Macro Monday 32, plant bits and a bee

After escaping the cat snooze fest last week, I was out to do some macro shots while the light was good. These are the centre of the fake sunflowers, as Linda calls them. It looks like they've been lightly salted. These first 4 are at 5x magnification, so the width of the screen is only a few mm across.

A petal tip from the same flower.

This one is a little odd because it looks like there's massive depth of field for a macro photo. There isn't, but I love the transition from the vertical wall on the left, to the horizontal on the right, with the line of in focus cells leading you along. Totally by accident, I assure you.

No, this isn't a predator, but you can be forgiven for thinking so. It's a poppy leaf.

Then from the other day.

The hens and chicks are so much fun to shoot I just can't help myself. I think the first is about 3x and the rest are at 5x. Doing this hand held really only works when you can rest the camera on something.

That ant was playing peekaboo the entire time. This is the clearest shot of that petal, and I think the ant is mooning me.

Some of you may have seen this on Facebook already. I set the macro lens to 3x, tweaked the settings for proper exposure, then chased bees on the mint plant for 30 minutes and 1060 or so shots. I didn't look through the viewfinder or use live view, just waved the camera about, knowing the lens had to be quite close to the bees, and pointed at it. It was a very interesting exercise in hand eye coordination. These are the only two that are in focus to show something recognizable. Amy asked if the dragon fly from the other day was giving me the stink eye for getting so close, but I didn't think so. The bee is giving me stink eye big time!

Just a bit of the mint. Normally I wouldn't show you such a photo, but 2 out of 1060, sheesh.

Peony of the Day (July 5)

Driftwood of the Day
Now back to South Napier beach, for our last full day in Napier. There's 47 more photos to go from a big day. Lots of pebbles interacting with wood, if you like those shots. Here we go!