Macro Revisited Because Macro

I really, really enjoy making big pictures of little things.

I work in a small, mostly white tabletop set with a Sigma 70mm F2.8 Art DG Macro for Sony FE. The lens couples to the camera’s electronics, so the autofocus works, but I focus most of the time manually. I’ve written before that I am a “photovore” — Photographic Omnivore — and I want to photograph everything I see. Our “spring” weather has been late (very), so not conducive to going outside. My little studio is always warm and cozy and free of wind and weather.

Grape Hyacinth

Blooming early in my daughter-in-law’s garden. She brought a vaseful down for me to shoot.

For these two, the point of critical focus was on the anthers of the upper left flower. The red background in most of the pictures is a red placemat.

Blue Grape Hyacinth. These are incredibly tiny. I did not focus stack, preferring to let the fall-off emphasize the sharpness. They look like tiny bells and remind me of foxglove.

Grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) is a mid-spring blooming, perennial bulb in the Lily Family (Liliaceae) native to southeastern Europe. It is not a true hyacinth (genus Hyacinthus). The name of the genus, Muscari, comes from the Greek word for musk, referring to the scent produced by the flowers of many species in the genus. The common name comes from the resemblance of the clusters of the small, bell-shaped, cobalt-blue flowers to upside-down clusters of grapes. — University of Wisconsin, horticultural extension

Itsy-Bitsy Ladybird

This very dirty ladybird practically landed in my lap — really. I don’t know where she came from (to me, all ladybirds are “she”), but she’d been deep in some dirt and landed on my sleeve. I walked her to my tabletop “studio” and coaxed her onto the backdrop. She immediately started running for the nearest edge and was probably supremely annoyed when I kept gently pushing her back. Shooting living, moving critters is pretty hard, but it’s rewarding to get a nice, sharp picture. I usually use constant lights, but off-camera flash is better when the subject is live and in living color.

One-eighth inch (3mm) ladybird that’s been somewhere very dirty, photographed with a Sigma 70mm F2.8 Art DG Macro, Sony A6300, 100%, cropped. Photo by author. She was fully alive and crawling toward me as I backed the camera carefully away, relying on focus peaking to keep her sharp. Diffused flash. 1/8000-sec.

Moths? In the Bathroom?

The moths pictured below measure 9mm from “nose” to the wing's trailing edge. Curiously, these tiny critters are found in my (ready for this?) bathroom! The left-hand face shot is focused on its luminous green eyes. The upcurling abdomen is characteristic of the species, but no one explains why.

I have seen as many as four of these moths, all contentedly squandering their lives on my bathroom walls (on the right), woodwork (left), and sometimes towels and even the ceiling. They hardly ever move. There is no grain for the mealworms to feed on, so anyone’s guess what they are doing there, except, um, contemplating (do meal moths have navels)? They were photographed in situ because any attempt to trap one spooked them. Even with a monster eye staring at them, the bugs held quite still, but getting critical focus in tight, awkward quarters proved daunting. There will be swearing.

Thanks to humanity’s ability to store dried grain crops, the Meal Moth has a global presence. Larvae of this species are not particular about the grain and eat into stashes of wheat, barley, corn, rice, and other staples. (Continued below)

The adult moth is a chestnut brown color with a central, paler brown band that may have olive green hues. This paler band is bordered in thin, white, wavy lines and it stretches across the center of the wings. The inner middle part of the wings is dark. The abdomen may curl upward, poking out between its wings. The caterpillar is creamy white in color with a brown head. Its plump body may be seen inside bags or containers of grains as it feeds on the endless food supply. — Caption and this quote Updated 2022 by Staff Writer, Insect Identification .org

Levitating Penny

This is fairly basic and unimaginative, but I wanted to shoot this beat-up scratched penny against a blue background. I tried placing the coin directly on the backdrop, a rumpled microfiber cloth, but the deeply textured cloth drew too much attention to itself. I would have to levitate the coin.

On the left, the big hunk of iron is the alligator clip of my “third hand” tool. It is pinching a piece of plastic adhesive on the back of the penny. I could alter the DOF with the aperture, in this case, f/16 @ 1/3-second. Seamlessly cloning out the clip was beyond easy in modern Photoshop using Content-Aware Fill. I’d have shot it on glass in the old days, but then reflections could be a headache.

Gear and Suchlike

My “third hand” tool is the cheapest on Amazon sells, under $10. Most are used for aid in soldering delicate electronics. Mine came with a magnifying glass that I removed as all I want is the alligator clips.

“Siggy,” my Sigma 70mm F2.8 Art DG Macro for Sony FE, a full-frame lens that is spectacularly sharp on a half-frame body. You can see the selector switches on the barrel (left). Most of the time I use manual focus, but for the ladybird I used autofocus. It can be slow and occasionally misses but living subjects are hard.