Wide Macro

Two months ago, I spent a weekend at the High Lonesome Ranch (a private ranch where I hunt) in the Texas Hill Country. The weather was nice, but it was mostly overcast. The ranch had received a lot of rain and the flowers were abundant.

Loads of flowers and gray skies are a good combination for macro photography. So, I tried something new this time: macro with a wide-angle lens. The shots you see here were taken with a 17-40mm Canon lens and a 12mm extension tube.

bug sex
(click for larger pic)

The above shot was at 34mm and with a Canon 40D. This shot, and all the others I took, were tricky becuase of the wind. I had to wait for a lull in the breeze so that the flower would stop wagging around. Of course it didn't help that these bugs were on the move.

flower medley
(click for larger pic)

This is another shot with the 40D but at 29mm. During the breeze "lulls", I would fire off as many shots as I could. I was using mirror lock-up with a 2-second timer, so there was about 3 or 4 seconds between shots.

bug on purple flower
(click for larger pic)

The above shot was at 40mm but with my Canon 5D.

I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm used to using my 70-200mm and extension tubes for macro work, so using the wide angle was a little different. In general, much more of the scene was visible (i.e. wider) so composing the shots was more like composing landscapes. And it didn't take much "tube-age", only 12mm, to focus closely. The downside is that the lens was generally very close to the subject, sometimes as close as an inch.

The rest of my photos from this trip can be found HERE.