654 - Rawlins Conservatory
Today I hit up my friendly neighborhood botanical garden.
It’s been awhile. I used to be an avid botanical explorer but I’ve since fallen off the circuit. Until now.
Having worked at District Camera for several months, I’ve come across all kinds of photography gadgets I never even knew existed. And one of these gadgets turned out to be… drum roll please…. a lens extension tube.
In civilian terms, it’s basically a ring you put between your lens and the camera that allows your lens to focus closer to a subject. This gives your lens a magnification effect, similar to that of a macro lens. This means you can make small objects look bigger.
More specifically, it’s a 1.5x magnification effect, compared to the 2 - 2.5x magnification effect you’d get from a macro lens. That’s pretty damn good considering I got this thing for $30, while most macro lenses sit in the $900+ range.
A steep price to pay to photograph some bugs and plants.
But now that I had something to get a little macro action going, I decided to take it for a spin at Rawlins Conservatory. Located in Baltimore, this botanical garden has one of the oldest glass greenhouses in the United States. Hubba-bubba.
And not only was I testing my extension tubes, I was also testing a DJI Osmo Mobile Gimbal to crank out some Instagram Reels with. Ever since that Mallows Bay Reel blew up, I’ve decided to add a side Reel to pretty much every adventure I go on.
It takes minimal effort to do, and the gains seem like they could be reel. No pun intended.
Anyway, back to that tube.
I snagged nearly a dozen shots with that thing strapped on, but here’s my top six shots:
“Spike TV”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 24-105mm f/4 G + 10+18mm Extension Tubes
[ISO 4000 ~ 105mm ~ f/18 ~ 1/400s]
“Orange Petals”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 24-105mm f/4 G + 10+18mm Extension Tubes
[ISO 4000 ~ 105mm ~ f/18 ~ 1/160s]
“Flipping the Bird”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 24-105mm f/4 G + 10+18mm Extension Tubes
[ISO 4000 ~ 105mm ~ f/18 ~ 1/160s] [Hand-Held Focus Stack]
“Pink Lady”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 24-105mm f/4 G + 10+18mm Extension Tubes
[ISO 4000 ~ 73mm ~ f/14 ~ 1/250s]
“Shadow of Doubt”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 24-105mm f/4 G + 10+18mm Extension Tubes
[ISO 2500 ~ 105mm ~ f/18 ~ 1/160s]
“Horned Beast Pt. I”
Taken with Sony a7rIV + Sony 24-105mm f/4 G + 10+18mm Extension Tubes
[ISO 2000 ~ 56mm ~ f/5 ~ 1/3200s]
I think the biggest thing I learned today is that macro photography requires a ton of light. Since the aperture needs to be f/8+, you need your subject to be LIT up to compensate for the dark.
These shots also have such a narrow depth of field when magnified (even at f/8) that I’m realizing focus stacking is extremely necessary in order to get enough focus. Unfortunately I didn’t have a tripod with me for this adventure, but I was still able to capture some interesting stuff with the narrow field.
Successful shoot. I’m gonna keep that bag in my tube for all upcoming shoots. Takes up basically no room, it weighs nothing, and it’s an easy way to snag some macros along the way.
No brainer.
