The idea behind the following shots came this morning when I was doing a little tidying up. I was putting some camera accessories away and remembered that I had bought extension tubes that I hadn't really played around with much. Extension Tubes are additional fittings that attach to a camera body before the lens is put on and what they allow is a greater magnification without a loss of quality. The only real downside is that you need to get incredibly close to your subject and due to hand shaking, can be quite difficult to get a steady, clear shot. Previously I had used all three Extension Tubes with one of my macro lenses and found that it was impossible to focus due to the focal length being behind the actual glass of the lens. This time I decided to use just the smallest tube, which gave an additional 20mm of zoom.
Basic set of Extension Tubes for a DSLR type Camera.
So, on this grey, wet and miserable morning, I donned some scruffy clothes and went to see what I could find. There isn't much I could say was interesting around my garden, so I tried to go with the theme of looking for things that may be missed.
I took a One Pound coin and placed it on the window sill, so it would benefit from natural light. The first thing I did beforehand was to check and see just how close I could focus, in preparation for going out. The thing that immediately stood out for me was all the little bumps and scratches in the metal and reflecting on it made me wonder how each of those came to be. It made me think back to Thursdays video in class and seeing Cornelia Parker talk about the cracks she had dodged for many years whilst walking her daughter to school and how they had changed and evolved over the years.
I'm sure if a coin could talk, it would have thousands of stories to tell. Every owner that had held it, every place that it had been, every time it had been dropped or damaged. Every so often, just a little bit more of it chipped away but still, it carries on serving its purpose.
The next was of droplets that had formed on the washing line. I thought this set in particular was pretty interesting because they were spaced almost evenly. One thing I'd like to be able to do in the future is get even closer to a droplet of rain and capture its reflection more clearly. One problem I had when trying to capture the droplets was the wind. Every time a breeze came, they almost ceased to exist. Luckily a bit of old plywood was still awaiting removal, so I used that to shield the wind.
After I had put the wood back where I had found it, I noticed this incredibly small slug going about its day. Most people (including myself) may find slugs to be a disgusting, pointless animal but watching it slowly slide around on the path, it was a delicate sight. When the wind blew, it would retract its tentacles and wait for the breeze to pass. I too found myself having to wait, just so I could get the result I wanted.
Because we are in the season of autumn now, it's not an uncommon sight to see the ground littered with leaves. One thing I always liked when I was little was finding the "helicopter" seeds and throwing them up in the air and watching them spin. This of course isn't possible when coated in water, though I did find that more detail is brought out, especially in the bumps and veins of the surface.
I didn't really think much of this lone leaf sitting in a puddle until I changed the angle I was looking at it. I came to the conclusion that it reminded me of a Crocodile's head, just waiting slightly under the surface, ready to pounce upon unsuspecting prey. Another thing I liked was how the reflection of the surrounding world was different on each side.
The last image I took was of this tiny Spider that I found on the side of my house. I absolutely hate Spiders with a passion, but this little guy seemed so innocent just walking around on the white walls. At first I didn't notice it, but for its size, it has pretty big white fangs which seemed to blend in with the colour of the wall. Every time the shutter of the camera clicked, it would momentarily freeze as if to show it was a little scared. For me, the most interesting point on this has to be the eyes and the hairs on the legs. Without a lens that can pickup that amount of detail, I doubt I'd ever see those features at all.
I should note that for these shots in particular, I used the Sepia mode from within the camera and pushed the contrast up to maximum to give a better range between white and black. When I did get them back on the computer, I didn't like the results and used the "Auto Colour" feature within Photoshop, which changed the colours closer to Black and White but with a very subtle hint of blue in the black.
great photographs especially water droplets
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