. If you don't have a remote trigger you can set the timer on your camera to fire the shutter.
I mentioned that the depth of field is very shallow when the aperture is at f7.1, so shallow that we are talking millimetres and you will be able to clearly see this in the photos. Some parts of the photos are very sharp but as soon as any part of the photos is on a slightly different focal plane it turns blurry thanks the amazing depth of field that this lens produces.
Ok enough talk, on with the photos, I hope you like them and if you have any questions please feel free to ask.
To view the photos in large size just click on the photo.
This is a shot of some Lilac flowers with a couple of insects exploring the flower. This is a great example of very shallow Depth of Field, notice the 2 insects, the first insect is in focus and yet the second insect is out of focus even though it is millimetres away from the first. Now thats shallow depth of field.
