Nectar Snack

One thing I have found myself doing with my new Macro lens is returning to shots I took years ago, and reimagining them now that I have better gear for the job. Or, in this case, maybe just copying and pasting :) Way back in August of 2013 I posted this shot of a moth sitting on a flower that I took in the OSU Formal Gardens with my 50mm lens. It was, and still is, a good picture (IMHO) and I am pleased with the colors, the light, and the clarity with which my humble little Nikon D200 was able to capture the subject. It was also a good learning experience for me, and that one image taught me a lot about capturing insects in the form of digital images. So when I got this 105mm Macro lens I wanted to take it out for a spin, photographically speaking, and see if how it would handle that same type of composition.

Spoiler alert: It was amazing.

One of my favorite things about this lens is how there’s no limit to what you can focus on–at least not in a practical sense. It works on things that are super close, super far, and everything in between. When using close-up filters you are generally limited only to subjects that are…well, close-up. You can’t screw on a +4 filter and shoot a picture of something that’s far away. But with a macro lens, you have all the focusing freedom you need. The 105mm focal length lets me get close to insects like this one while remaining a little farther away so as not to scare them. So when I saw this moth drinking nectar from the same patch of flowers as the original image way back in 2013, I was eager to see what kind of a picture I could get.

I followed this moth for a minute or two, adjusting my vantage point and snapping photos as it went from flower to flower while holding my finger down on the back button AE-L/AF-L button and adjusting the aperture from f/8 to f/13 and back just to see how it would work. This picture was my favorite of the bunch and required very little editing, and even at f/8 you can see how incredibly shallow the depth of field is. I like the bit of flower on the left which is obscuring the wings, as it adds a bit of three-dimensionality to the image and makes it seem like I am peeking in on a hidden world.