Last month I wanted to take some photos of my degus (they’re basically large gerbils mixed with chipmunks) Grendel and Hobo before they went off to their new home. They’re small, friendly, inquisitive, and very very fast! So, armed with a 100mm macro lens and a flash (I wouldn’t have stood a chance without either of these), I let them out for a run in my hallway and snapped away!

Incidentally, the 100mm 2.8 L is incredible. It’s definitely on my wish list. I can’t justify buying one at the moment, so I hired it for 3 days from http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk/, who I highly recommend (for all you Brits).

Day #1: Degus. These were taken with a bare flashgun angled upwards so that the light bounced off the walls (which are white) to create a more diffused light.

Day #2: Eddie the bearded dragon. Unlike the degus he’s a good sitter (apart from the occasional glare of contempt!), so I could use a longer exposure and smaller aperture…

Day #3: The wing of a blue morpho butterfly. These are probably my favourite colours ever. I’d found  it months ago on the ground of a butterfly enclosure and was just *waiting* for when I could do a macro shot of it. Unfortunately I didn’t get the focussing spot on for the majority of the time (I used a long exposure of several seconds along with a tripod and a remote, mirror lock-up… The problem, I think, was that the tripod couldn’t hold fast the camera’s weight at the angle I’d set it). It was photographed on top of a normal sized book and I held a torch at a certain angle to get that amazing blue colour (it underwent minimal photoshopping, I promise!).

I think that’s macro out of my system for a while now, though I’m not convinced it will last long!