Up Close 

Moving away from raindrops, I focussed on other objects I can photography with my macro lens. One of the orange leaves from yesterday's picture was this redder than orange-colored leaf. With a macro lens, I am able to get extremely close to objects. I set the leaf behind another leaf and photographed the design on the leaf. There are the sharp edges, veins on the leaf, the tip, and the dark spots on the colored leaf.

Orange

The next raindrops I took pictures of with my macro lens were these two. I angled my camera so that they were in front of a tree still full of orange leaves. I admire how the background of leaves is deeply blurred but if you look in the raindrop you can see a vague outline of the leaves. I also admire the crisp distinction between the left raindrop and branch. You can easily tell where the raindrop ends and the branch begins.

Mirror 

This picture is of the same raindrops as the last picture. In this picture, I changed the focus and exposure. I set the focus to the trees mirrored from inside the rain and I darkened the exposure. I like how the viewer can see inside the raindrop. It is something that I didn't see with my bare eyes until I adjusted the focus.

Morning Glare

I took this macro picture of hanging raindrops soon after the sun rose. I wanted to showcase the water and how it reflects light. The water that is on the branch casts a very harsh shadow toward the camera. Almost making the picture overexposed. To know when a picture is overexposed, the photographer has to see their picture on a bigger screen than the camera. When I took this picture I thought it was exposed correctly, but on my computer, I can see the blue, red, and green that make up the display. This is one of the biggest indicators of an overexposed picture.

Dew

I came back to this plant for a second time to showcase the dew. It always seems to have dew on it because I went but after this picture for a third time, and there was still dew on it. I like how the focus is on the hairs and there are objects blocking the main focus of the plant.

Magnify

With my macro lens, the closest I am able to get to an object is 0.98 feet. Since my camera has a focal length of 90mm, I can get extremely close to an object. With this picture, I got as close as possible to the raindrop. I then set the focus to the bottom of the raindrop to make the entire raindrop in focus. The raindrop also magnified the part of the leaf underneath it. The brown and pink colors in the raindrop is part of the leaf.

Circle of Water

In the center of this plant, was a circle of water. Only in that circle was water, everywhere else on the plant was dry. I don't understand why the water made a circle like that. It could be water likes to stick to itself or that the sun 'burned' a hole in the water and left the other part still wet.

Star

Near the rainbow leaf, was this leaf. This leaf was partially above water and had a deep wedge in the middle of it. I took the picture with the sun behind the leaf. The made some of the water glisten and reflect the light. I put my camera very close to the water to get the best reflection. I made sure to capture the entirety of reflection to percieve the complete star.

Rainbow Leaf

One of the leaves that fell into the water underneath the sweet gum tree, looks almost like a rainbow. The leaf is red, orange, and yellow, and where the water touches the leaf is blue. Under the rainbow leaf are a dead leaf and some mud. The dead leaf almost seems to have scales on it. There are spots of a darker brown and spots of light brown.

Sweet Gum

Looking up from the flowers, I found this sweet gum tree. Even though I took this in late December, there are still leaves on this tree. I noticed the lighting from the left side of the ball. It lit up the left side while the right side remained very dark. The ball also appears to still be wet from the rain storm as well. Some of the light reflects while the parts where the light doesn't reach that part of the ball seem dry.

Wall of Water

On another similar flower, instead of focussing on the center of the flower, I focused on the pedals. On one of them, it was covered with raindrops. From this picture, it is clear to see the extreme depth perception of a macro lens. The raindrops and petal that are in focus are all the same distance to the lens. Anything else, even if it is a few millimeters farther from the lens, is out of focus.

Icicles

This flower has the same 'hairs' that the first flower when I took pictures with my macro lens has. After the rain, the 'hairs' must have become filled with water. This makes them almost look like icicles. The light reflecting off of them, they are white like ice and straight. When I was taking the picture, I didn't notice the brown object on the 'hairs.' It isn't too big so it doesn't completely ruin the picture, but it is still bothersome.

Hanging

On the flower next to the last one, the raindrops were hanging off of it. I purposely had the focus on the raindrop instead of the flower. I also like how the viewer can see the complete circle of the raindrop. Since the raindrop is hanging, it becomes a sphere. Unfortunately, the raindrop reflects light. This made finding the right exposure extremely hard, causing the picture to be slightly brighter than I would have liked. Luckily, a quick fixing of the exposure in Photoshop fixed it.

Rain

After a heavy nighttime downpour, I took these macro rain pictures. This first one is of a single raindrop on a flower. The hardest part of taking a picture like this is making sure the focus is correct. The water magnified the air bubbles on the leaf. On the bottom of the droplet are tiny white dots which are the air bubbles. I tried to have the focus directly on the air bubbles which would also help to have the entire droplet in focus.

Filament

In the center of all flowers are filaments. It's the object that sticks up out of the middle of the flower. I like this picture because of the natural contrast in colors. The bright pink is the main part of the picture, but it doesn't overpower the light green. The focus on macro lens' is very sharp and small. There is a tiny line where the object is in focus and everything else is out of focus. The farther the object is from the focus line, the more out of focus it gets.

Dew

The second to last and my favorite picture in the first trial with the new lens is this picture. It is of a flower that hadn't grown its flowers yet. When I was taking this picture, I didn't notice the dew. Looking over it later, I found the 'hairs' sticking off the flower and dew on the hairs. It is my favorite because of the precious focus on the forefront flowers and the drastic decrease in focus as the viewer looks farther back in the picture.

Fuzzy Leaf

The next flower I took pictures of wasn't a flower but a fuzzy leaf. I have taken pictures of this type of leaf and different types of leaves before, but never this close. With the picture this close, I think the white fuzzy part caught an ant. The viewer of the picture can also see the very tiny water droplets on the white parts.

Pink with a hint of Green

The next flower I took pictures of resembled a lettuce head. Except for being green, the flower was pink with small parts green. I enjoy taking pictures of this flower without the macro lens because of the waves in the petals and interesting color, but now the flower looks even better. The leaves look sharp and rough around the edges but smooth in the center.

Macro

While trying out my new macro lens, I photographed several of the same objects as before just much closer. I have taken many pictures of this purple and white flower. With the new lens, I am able to get extremely close. It allows the photographer and viewer to see things that the human eye can't see clearly. For instance, who knew this flower had small 'hairs' in the center. A human eye and regular lens can't see them, but a macro lens can.

Blurred Motion

Similar to the picture of the bridge and lights going around the pond, is how I took this picture. I had a long shutter speed which captured several seconds of the water moving, this made the water blurred. Since it was a long exposure, I had to use a tripod to keep the rest of the picture still. When taking a long exposure picture, the photographer has to not touch or move the camera during the exposure as it might cause the entire picture to become blurred.