Mini Challenge #309 - Macro or Close-up

DavidRGillespie

I have spent a lot of time with macro and close up photography these past few months. This genre of photography is pretty hard to define, and I don't want to limit creativity. The subjects should be close views of small subjects, or views of small parts of bigger objects. You can use macro equipment, telephotos, cropping or whatever approach gets you to what you consider a close-up or macro. It would be helpful and fun if you could list the camera and lens along with each image. The mini will run to 8 PM, 4 December, 2020.

Here are some images to illustrate the subject size I am thinking about. All of these except the bird were taken in 2020. If possible, I would love to see your recent photos

Frame-filling images of single flowers or parts. This is actually part of a pretty big flower, taken with a Nikon 105 mm macro lens but obviously cropped

images of small things. I cornered this little girl with a point-and-shoot camera Olympus TG-6 in close-up mode

I would consider this a close-up, taken at 500 mm on a 200-500mm lens on a crop-sensor camera

Get as close as your equipment will allow. Subjects don't have to be recognizable

a studio image with flash and back-lighting, 105 mm macro on a Nikon D7100

Taken with a Nikon D7100 with a stack of close-up tubes

Taken with a Nikon D7100, close-up tubes and a reverse-mounted 50mm lens as a diopter

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Cavalier

Ooh - what fun! I'll jump right in.

Praying Mantis on a Day Lily with Canon D70 24-70mm 2.1 lens

Another Day Lily with Canon macro lens

Strawberry tree bloom with Canon macro lens and post-processing filters

DavidRGillespie

Thank you @Cavalier, Jo, for getting us started with a set of great images.

JAG

Great challenge theme David! Here are mine!

1 Lily pistil

2 Close enough!

3 Messy eater

lkbart

Great challenge theme! Recently shot blooms from a plant I got from my grandmother 40+ years ago, String of Hearts (Ceropegia woodii). These were all shot with a Canon 6DMII, 24-105F4L & macro tube, thinking the 20mm.

Pre-bloom smoothness (evening sun)

Hairy full bloom (full sun)

String of hearts? Hmmm ... botanist who discovered it was appropriately named!

(night shot, reading light)

pegelli

David, great challenge.
I looked it up in my lightroom library and I have over a 1100 close-up and macro shots in 2020 alone. So I had no problem meeting your brief of recent shots.
I also chose three photo's which used a very different techniques of getting close and I will mention the equipment/technique used below every entry.

1: Selfie reflection in a glossy fly

Taken handheld in July with my 12 year old trusty Sony A700 and my first macro lens, a Minolta 100/2.8. Still a splendid combo. Put the lens at a fixed magnification and moved my head/camera closer or further to focus.

2: Orchid birdie

Taken from a tripod in Oktober with my Sony A7ii and a manual Olympus OM Zuiko 21/3.5 lens and a 13 mm extension tube. The closest petals were 2 mm from the front lens and the light came from the window behind

3: Amarillys

One of the problems with macro shots is the small depth of field so this photo is focus stacked from 12 different photo's moving the plane of focus between the shots from the front to the back of the flowers. Camera was a Sony A7ii and the lens is an old manual focus Leica M-Elmarit 90/2.8 (from 1959) and this set-up was on a tripod and macro rail which allowed me to move the camera a few mm forward for every next shot. Then the 12 photo's were combined into one using the program called "Helicon Focus" which blends together the sharpest part from every shot. This is the oldest shot of the three, taken in February of this year.

grandmaR

I don't do much of this kind of photography

1 - Anthers

Canon EOS Rebel T3 with the regular lens- 35 mm - I think I must have cropped and edited this but I no longer remember what I did.

2 Wasp

Same camera and lens except I was experimenting using an extension tube

3 Strawberry

Same camera, cropped image

DavidRGillespie

Thanks @jag, @lkbart , @pegelli and @grandmaR for great contributions. Keep them coming folks!

dlscott56

These are as close as any I have. No macro unfortunately.

1. Flower

2. Lamp

3. Board

DavidRGillespie

thanks for the contribution @dlscott56. Keep them coming folks. There is still lots of time to add some images to this mini

sarasphotos

We've had such a bout of grey and cold weather that I haven't been out of the house with the camera in weeks, so I had to search through the archives for something passable.

1) Icy star - taken with my old Panasonic G1 and my Lumix 20mm (40mm) f1.7 lens

2) Heather blossoms - one of the first shots with my Olympus 60mm (120mm) f.28 macro lens (on my Panasonic G81)

3) Sunflower with visitor - taken with my old Lumix 14-140 F4 Zoom at 140mm on my Panasonic G81

DavidRGillespie

Thanks @sarasphotos for the lovely additions. Two more days to go folks! Keep them coming!

DavidRGillespie

Less than 24 hours to go! There is still time to slide in under the wire

sapphire73

This has been a very busy time for us, so I am contributing a few photos for fun - but please don't consider as entries. Thanks!

1) Monarch butterfly profile in Tobermory, Canada (taken with Fuji 55-200 mm lens)

2) Another Monarch butterfly in Tobermory (taken with Fuji 55-200 mm lens)

3) Hinoki Cypress (taken with Fuji 55-200 mm lens) - taken today

I have some older macro shots taken with my Canon 60 mm macro lens but decided to share photos taken more recently. I spent a little time taking some close up photos this morning with a 16 mm Fuji lens. I appreciated; this challenge as an opportunity to work with that lens and see how close I could get with it. Thanks for a fun challenge!

DavidRGillespie

Thanks everyone for the contributions. The mini is now closed. I will deal with ge3tting the result posted in the next 24 hours. Its not going to be easy...