12 mm Lens with Close up Filter for Fungi

 Still on my quest for a wide-angle close-up solution, I have managed to attach a close-up filter to my Zeiss 12mm lens and tried some fungi photography in our local Hardwick wood today. Very pleased with the results both wide open at F2.8 (numbers 1 and 8) and other apertures F7.1 (6), F9 (3) F14 (2,4,5,9-11), F16(7)  F22 (12). 

Close-up Photography with 12mm lens

I always enjoy photographing with my Zeiss 50mm Touit Macro lens and so decided to try 'close-up' photography with Phil's 12 mm Zeiss lens. Although it won't focus close enough to give a macro image (1:1), for larger subjects it does give very pleasing 'in habitat' images and, of course being Zeiss, it is a very bright sharp image. Does anyone know if it is possible to use a very short extension ring to bring the focus point closer? The smallest ring I have is 11mm and the focus point is too close so can't focus.

Bug's Eye View of My Garden

I wanted to try and portray the feeling of being surrounded by the huge variety of flowers in the garden at the moment, especially in the wildflower areas. Using my favourite legacy Olympus Zuiko 50mm with 16mm extension ring, I shot at F1.8 getting in close amongst the flowers. Here some of the yellow flowers which work well with this soft approach. 

 

Introducing the Hosebaby for Clean Images

Those following my blog will know that I have been building a variety of experimental lenses and set-ups over our period of confinement from reversed lenses for macro, coupled lenses for ultramacro to pinholes for that softer look. Here I introduce you to a clean (and very much cheaper!) version of the Lensbaby. It feature a small length of hose from a dead vacuum cleaner and an old 50 mm plastic kit lens from Canon. The kit is shown at the end (as the hose is transparent it needs a black cloth sleeve to keep out extraneous light. The hose allows variable extension of the lens but, as it can also move sideways or up and down, you can get some interesting effects, especially with wildlife - hence the speeding snail! I don't promise but this is probably the last of the contraptions (unless another household gadgets dies!)

Experimenting with Lens Reversal for Ultramacro

I built an adaptor to reverse my legacy Olympus 50mm lens onto my Fuji XT-1 to try some ultramacro shots. These are taken at F16, ISO 1600, 1/180 with a bit of fill-in flash. Not a great success rate as I was hand holding with quite windy conditions. I will use with a tripod on a still day and see if I can get a bit more consistency.