Tag:macro photography
I decided to try some macro photography and it required leaves. It totally didn’t not go to plan.
Macro-photography
Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of insects or flowers. It is also used in creative photography, such as water refractions and oil and water. While a macro lens will help, if you don’t have one you can also do macro photography with extension tubes (avail from eBay and Amazon) or with a closeup lens from Nisi
In Australia, we are coming to the tail end of glorious autumn. Pleasant sunny days, with just a light breeze, blue skies and lovely autumnal trees. The trees are dropping their leaves like crazy now, and winter will soon be upon us. I hate the cold months and tend to hibernate inside where it’s warm over the depths of winter, so I decided to play with various macro subjects in the coming months and do a series of posts with macro my subject.
Plan A
Considering that veritable carpet of leaves on the ground outside, I thought I would start with autumn leaves and skeleton leaves. While I could should have gone to the shop, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I decided to gather some leaves from all the trees out front and make my own. A couple of youtube videos later, I was bravely boiling leaves in the kitchen. There’s not a photo to be had of this as it was an absolute disaster. Totally didn’t go to plan. While the saucepan survived, the leaves didn’t, and the whole soggy mess ended up in the bin the next day.
Plan B
More googling and YouTubing, I found another method of making leaves – this one involved simply placing them in water and leaving them that way for around 21 days (with frequent water changes). So I now have a container of floating leaves here in the studio. In 21 days, we’ll see if they join their fellow leaves in the bin. This, however, meant I couldn’t do any skeleton leaf macro shots.
Plan C
In the face of total failure and the absence of skeleton leaves, I retreated to Youtube, licking my wounds and went seeking further inspiration. Many more videos later, I had a shopping list, and eBay has put me back on their Christmas card list. I am off on a mini road trip next week to outback NSW, so hubby has been conscripted into doing a daily run to the post office to pick up parcels while I am gone—the things you can buy online ;).
In The meantime
While waiting for supplies and packing for our trip, I made up some more textured backgrounds to use in the macro shots I have planned. I have a strong gaussian blur on them, though, as I wanted them (mainly) creamy smooth.
In the next few posts I’ll cover my outback trip, then get stuck into the macro.
Toms amazing adventures continued as he cycled along a backroad towards St George. A patrol car emerged out of the dust plume behind him, pulled alongside, and asked for his destination. “I’m going to St George, brother,” said Tom. “Do you have any ID on you?” officer Peter Pickle asked, “no suh”, Tom said, “I identify as aboriginal, my dad passed back in March, and we don’t use the name of someone who has died. I am waiting on my new name change documents, but I don’t have them yet” Officer Pickle then asked, “what’s your address and date of birth? “Well, brother”, Tom replied, “I was born in 1979, but I don’t know what day or month. I live at the Cherbourg settlement, but I’ve been walkabout since my dad died, and now I am heading back to Cherbourg.”
Long Arm Of The Law
Officer Peter Pickle and Officer Randal Relish looked at each other in confusion. Officer Relish then asked, “do you have anything on you to show you are a Queensland resident?” Tom said, “would a letter from an elder in my mob do?” reaching into the back of his pants, Tom produced a warm, crumpled, beer, and wine-soaked letter with ketchup stains splashed over it that Beryl had knocked up in her kitchen for him. He leaned over and made to hand it through to the window towards them. Both officers looked horrified at what Tom was handing them. He brusquely said, “on your way,” as they quickly zapped the windows up and drove off in a cloud of dust.
Grinning broadly, Tom waited till they vanished in the distance and then rode into St George. While there, he sold his bike at Cash Converters before heading to the backpacker hostel on foot. Once at the hotel, he put his name on the board for a lift to Roma before joining a group of Swedish tourists in the garden.
Charters Towers
Tom picked up a lift with two french girls heading to Charters Towers and rode with them as far as Roma. In Roma, he started to make his way to the self-storage unit that held the last items he had bought. He passed a vintage car display and stopped to look, several times getting in the way of the photographers. He knew this because they kept asking him to move out of their shot.
Walking around looking at the cars, he noticed a blue police phone box in the distance and had a chuckle to himself, thinking Queenslanders really are backward if the police still use those old blue phone boxes.
Travels with the Doctor
Tom wandered around the car festival and walked past the blue phone box – just as an odd-looking chap with bushy eyebrows popped out the door. Introducing himself as John Smith, he began chatting to Tom and invited him inside. After a brief explanation, and once Tom got over it was bigger on the inside, John, who called himself The Doctor, offered him a chance to travel with him. Always up for an adventure, Tom jumped at the chance. They left Roma on Sept 28th, 2020, at 4 pm. Tom and John travelled together for two years, with Tom having many more amazing adventures before dropping him back in Roma at 4.04 pm on Sept 28th, 2025. By now, COVID had all but disappeared save for the odd outbreak among the conspiracy theorists who refused to be vaccinated.
Tom picked up his car and caravan from the self-storage (Bill, who had access to Toms bank, had kept the account up the date while he was travelling with John) and headed off up the road towards Airlie Beach, whereby now, Bill and Beryl had retired. At Airlie Beach, Tom and Bill bought a bar and backpacker hostel. Tom became a popular figure around town, entertaining all with his ‘tall tales of his amazing adventures. Sitting on his porch one day, he mused, “maybe I should write a book. I’ll call it Toms Amazing Adventures”.
The End
Tom was glad to be taking a break from his amazing adventures. He woke the following day with sunlight streaming in Bill’s spare room window. It was a luxury to sleep in a bed with sheets again after his weeks on the road. He dozed off back to sleep and was woken again when Bill’s dog Ruffnut poked a wet nose onto his face. He could smell breakfast cooking, and his stomach rumbled at the thought of Beryl’s egg and bacon sandwiches.
Trying for Queensland
Tom was not happy. He had placed one extra order. One that he had forgotten to mention to Bill after he had set off from Victoria. The problem was, however, that and it hadn’t arrived. It was absolutely essential to his border crossing into Qld. This meant the crossing would be delayed until it came. Damn Australia Post! Tom had ordered in plenty of time. He estimated it had been sitting at the Sydney sorting centre for the last nine days without moving. Beryl had put in an inquiry about it three days ago -but there had been no response to that either.
While it was lovely staying with Beryl and Bill, he was getting nervous about being in the one spot for so long. Additionally, each day increased the risk to Bill and Beryl. To take his mind off it, Bill suggested they train and go for a bike ride. Saturday morning Bill and Tom were up early. Bill had the family over later that day for a BBQ, and Beryl insisted the lawn be mowed first. Tom tried to help, but he was still sulking about his Australia Post delivery not arriving yet.
While Bill and his family were outside for the BBQ, Tom stayed in his room to not be seen and rang ahead to Roma to make sure that everything was for his arrival there. Thankfully Bert assured him everything was fine – and the delay was not a problem.
A weekend waiting
Bill and Beryl were late up on Sunday, and both were a bit under the weather. “Too much sun yesterday”, Bill insisted. Tom had his doubts as he had noticed Bill put up shade umbrella’s in the afternoon. The three of them had a long discussion over lunch that day. Tom was sure there was no hope of the parcel arriving tomorrow, as the tracking hadn’t moved in ten days. In fact, he was now sure Australia Post had lost his package but felt it was best to push on and head for the border. Bill and Beryl suggested he wait one more day and cross on Tuesday night. The parcel may come Monday or Tuesday – but Tuesday would probably be quieter at the border than Monday. Tom thought about it and agreed.
Lightning Ridge
The next was Monday, and Bill and Beryl both had to work. Bill went off to the apple orchard, and Beryl was caddying for Tiny Woods, who was in town for an exhibition match.
That afternoon, they all went to the Lightning Ridge water park. It was quiet, and they had the place almost to themselves as a Monday.
Paranoia sets in
During the day, the internet was down while the NBN crew worked on the pit. Bill was concerned it could be an undercover border patrol crew and kept an eye on them, but a few hours later, the crew packed up and left, and the internet came on. False alarm.
The Night Crossing
That night – Bill woke Tom at 2 am and said it was time to go. So they drove up the backroads towards the border, and Bill pulled over the side of the road when they turn came up on the right. They sat there in the dark for a few minutes, allowing their eyes to adjust to the total darkness and ensure no other cars were passing to see them.
Positive they were alone, Tom reached into the back seat and pulled out two sets of night vision goggles. The Wolfcub Explorer 3M Thermal Monocular would work in total darkness and allow Bill to drive with no headlights up the narrow dirt road towards the border. They both put them on, pulled out, and turned up Angledool Road and took another dirt road to the end.
Alone
From here on, Tom was on his own. The darkness was absolute. With the fuse removed from the interior lights, not even that glowed weakly as Tom got out of the car into the scrub and removed the mountain bike from the bike rack. As Tom road off, using the night vision goggles to see, Bill turned the car around and drove back the way they had come.
It was just after 3 am and Tom had about three hours of darkness to get across the border.
Tom rode through the night without stopping. He drank from the water bladder in his backpack as he rode when thirsty. The night vision goggles revealed nothing apart from the odd startled kangaroo in the dense bush as he rode past them. Staying off the road in the scrub, he was almost to Dirranbandi by dawn. He had bypassed Hebel as he thought police might be patrolling there, being as it was the first from the border once in Qld.
Next Morning
Skirting around the outskirts of Dirranbandi, he joined up with a remote dirt road that would take him to St George. By now, the sun was coming up, so he rode down to the dried-up river bed, where he sat under a red gum and ate the sandwiches from his backpack that Beryl had made him the night before. Finished with his breakfast, he hopped back on his bike and started cycling towards St George. In the bike’s rearview mirror, he saw a cloud of dust approaching, and from the dust emerged a police patrol car.
