Macro, Macro Man

I bought a new lens yesterday. I already have a nice compliment of lenses that cover most situations. My EFS 10-22 lens is excellent for wide angle shots. Its extremely wide, even on my smaller sensor camera. The Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens is a very nice all purpose lens. The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens is an excellent zoom.

There are a few things that my trio of lenses do not cover. I do not have a really long telephoto lens. The 70-200 is a great lens, but even with a 1.4 extender, its not ideal for nature photography. I don't do a lot of nature photography, though, and those lenses can be pretty pricey. I'm sure I'll get one some day, but not quite yet.

If one of my gaps was at the very long range of photography, the other missing piece was the very short range, i.e. macro photography. If you want to play with macro photography you need a macro lens.

I ended up buying the Canon EF 100 mm f/2.8 USM Macro Lens. The reviews I've ready highly recommend this lens. The L series macro lens may be a higher quality lens, but it is more than twice the price of my new lens.

I've been playing around a bit with the new lens. We have some flowers in the yard that became my subjects. If you notice, the backround of most of the photographs is black. I used a trick that I learned from a book. I used the timer to take the picture, and held a black shirt behind the flower. This eliminates any clutter in the background, and I think the black is a nice contract to the colorful flowers.