Let the games begin!
After our trip, I decided to get a few new "toys" to spice up my camera.
Nothing super expensive-o, mind you, but a few little accessories to play around with.
The first is called a macro extension tube. Instead of cashing out the big bucks for a new lens that takes extremely close photos, I just add this tube to my current lens and voila! Here is what I mean:
I also got some filters for my lens. A polarizer, a UV filter, and a star filter. A what, a who, and a where? (that's what I was thinking when I first read about them, a whole three days before I bought them).
The polarizer is for sunny days, to reduce the reflections off of mirrors, windows, and water, and darken the sky a little. The UV filter protects my lens from UV rays. And the star filter...ahh the star filter. Almost completely useless, and yet the only one that produces a really obvious change from picture to picture.
Then, just this week, I purchased the final addition I've been craving - an external flash!
Here she is:
Last weekend I actually took the tube out and got some useful shots with it. Here's my favorite flower shot of the afternoon:
Flower pictures are actually a little more interesting than you might think (and by you I mean me, because I really didn't expect to take any enjoyment from close up flower shots). I recently made an impulse buy at BJs - a salvia may night plant. Of course, I have to keep it just outside the window so that cats don't eat it (ask me what happened to my polka dot plant last year...), but now at least I have something living I can photograph when I'm feeling the Macro vibes.
A Salvia May Night, for those who don't feel like doing their own googling (not my picture, I haven't taken any yet because I'm waiting for it to really bloom):
Come back in May, I promise to have some shots of my new plant :-)
Nothing super expensive-o, mind you, but a few little accessories to play around with.
The first is called a macro extension tube. Instead of cashing out the big bucks for a new lens that takes extremely close photos, I just add this tube to my current lens and voila! Here is what I mean:
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| f/0, 1/10th, ISO 1600, 0 mm Actual item photographed here: my comforter |
 |
| f/0, 1/10th, ISO 1600, 0 mm Actual item being photographed: my cell phone cover. |
I also got some filters for my lens. A polarizer, a UV filter, and a star filter. A what, a who, and a where? (that's what I was thinking when I first read about them, a whole three days before I bought them).
The polarizer is for sunny days, to reduce the reflections off of mirrors, windows, and water, and darken the sky a little. The UV filter protects my lens from UV rays. And the star filter...ahh the star filter. Almost completely useless, and yet the only one that produces a really obvious change from picture to picture.
 |
| f/5, 1/30th, ISO 800, 30mm Created with the four point star filter |
Here she is:
Last weekend I actually took the tube out and got some useful shots with it. Here's my favorite flower shot of the afternoon:
 |
| f/0, 1/320th, ISO 100, 0mm Taken outside at Great Falls Park in Virginia |
A Salvia May Night, for those who don't feel like doing their own googling (not my picture, I haven't taken any yet because I'm waiting for it to really bloom):
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| Image: Source |
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