10 Notes
Cherry Tree Bud on Flickr.Another of my recent photos today, this is the frozen bud of a cherry blossom tree in my front garden.
It was taken two weeks ago after a particularly cold night, so cold that the spiders web attached to the tree had frozen over with ice crystals.
This is the first time I’d been out in the garden with a macro lens, this particular shot was taken with my Canon 18-55mm IS kit lens with a +10 close up filter screwed on the front. 
Focussing was particularly difficult so I ended up setting the lens to manual then adjusted to the distance from the camera to the bud to get it nice and sharp.
Since I took this shot I’ve now acquired some macro tubes for my m42 lenses so next time I’ll be trying these shots with one of my Helios lenses.

Cherry Tree Bud on Flickr.

Another of my recent photos today, this is the frozen bud of a cherry blossom tree in my front garden.

It was taken two weeks ago after a particularly cold night, so cold that the spiders web attached to the tree had frozen over with ice crystals.

This is the first time I’d been out in the garden with a macro lens, this particular shot was taken with my Canon 18-55mm IS kit lens with a +10 close up filter screwed on the front.

Focussing was particularly difficult so I ended up setting the lens to manual then adjusted to the distance from the camera to the bud to get it nice and sharp.

Since I took this shot I’ve now acquired some macro tubes for my m42 lenses so next time I’ll be trying these shots with one of my Helios lenses.

9 Notes
Frozen Spider’s Web on Flickr.
This weekend we had our first hard frost of the year, which made a perfect reason for me to get outside and test out some of the news lenses I’ve acquired over the last week. This photo was taken with a Jupiter-37A which is a 135mm f3.5 on an M42 screw mount. This particular lens dates from around 1991 so it’s over 20 years old and yet to look at you could mistake it for brand new. I’m having great fun with my collection of vintage lenses and the Jupiter-37A is quickly becoming one of my favourite, with a beautifully engineered 12 blade aperture that closes down in a near perfect circle. Using these old lens with their manual focus and apertures has taught me much more in a few weeks about taking photos than years of digital AF point and shoot. I’m planning to share some of what I’ve learned later this week when I finish writing up my beginners guide to shooting with vintage lenses.

Frozen Spider’s Web on Flickr.

This weekend we had our first hard frost of the year, which made a perfect reason for me to get outside and test out some of the news lenses I’ve acquired over the last week.

This photo was taken with a Jupiter-37A which is a 135mm f3.5 on an M42 screw mount. This particular lens dates from around 1991 so it’s over 20 years old and yet to look at you could mistake it for brand new.

I’m having great fun with my collection of vintage lenses and the Jupiter-37A is quickly becoming one of my favourite, with a beautifully engineered 12 blade aperture that closes down in a near perfect circle.

Using these old lens with their manual focus and apertures has taught me much more in a few weeks about taking photos than years of digital AF point and shoot. I’m planning to share some of what I’ve learned later this week when I finish writing up my beginners guide to shooting with vintage lenses.