Well That Didn’t Go To Plan

bee on flower

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.

autumn leaves Well That Didn't Go To Plan
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.

radioactive waste Well That Didn't Go To Plan
Stock Image
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.

canon 16-35
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