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Week 14 was themed “Little Things”, for some reason however I had “Macro” stuck in my head all week so my shots were focused more on that specifically than on “little things” which brings to mind many different shot possibilities, I guess I’ll have to shoot those some other time.

So earlier in the week I made a list of about 6 possible shots I wanted to try and I set up shooting them toward the end of the week, and as it seems lately the last minute shots turned out to be the best. I wanted a macro shot that was different than the typical flower (I’ve had lots of those lately and wanted to give us all a break) or the more common macro images ie: a bug, coins,rocks etc. Of course there’s nothing I could shoot that hasn’t been done before so I wasn’t so naive as to think that my shot would be original, but I wanted to showcase some aspects of light and texture and the fun transfiguration that shooting macro allows as even common objects can be drastically transformed simply by getting close.

Fresh orange slice with 50mm f/1.8 + 36mm extension tube.

A week ago we received a crate of freshly picked (I mean fresh! Picked no more than 2 days before) oranges as part of a fund raising effort by a neighbor who is a member of the local rotary club to help some kids in Brazil that they sponsor earn money for school. These are the best oranges I have ever had! They’re so juicy and sweet that our whole family has probably overdosed on Vitamin C this week.

I set up on the kitchen table with my Youngnuo YN-560 flash with a portable 12×8 inch softbox attached and actually used the face of the small softbox as the backdrop to give it a clean white background and backlight it at the same time. I set the flash to 1/8 power and triggered it using my Cactus V5 triggers

The 50mm f/1.8 with extension tubes is so much fun to use, I shot way too many shots of orange slices at different angles and apertures and also using different sized slices of oranges, I loved how the back light would flow through the orange slice and its cells illuminating all the variations in the fruit. (I was surprised at how many air bubbles were visible)

A cross section of a slice of orange 50mm f/1.8 + 36mm extension tube.

As luck would have it we also had our family Easter party on Saturday so I took a few shots of the yummy food we ate including decorated Easter Eggs, and a really yummy mini-basket cookie my sister made.

My daughters egg. She loved the blue green combination. 50mm f/1.8 +20mm extension tube.

My nieces egg, any guess as to her name?... 50mm f/1,8 +20mm extension tube

These were so yummy! A mini cookie Easter basket full of jelly bean "eggs" and a licorice handle, with green coconut "grass" 50mm f/1.8 +20mm extension tube

I took a bunch of shots of these mini cookie baskets for my sister to use on her food blog.

I had a blast shooting macro of objects that I had not tried before, and was really pleased with how they turned out, and that I was able to try out new flash techniques as I’m wanting to increase my comfort with using flash and the creative doors it can open. The eggs and cookie shots all used flash as well with the same mini softbox, with my sister and mom as my VALs! It’s always great to have free help…

Happy Shooting!

Howard