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Description
Okies! So My Mother sent this Giant Hyacinth over to my lovely wife, as a little Easter / Get well gift. I decided to get out my close up filters and do a little playing to find out what these dudes will let me get away with.
Before I get into what I learned, let me first tell you there was no cropping done on this photo at all. This flower has blooms that are about 1/2"diameter.
What I actually learned.
My lens, which is the 18~55 kit zoom that came with my D-40x is about 2 inches away from the flower itself! Normally, I cannot focus any closer than about 17 inches with this lens. Yes, this would have been a much better shot had I used a bit of artificial light, and a tripod. But that wasn't the point of the playing I was doing. The Close up filter kit I used I got from Ritz Camera, and was only $30. The kit included a +1, +2, & +4. For this shot I put all three on which gave me an effective +7.
I know it would be cool to be able to spring for a $600+ Macro lens.... but considering I don't have that kind of change laying around, I believe these will be fun to try out on the bugs, and flowers this spring and summer.

Description
Okies! So My Mother sent this Giant Hyacinth over to my lovely wife, as a little Easter / Get well gift. I decided to get out my close up filters and do a little playing to find out what these dudes will let me get away with.
Before I get into what I learned, let me first tell you there was no cropping done on this photo at all. This flower has blooms that are about 1/2"diameter.
What I actually learned.
My lens, which is the 18~55 kit zoom that came with my D-40x is about 2 inches away from the flower itself! Normally, I cannot focus any closer than about 17 inches with this lens. Yes, this would have been a much better shot had I used a bit of artificial light, and a tripod. But that wasn't the point of the playing I was doing. The Close up filter kit I used I got from Ritz Camera, and was only $30. The kit included a +1, +2, & +4. For this shot I put all three on which gave me an effective +7.
I know it would be cool to be able to spring for a $600+ Macro lens.... but considering I don't have that kind of change laying around, I believe these will be fun to try out on the bugs, and flowers this spring and summer.