This weekend is going to be great for close up photos of emerging plants,
flowers, buds, etc.  I plan to shoot closeups with a new telephoto and 
I am also going to attach some "close-up" magnifying lenses on the telephoto
and see what I can do.  Anyone else into close-ups?

13 responses total.

Any luck with the nature close ups?  Plenty of plant life has sprung into
action in the last 2 weeks.  Several buildings and a lot of the ground
behind our apartment have disappeared for the season.   I have a set a
close-up rings and also a macro lens.  I mostly use the rings for
reproductions, but think I might try them on the "real" world if I can
only make it stand still for a second or two...

I shot a few emerging plants and flowers.  I don't have these developed
yet, but last year I got a few outstanding shots of frogs.  These were made
with a telephoto and rings.  The best shot had the camera on the ground 
and the frog was about 2/3 frame.  It looked like a monster because the
camera was looking from "frog height."  This was sharp enough to see the
detail in his eye.

I used Fuji professional 800 speed print film which permits hand holding
even at telephoto.

Hey, this spring I made 6 bluebird houses.  Most are occupied by sparrows,
Chicadees, etc.  But, we just had one become occupied by bluebirds.  They
don't seem too shy & I will be attempting to get a good telephoto shot
of these guys in the next few days.

I tried a roll of fuji provia 1600 daylight color reversal film rated for
best results at 1600 asa when processed with E-6P (push process), and
which can also be exposed at 800 or 3200 asa.  I'm testing it indoors for
hand-held closeup work with a FLB filter to corrected fluorescent light. 
I'll get my slides back from Precision Photo this afternoon. 

Let us know how the slides turned out.  I have very little experience with
slides.  I recently shot the Fuji 800 Professional print and it was 
outstanding. 

I was well satisfied with the quality of my slides, considering all the
"wrong" methods I was using:  uncontrolled light sources (filtration
and some caution with shadows left me with nice clean, bright looking
slides in the proper colors), hand held macro (1600 speed film does
wonders) and so on.  I've added a lightweight copy stand to my set-up,
which has added some depth of field and better control of the plane of my
film.  I still use the 1600 film because I was happy with the results and
am still working without copy lights.  I have a particular need to be able
to work quickly and travel easily because of limited time and a need to be
able to keep my concentration on something besides my camera set-up.  It's
nice to be able to make a slide transparency "note" about as fast as I can
make a note in my laptop or order a photocopy.

Sounds like I should try the 1600 speed film.

This has been quiet for a long time so I thought I'd put my remarks here.

I have lots of pics of spring emergence (one of my long-time themes), mostly
on slides and some prints.  I've used diopters for close-ups and later a nice
quality 55mm macro focus lens.  most important is to get the depth of field
right.  Too deep and you lose the definition of your subject.  Too narrow and
only a portion of your subject is in focus.

Some nice hints on these shots is to have a scissor or pruning shear with you
(to remove unwanted wild grass, etc, from your composition) and, even more
importantly, a spray bottle of water.  A gently misting before you shoot will
provide a more "healthy" looking still life, can add glistening highlights,
and brings out detail of contrast and color that is somewhat obscured by dry
bark, leaves, etc.

My last expedition has been autumn (another long-time theme) and I'm now using
a zoom lens without macro focus capabilities.  There are some great fall
blooming flowers, seed-pods, and of course leaf colors to go for.  I even
found a seedling evergreen (looked like an 8-9" high christmas tree) I was
able to get a shot of.

Same problems with depth of field to keep in mind, so I suggest bracket your
shots both for exposure and depth.  Use a tripod (especially for close-ups)
and go for early or late in day for more dramatic lighting effect.

I now go for the slower films (100ASA instead of 400ASA) and long exposures
for better color definition and penetration, but there is more danger of blurr
due to a sudden breeze.

I hit paydirt on one shot of brilliantly colored trees with a _deep blue_ sky
and a couple of small white clouds...only wish I had taken a few more
compositions at the same time since I'm not as happy with that aspect as I
am of the detail, contrast and color captured.

I probably won't go through these again until the spring, and I hope I have
enough to either make a collage, or blow a few up to hang.

Mushrooms make spectacular B&W shots, especially if you are willing to lay
flat on the ground (or even dig a depression) to shoot up at them.

Incidentally, I have a set of three supplemental close-up lenses.  +3, +2,
and +1 diopter.  They fit any lens that takes a 49mm thread-on filter.  I no
longer have any lenses that these fit, so if anyone's interested in them let
me know.  They're in good shape, and include a case and instruction sheet.

I may be interested; I need to check my "other" lens.  I'm pretty
sure that it's a 48mm, so I could probably get a step-up adapter
ring for it...

I ended up selling the lenses on eBay.  They went to a guy in Germany.

After a bunch of failed attempts at macro, i've started using a slightly different technique that works great.

I use a 400mm lens with a set of extension rings, this allows me to stay a little bit away from the subject so as not to block the lighting, but still get the close-up details. It also has the advantage of minimizing the DOF for a nice clean background.

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