New Lens!

So, it's been a while since I last posted.  Everything has been a tiny bit manic the past month.  I've been working super-hard on some wedding jewellery, which I finally finished yesterday, and an exciting new derby-related collaboration, which is also nearly done, hurrah!

In between all the madness, I took a couple of days off to go home and see my family.  Whilst I was there, I picked up the Canon macro lens that I've been coveting for the past year (they were offering £60 cashback on it - how could I refuse...?)

Suspect that the lens may currently be wasted on me, given that I've only recently learned what an f/stop is, but I'm hoping I'll grow into it!

Took a few shots just to play with it - all handheld, but you'd usually use a tripod with a macro lens.

Started off with mum's gorgeous little cat, Pudding.  She looks a bit startled here, as I forgot to switch off the flash.  I had this picture open in Lightroom filling the screen of our big monitor, which scared the boy as he walked past!  He was all like "why is there a giant evil-eyed cat head on the computer?"

I was also using auto-focus, so the camera picks the bit it wants to focus on, rather than what I would have chosen.  Look how it picks up all the tiny detail of her fur though - amazing!

The cat eventually grew tired of being my subject and hid her face in her paws, then also turned her back on me for good measure!

So I retreated outside to take pictures of Mum's plants.  It was a bit windy, which made it slightly difficult, especially without a tripod.

Some leaves:

An ugly fly.  Lens managed to capture the detail on it's wings though.

I liked this one - it's a closeup of a dandelion.

And my favourite subject - a bee!  Mum has this plant/bush thing at the end of the garden, which attracts these MASSIVE bumblebees. They were weighed down with so much pollen, they were struggling to fly and I had to duck several times as they accidentally divebombed me on their way out of the plant!

Again, this was handheld with no flash, so the focus is a bit iffy, but you can see all the detail on its stripy fur.  I did spend some time stalking the bees round the garden, but they were even less co-operative as subjects than the cat.

Also took some shots of my nanny's swarovski crystal ornaments.  I love how it throws all the background out of focus - can't wait to try it on some jewellery shots.

This is a super closeup of a glass ashtray on a patterned rug:

So far I am loving the lens, even just playing with it.  I'll post some more pictures once I've had time to shoot some jewellery with it.  Exciting!