Playing With Macro

When I shot the old railroad engines and cars a few weeks ago, I pulled out a 105 mm macro lens, one that allows extreme close-up photography, and used it for some of my shots of small rusty objects.  When I got home however, I decided to take a few shots of some of the blooming flowers in the yard.

Magnolia blossom

The first shot is of the center portion of a magnolia blossom.  My magnolia tree is in a corner of the backyard near the corner of the house.  It is largely out of view of any of the windows.  Every year the magnolia blooms quickly and drops it’s pedals, often before I even realize it has happened and I miss it. This year was different!  I did manage to capture some images.  Macro shots like this usually result in very shallow depth of field, meaning there is a very small area of the photo which is in focus.

The grape hyacinths were also in full bloom and I captured a few shots of these also.

Grape Hyacinth close-up

The entire flower in the photo above is only about an inch and a half tall.  Once again, very shallow depth of field!  The last shot is another of the grape hyacinths but from a little more distance and showing more of the flowers.

Grape Hyacinths

Tonight a frost is predicted and many of the still existing blooms will probably be damaged!  I’m glad I got them when I did!