My Camera Lens is My Hubble Telescope

I recently got a Sigma macro lens for super cheap on eBay, and I’ve been experimenting with it a little bit. There are some really talented and creative photographers on 1x who are really open about their methods used in getting certain shots. I had seen these sort of reflective color macro shots before and asked how they got them. After receiving instructions from a few different photographers, I decided to give it a try on my own:

Celestial

No photoshop other than levels, contrast, and sharpening.

No clue what that is? I imagined outerspace with some really crazy looking planets!

Here’s what I used to get that shot:

Pyrex pan
CD
Water
Vegetable Oil
Lamp
Macro Lens (Wide Open) exposure 1/320th of a second

The reflective color is from the lamp hitting the surface of the CD, while the shapes are from the water and oil mixed in a pan. This shot was super difficult to get, as even breathing changes the focal point of a macro lens. Tripods are highly recommended. It’s also very hard to get the out of focus components of the picture to compliment the focused parts, as only a sliver of the image is in sharp focus from the lens being wide open.

I blame my crazy experimenting lately with the lack of landscape picture potential in Oklahoma. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s landscape photography is very difficult when everything is so flat! Can’t wait to visit New York, Deleware, and take the Talimena Drive into Arkansas later next month. Hopefully some good fall color shots will be coming soon, as well as some more potentially crazy looking macro shots. Still got a few ideas I want to try..

-Cody