Exploring the wonders of creation through a 50mm lens...and other lenses too.

At this point you have probably seen several images here on Weekly Fifty that follow this same basic setup: a single subject sitting on a reflective base in front of a blurry background. It’s a simple composition but it’s just so much fun to shoot these kinds of pictures that I wouldn’t be surprised if more show up in the future. So if you like them, great! But if you’re tired of these kinds of images…well, just be forewarned that there may or may not be more on the way. I honestly don’t know as I’m writing this post, but all I’m saying is it’s a super fun and creative style that takes very little effort. (Though it doesn’t hurt to have a good macro lens too!)

As you might have guessed this is an ornament from our Christmas tree which also gives you an idea of the scale of the image. It’s not super small–about 3 inches from top to bottom–so you might be wondering why I shot it with a macro lens. Why not a normal lens? The answer lies not in the idea of making small subjects appear large (or, rather, normal size) but in being able to focus very close to any subject you choose. Most lenses have a minimum focusing distance of about one to two feet depending on the focal length and other optical properties of the lens. That means that you cannot physically focus on objects that are closer than your outstretched hand, give or take a few inches. To get this shot I had to be able to focus much closer than that, in order to make the image just how I wanted.

Shooting at such close distance meant that the depth of field was insanely small–the figure’s eyes are sharp but the tassel on his hat is not, and the background of the miniature diorama is blurry even though it is less than an inch away. The background of the entire composition is, of course, just some crumpled-up aluminum foil but it appears bright and colorful because directly behind the camera is our Christmas tree, and nearly all other lights in the house were turned out which meant that the light you see here is almost entirely coming from a hundred tiny little colored bulbs.

While I have certainly shot images like this before, none of them had this degree of color and vibrancy, and I think this could very well end up being one of my favorite images that I have shot with my macro lens. It captures something unique that I don’t think I could get any other way, and it shows a certain point in time, Christmas, in a fun and interesting way. I am learning so much with this macro lens and I can’t wait to see what this new year holds for it and for my photography :)

This one was really fun to shoot. What you’re looking at is a very small snow globe, about 2.5 inches tall, sitting on a clear surface in front of a crumpled sheet of aluminum foil. The setup is really simple, but the result is a photo I am quite proud to have taken. This isn’t the first photo I have posted here on Weekly Fifty that follows a similar format (one single subject shot against blurry aluminum foil background) and it likely won’t be the last, mostly because these images are just so much fun to create. I learned how to take these kinds of photos years ago with my 50mm f/1.8 lens, and it’s even more fun to revisit this concept with my 105mm f/2.8 macro lens.

There were a few tricky aspects of getting this picture to look just right, but maybe not in the way you would think. The first problem was getting the aperture just right in order to make sure enough of the tree was in focus, but I also had to rotate the snow globe to be in just the right position so the tree was facing the proper direction. You might think that’s a pretty simple issue but it got to be rather complicated because I couldn’t get the entire tree in focus without using a small aperture, which I didn’t want to do. I eventually found a few branches that I wanted crystal clear, but then I also had to deal with the lighting issue.

See that giant window being reflected on the surface of the globe? Yeah, that’s our dining room window right behind my camera and it presented an interesting challenge. I needed a big light source to get this photo to look right, but I couldn’t exactly move the light source to keep its reflection from obscuring the tree. I didn’t even notice this at first, and it took a while to get everything to line up just right: the aperture (and thus, the depth of field), the focusing, and the window behind me. My wife offered a few helpful suggestions as well, and I was glad to have her input because it’s her snow globe in the photo, and in the end I’m super happy with how this turned out. And now I want to make more shots like this :)

One thing I am really enjoying about my new Macro lens is its power as a storytelling vehicle. I’m finding that some of my favorite close-up photos aren’t just everyday objects, but things in my life that are part of a larger story or narrative. Of course it’s fun to take pictures of ordinary everyday objects like leaves, flowers, bugs, and the like, but I’m finding that I get greater satisfaction out of shots like this one that carry some degree of meaning or tell a particular story.

My dad was a railroader for his entire adult life, starting at the age of 18 and working until he retired over 40 years later. He wore a lot of (hard)hats during those decades, worked first-, second-, and third-shift, and drove his bike instead of his car almost every single day. (When I was a kid we were a one-car family so his practice was partly out of necessity, but I think he just rode his bicycle because he enjoyed it more than driving a car.) When he finally punched the clock one last time, BNSF presented him with this watch as a way of commemorating his years of service–a watch that he wears to this day, and as you can tell by the nicks and scratches on its face, has seen more than its fair share of use. That’s something my dad taught me that has stuck with me over the years: if you really value something, you shouldn’t keep it in on a shelf or hidden in a box. You should use it, and in so doing, show your appreciation for the value it brings to your life.

When my parents were visiting for Thanksgiving I asked my dad if I could take a picture of his watch with my macro lens, and he gladly acquiesced. The setup for this photo was pretty simple: the watch and my camera were just sitting on my living room floor, and there was a big light source off to the left thanks to the door to our porch. I played around with the exact position of the watch, how I wanted the light to be reflected around the bezel, and what exactly I wanted to focus on which was particularly crucial given the extremely shallow depth of field. I decided the most important element was the “Railroad Approved” moniker, especially since the BNSF logo would still be discernible even though it was slightly blurry as a result. I intentionally set the hands to the classic ten-and-two position common for timepiece photography, but didn’t stop the second hand in order to capture just the smallest bit of movement and dynamic energy in the frame. This meant that I had to wait until it came around to roughly the 20-second mark to take a few shots, because it just looked strange in most other positions. (Try it for yourself–there’s a reason most watches are shot with the hour and minute hand at ten-and-two, and the second hand pointing downward.)

I quite like how this turned out, though it’s a far cry from actual timepiece photography with good lighting and a photographer who knows what he or she is doing. Still, I had fun taking it and I’m glad I could capture this bit of my dad’s history at the railroad with one simple photograph.

As I learn to use my Macro lens, one of the things find most enjoyable is its ability to transform everyday objects into something unique and special, and at times, almost otherworldly. That’s my impression here, anyway, though I’m curious to know what you think. This is one of the tuning pegs of the electric guitar I bought when I was in high school (or was it college? I forget, honestly) and still play to this day. It’s a pretty basic Epiphone Les Paul with one or two modifications I made long ago, including a Seymour-Duncan humbucker that I put in backwards for some reason. It was intentional, but I honestly don’t think I could tell you if it affected the sound at all. Maybe I just did it to look cool? In any case, while the guitar itself isn’t going to show up in a museum anytime soon, it means a lot to me and still brings me a lot of enjoyment–especially since my wife took it in to the local music store for a bit of an overhaul two years ago. It hasn’t looked, felt, or sounded that good since I bought it :)

All that is perhaps beside the point, but it’s related to another aspect of my Macro lens that I have found I quite enjoy. Rather than taking pictures of just random objects up close, I like shooting subjects that have a sense of meaning and purpose. This isn’t just any guitar tuning peg…it’s the one on my guitar, the one with a rich sense of personal history to it, and the one I am using to teach my kids now that they are old enough to learn. It’s things like this that make close-up photography super cool :)

As for the nitty-gritty details, oh my. There was so much to consider when I shot this picture: lighting, angle, subject, background, distance to subject, and of course aperture. This was taken at f/54 using a ten-second exposure, and even then the depth of field was almost too small. One of the side effects of such a small aperture is that every tiny speck of dust on the lens (not to mention the surface of the guitar) was visible on the final image, and required a lot of clean-up work in Lightroom. I am quite fond of the final image and I like that it has a story to tell, if not on its own then at least from the one who took it. And maybe it will even make you think about something similar in your life too.