Once upon a time, a man named David Brady published a blog called Insect Picture of the Day -- InsectPOD for short (I'd post a link, but the URL has long since expired. I'm two for two that way). On it, he would post a picture he took of an insect, would do some research, and write about it. It was fascinating stuff. When he requested user submissions, I was in, taking pictures of whatever insects I could find (a surprising variety), doing research of my own, and sending in the "good ones", hoping that he would publish them (which he did!). I learned a lot about phylum arthropoda in the process.
Thus was my introduction to macro photography.
As InsectPOD's update schedule waned due to life, so did my photo activity. It didn't help that in the meantime I had moved from a target-rich environment to one seemingly less so. Plus, you know, life. My trusty old first generation Canon Digital Rebel sat gathering dust. It's crappy old kit lens no longer actively frustrated me with its loose barrel fitment tolerances (I swear I can move it sideways enough at full extension for it to produce a noticeable tilt effect). Instead, it would mock me from the shelf.
Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.
Eventually the photography bug won. I switched teams and picked up a Nikon DSLR with its not-as-crappy-but-kinda-slow kit lenses and started shooting everything I could. Once I learned how best to shoot with the kit lenses, I even managed to take some decent photos. Armed with a 300 mm zoom (part of the kit), I learned to embrace telephoto photography. It wasn't all that different than macro! Your end goal is to fill most of the frame with your subject. Also, lenses are expensive and you always want more magnification. As an added bonus, there was less chance of getting stung or bit by your subject, or its compatriots.
But macro still called.
Macro with the kit portrait lens was less than fulfilling, and the zoom didn't focus on anything closer than nearly a meter away. Gear Acquisition Syndrome lost to economic reality, so that scrumptious looking 105 mm Nikkor glass was out of the question. The photography bug was on the verge of going back into hibernation when the Internet gave me the answer: extension tubes and lens reversal kits.
Extension tubes, unlike photo multipliers (doublers), pull the minimum focal distance in because the lens sits further from the sensor with no optical correction. In theory, I could put some tubes behind my 55 - 300 mm zoom and have a variable magnification macro lens (minus a stop or two in light gathering). And a very large on, at that.
What was more interesting, however, was the lens reversal kit. I had no idea that you could do such a thing with today's interconnected cameras and lenses. And I never thought about the consequence if you did so: really high magnification. All on the cheap. I was so in.
I've been playing with my tubes and reversal kit for a couple of days now. Early results are not share-worthy, but are good enough to feed the photography bug. One thing's for certain: with lens reversal, augmented lighting is a must. For now, I'm playing with the Pringle's can solution, but ring flashes aren't too expensive, so I will probably end up going that route. Also, the reversal ring is never coming off my 18 - 55 mm portrait lens. Not by choice. It's just really stuck. So maybe a replacement is in order? Damn you GAS! *shakes fist*
