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An Apple Blossom
19 May 2021
Yesterday the sun came out and the winds died down (a bit, for a while), so we grabbed a camera and took advantaged of the situation. By the time we were done, we'd walked over six miles and taken 93 photos.
An Apple Blossom. Handheld Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm II R kit lens and Lensbaby +10 and +4 macro converters. Captured at f8, 1/1250 second and ISO 200. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
But we started just a few steps from the bunker in the garden with the Olympus E-PL1 set up to take macro shots.
A few days ago, we tried using the Nikon D300 with our Vivitar Series I 70-210mm Macro lens in macro mode and most of the shots showed some degree of camera blur.
This is getting to be our preferred macro setup.
That arrangement is not stabilized, of course. And we were shooting at a smaller aperture (f8 and f11). So we weren't as steady as we thought we were.
But the Olympus E-PL1 body itself is stabilized and with the Lensbaby macro converters screwed onto the kit lens, you can get some exciting magnification handheld. Even at f8. We try other things now and then just to keep our thinking fresh but this is getting to be our preferred macro setup.
You can see why in this shot of an apple blossom.
That particular blossom measures one inch across from the petal on the left to the one on the right. If you're not looking at it on a phone, you're seeing it at much larger than life size. And, of course, we edited it full screen, which was dramatically enlarged.
We took more apple blossom shots, but we stopped abruptly when a honey bee flew out of one of them just as we lined up the shot.
We didn't want to interrupt its work.