Waiting for Macro

While I've been waiting for my macro lens to arrive from China I went out to try once more to see if I could take anything close to a decent macro shot with my new camera. For some reason I have not been able to take any such shots of quality since I bought this camera. It's a good camera, of course, but I just never have figured out how to get decent close-up shots with it.


So yesterday I went out in my mother-in-law's back yard and tried a few new options with the lens and settings. This time I came close to getting the desired effect. But I'm still very much looking forward to receiving the macro lens that I ordered. When it comes I'm hoping that I'll finally be able to get some truly first-class images with it.


What is strange to me is that some of my older, cheaper digital cameras (also by Canon) gave me much better macro shots than this pricier machine. I suspect it's because I had more time to practice with them, but it could just be that their more limited lenses were better attuned to macro photography than the lens one gets with the new Canon Rebel models.

Flower in the rain.

Another of the flowers. These are about the only color left in the yard now that the azaleas have faded.

I love watching the backyard hemlocks produce new needles every Spring. Especially now that the eastern hemlock is all but extinct in our high country here in the Carolinas.

For such a big tree, Tsuga canadensis produces really tiny cones.

One of the two 42-year-old hemlocks in the yard.

The other hemlock on the far side of the hard seems to embrace this big pine.