Petal to the Macro
More from the Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens that I rented for the weekend. To find out more about the lens and the challenges of working with it look at my Macro Salt Shaker post of yesterday. This post features part of a single petal from a flowering plum-tree in our front yard. I stuck it to a pane of glass on a small drop of water, with a dark background and attempted to light it from behind as well as in front. The lighting source is from a window with the assistance of a foil covered card to reflect light. All shot on tripod, 2 second delay on shutter, live view mode (ie: mirror up), matrix metering mode, manual exposure.
The first two shots are at a 5:1 ratio (5x magnification on the sensor). I have not cropped it or really altered the image much, other than to remove dust from the black background and a bit of sharpening of the exported images prior to uploading to WP. The bottom image is approximately a 100% crop from within the second photo. This lens has some quite strange bokeh and other effects which I will show more in future posts. I think that some of the odd effects on these cells of the petal are from the lens. In any case, I like the effect, it is a bit like a decoration of some kind.
And, I have never before looked so closely at the petal of a small flower, so even if there are some strange lens effects, it does not mapper too much as there is a lot of new (to me) information in these shots.
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Canon 5Dii, Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x Macro Lens, ISO100. Top: f-10, 1/10th second, 5x. Middle: f-10, 1/8th second, 5x. Bottom ~ 100% crop from middle image.
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burnt embers 
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It looks more like an insect wing than a petal. So beautiful. I guess we rarely see the world as it really is.
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I think that is true, even at a scale our eyes are built for and when we are staring right at something, we usually only see what our brain expects to see.
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So true. Or what we have been conditioned to notice.
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Wow, shimmery beaiutiful!
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Hi Karen – thanks so much. For a white petal with a touch of pink, the size of your baby fingernail, it s pretty surprising to find all this variety and detail lurking in something that on its own separated from the flower seems pretty mundane.
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Jeez, my friend, I had no idea how intricate these leaves really are. Isn’t this just fabulous. Really looking forward to more of these posts, to see what you came up with!
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Hi Toad – thank you for coming by and your enthusiastic comment. I tried using it out of doors, but the breeze was enough to throw everything off, so I ended up indoors for most of it. More to come in the next few days.
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Wow, amazing shots, Ehpem. Looks like you had a lot of fun and got your money’s worth out of the lens rental. I have thought of doing that before, but so far have not. Nice going.
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Hi Danita – I did have fun, and I think I got my money’s worth, though I wish I could have found a few more hours for playing. I had ideas that I never got to try.
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Sorry everyone that I just responded to. The computer was logged into my wife’s account and I did not notice till after I had done on the responses. Cleaned it up, but if you signed up for notifications, you will have been showered with emails.
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That’s one incredible lens, Sally
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Hi Sally – isn’t it? I have about a week’s worth of posts from this rental, so you will be seeing more, though perhaps not in a continuous series.
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Wow! The fact that you can see the cell walls is amazing. I’m stunned by these images. I love how the petal’s sheen is reinterpreted as individual reflections off each cell. These are amazing. Coolest lens ever!
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That is cool – I had not thought of it being the petal’s sheen I was seeing as those tiny reflections, but of course you are right. Little prisms of light. Also, from a distance these blossoms look a bit pink, but that is all coming from the centre of the flower.
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Oh, nature. She’s an amazing thing.
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Indeed. Wondrous.
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One of the best things about of macro/micro work is the discovery of the fact that the closer you look, the more complex things appear to be. It’s a small world. Compared to the first transistors, semiconductor transistors are too small to see with the unaided eye. Your computer would be the size of a refrigerator and weigh as much had they not shrunk over the years. There is a world of discovery to be made. I like these shots. Very much.
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Hi Ken. There is always something smaller to look at, if the magnification can be brought to bear. It helps a lot that the cells of trees are small, or the trees would be the size of small mountains.
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back to Hooke 1665 and the discovery of the cellular naure of plants….
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Yes – just think what someone like Hooke could have done with technology like this.
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