Hubby very generously bought me a macro lens to go with my Nikon DSLR just before Christmas and i’m just starting to play with it.   You might have noticed my photography improving over the last few months, its mostly the camera, its really not me. Then it slides back because I tend to carry my small and very portable Panasonic Lumix, which I’ve found to be a lovely camera, the Leica lens does it proud and the zoom on it is amazing.

I’ve always liked looking at macro photographs and I still need to buy a lighting rig of some description, this is what I am starting to get with or without the integral flash.   I would have photographed more, but hail stones stopped play today. 

This is quite a tricky one to get because its the depth of the flower that is the biggest problem.  This had a 20 second shutter speed, no you did not read that incorrectly, 20 seconds..   It was the most interesting shot I got from that flower today.

These were all taken with a flash and I had to up the exposure digitally to get what I wanted from it.  Pretty though.

And then this one without a flash and a shallow depth of field.

And this with a flash and wider depth of field.

I have a lot to learn, but its all good fun.