Get Ready for Your Closeup

Taishi's photo of birds in his grandmother's garden

Knatolee inspired me to go out and buy a true macro lens. My son (11) had taken an amazing picture with just a small point and shoot I'd given him three years ago. But he took the picture and uploaded it and fooled around with it on his computer with absolutely no help from anyone else.

I was so blown away that I immediately went out and bought him a DSLR (Canon Digital Rebel). It was expensive but christ, if he can learn to use it, who knows what his future will be.

And I was blown away enough to spend over $450 on a macro lens -- I think that's more than I paid for my entire camera.

But check out the results! Knatolee and my son seem to have great subjects for their photos -- animals -- but my cat is black and most of the furniture is black and she spends most of her time on the furniture so I have to confine myself to inanimate objects.

I fitted Taishi's camera with my macro lens and took a few pictures yesterday so I could show him what he'll get (the lens) if he uses his new camera wisely.

Camera equipment can very quickly bankrupt you. There are lenses and accoutrements that make actual cameras seem incredibly cheap. But it's an incredible amount of fun. I put my macro lens onto the camera I'm going to send my son and took some pictures of a geisha doll so I can show him what's possible. I just know he's going to want one.

My little geisha, magnified x 100

Now only if I could get some bees or a mosquito or something -- then I could get into image-stacking!

All I have are these action figures and stuff to sell on eBay. And then there's China Girl . . .

She's actually only six inches tall

I'm just waiting until they've built a scanning electron microscope lens attachment for my Canon T3. I'd probably go nuts taking pictures of snowflakes or something.

Nah, then again I'd probably have to put my cat in there and I don't expect she'd liked to be coated with that weird metallic dust they use.