Extension tubes

I've been fascinated by some of the macro images I've seen recently for which extension tubes were used - Miffy and Rainie are both brilliant at these shots. So I did some research and bought a set - they arrived on Friday, but I only got round to opening them this morning.

To start with I thought there was something wrong with them, because I couldn't get the camera to focus at all - I hadn't realised that they dramatically reduce the maximum distance at which a lens can focus. Having sorted that out ("Oh - that's what that weird table of numbers in the leaflet means! Duh..."), and realised that I was going to need tripod and cable release if I was to stand a chance of getting a shot that was even vaguely in focus, I set myself up in the conservatory where the light was quite good, fetched my jar of tulips from Friday's blip, and set to work play.

I'm going to need a lot more practice before applying for full membership of the Extension Tubes Club: it took me a ridiculous length of time to set up each shot, and I've no idea how you cope with moving subjects - or if in fact you can't. Also, with auto tubes you have to put the tube(s) on the camera first, followed by the lens, and I was quite concerned about the length of time the camera was spending with nothing attached to it at all while I was faffing around changing tubes - I need to get a lot quicker at doing this, or I fear that my next learning project will be how to clean a sensor.

But having said all that, Miffy was right when she told me that I'd have fun with them - it's really quite addictive! This shot was taken with the 31mm tube.