Rhodo Macro
Yet more shots from the bellows macro, this time of a rhododendron blossom, clearly showing the petal’s cells in the top image, and the pollen grains on the anther in the middle image.
Not to rub it in or anything, but we have a spectacular rhododendron in full flower in our garden right now.
I really like the soft bokeh of this lens/bellows combination. In the bottom image I have cropped the out of focus anther as it’s softness really appeals to me.
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All shots are brackets taken at the maximum magnification of 5x and processed in Photomatix using exposure fusion settings.
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Canon 5Dii, Canon FD 50mm f3.5 Macro Lens reversed with a Canon Macrophoto Coupler FL and mounted on a Canon FL Bellows with a Canon Life Size Adapter. All macro images ISO100, merged from 3 brackets each, variously at +/- 2.0 E.V.
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burnt embers 
It almost looks plastic in the first shot. Interesting!
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Hi Karen – it is a bit like plastic of the bubble-wrap sort. So many surprises at this scale.
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Fabulous details here, my friend, absolutely top drawer!
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Hi Toad – and aren’t we lucky to have a climate that allows this kind of flower in mid-winter?
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The first photo looked like beaded woven fabric – hard to believe it is a flower! Beautiful, Ehpem!
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Hi Lynn – it really is a lot of fun to make these photos as it is hard to know what is going to show on screen as the focus settles in (I do everything in live view mode so that there is no shake from the mirror lifting).
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The top one really grabs me. It looks like very fine knitting. The colours are incredible!
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Thank you Katherine. I too like being able to see the cells like that. An earlier series I did with a rented lens had a petal with similar structure: https://burntembers.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/petal-to-the-macro/
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I feel inadequate – I don’t even HAVE a rhododendron.
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Rhododendrons would hate Texas (or at least most of it). We have several of them, and azaleas, but this is the only one in blossom at this time of year.
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More great shots, especially the middle photo. Our rhododendron is under 18 inches of snow.
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Thank you Ken. Your rhodo, just like you, will be so happy for spring that it will be smiling broadly in your garden. If it is any consolation, ours is sited very poorly where we cannot see it from indoors. We need to move it in front of a window so we don’t have to stand in the rain and wind in order to enjoy it.
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