November challenge; monday macro/old & new

I used to do a lot of macro photography in my film days; extension tubes, bellows, reversing rings - all the paraphernalia required to ensure that the image on the film was at least life-size.

I took a sequence of ladybirds doing various things in the hot summer of 1976 - in colour - which meant using slide film. It was incredibly hit and miss.

The process went something like this;
Find ladybird (easy; 1976 was known as the year of the ladybird). 
Manually focus on said ladybird (tricky; they tended to move around a lot). 
Finish film (36 exposures) then post off to lab for processing.

Wait until postman returned said film (usually a week or so later), get out hand viewer and then chuck away all slides that were underexposed, overexposed, out of focus (or a permutation of all three) and then show friends the four that were left.

And that’s how it was until the age of digital.

The only macro equipment I have these days is a screw-in close up filter, which attaches to the front of my standard lens - and the ability to crop the image.  This allows a slightly looser definition of macro, whereby the subject in the finished photograph is greater than life size.  Which is what I used on this corkscrew.

If you’re curious about what ladybirds got up to in the summer of ’76, there are 4 photos here.