The soul of a dandelion

   May 14, 2008 – Am proud of this shot, as it took me an hour and a half to get it, with a 65 mm macro lens. This lens is a challenge for me as a photographer. It only works on manual, and there is absolutely no margin for error. The object must be perfectly still, and the lens position must be precise to within 1/8th of an inch. And you must be an inch or closer to shoot. The shot might look perfectly clear in the viewfinder, but often isn’t, and the lens must be used with a tripod, so positioning is difficult. I set the exposure high to let in too much light, and was rewarded for it. Macro photography can be something of a gimmick, and these shots, hard work, are the opposite of the bleak and distant farmscapes I began doing in the winter.