Dandelion Fluff

So I was given a macro lens tube from a nice photographer friend and then it was suddenly May, which apparently in Internet Photography Land, is "Macro May". Which as far as I can tell, means I'm supposed to use the tubes a lot and take pictures of things really, really close up!

I've been having fun with a variety of flowers. But I really thought it would be fun to take pictures of a dandelion being blown!

Here's how it went:

First, a dandelion intact, prior to any blowing. I chose the smallest lens tube in the hope of being able to see a decent amount of the dandelion in focus, but so far as I can tell, macro lens tubes wind up with a super shallow depth of field (compared to a macro lens, I assume). I haven't played with my settings a ton, so maybe that's not always the case... but that's where I'm at, now. Anyway, I just held it in one hand and took the picture with the camera in the other:



It looked pretty in the sunlight but tragically, this was as in-focus as it got. It looked better through my viewfinder so I'm not sure what's up with that. My shutter speed was quite high so it's not a camera shake issue... something about the lens tube causes this and only about 1/3 pictures winds up focused the way I think it will be.

Then I brought it down low enough and summoned my assistants (aka children) to do some blowing.

Best one I got from this pose. I didn't love how the grass just disappeared into a green blur. I might as well have had it in front of a green wall or something! 

Interestingly, even using the multiple-frame mode on my (admittedly rather basic and thus probably not that fast) camera, my options were apparently barely-blown or basically-done dandelion. I tried having the kids blow more slowly, but just couldn't get what I envisioned.

Anyway, we went right down to the grass level for the next attempt... and found a patch of sunlight for added shine!

Not bad but I wish it was more in focus. 

However, being down in the grass meant my kids were blowing from the top-down and it didn't have the greatest path in my opinion. So, I had them stand on a chair and aimed the shot over the fence so at least the background would be more variable. 

This would have been PERFECT if it had been in focus... sadly... this was the best I got. Oh well. 

I need a new camera (I have my eye on one) that is full-frame, because then my lens wouldn't crop things in so much. I'm also not a fan of the directly-centered dandelion, but couldn't fix the crop without cutting something off. Oh well... it's a learning process. Macro May has been fun!