Bahçehastası Gets a Macro! Bahçehastası, Macro Lensi Aldı!

I was back in the US for most of November, and because I don't do well with jet lag, I like to break it up. This means 5 days or so in New York (-7 hours from Istanbul), a visit to my mother in Arkansas (-1 hour) an then the final stint in Seattle (-2 more hours). Actually coming east is harder, so I should probably go to Seattle first, but for some reason the ticket comes out half again as expensive. It's all a racket...

I mentioned before that I'd finally gotten myself an SLR, and one thing I'd really wanted to do was macro photography. This requires the right lens, and a decent macro lens doesn't come cheap. So having a few days in New York, I hightailed it down to B&H Cameras' second-hand department, and lo and behold, a 100mm Canon macro had just come in that day at a good 30% off. Of course if you've ever been to B&H, you can probably guess that I spent almost as much on necessary accoutrements as I saved on the lens...

So of course the first thing I had to do was take it out for a spin. Now one might not think of New York streets as a paradise of botanic photography, but there were plenty of small gardens in Jackson Heights. I also didn't have a tripod with me, but luckily it was a bright morning and the air was very still. There was a log of white Ageratum around and I did shoot some photos of it, but none of them really did anything for me. However as I was focusing on plants, I noticed this cranefly on a leaf. It seems a lot of this sort of photography involves choosing what part of the subject will be in focus and what you're willing to compromise on for the best effect, because actual depth of field is quite narrow.

I also found that closer-up is not always better!  This Penstemon was beautiful, and close-up it's fascinating, but somehow it reminds me a little too much of this.

 Kasım ayının çoğunu ABD'de geçirdim. Beni genelde fazlasıyla etkileyen jetlag'ı kademe kademe aşmak için ilk önce New York'a, sonra Arkansas'ya ve en son Seattle'a gittim. Dönüşü? Sormayın.

Tabi ki New York'tayken fogoğrafçıların cenneti (veya cehennemi) olan B&Η Camera'ya uğramadan edemedim. Birkaç ay önce ilk SLR'imi almıştım, fakat yapmak istediğim macrophotografçılık için macro lensi lazım, hem de ucuz değil. Çok şükür iyi durumda olan bir ikinci el 100mm Canon lensi bulabildim, o gün gelmişti. B&Η'te sağladığım herhangi bir tasarrufu diğer "gerekliler" alarak iptal ettim tabii. Türkiye'de çok daha pahalı diye avutuyorum kendimi.

Neyse ertesi sabah çıkıp denemek lazımdı. Tripod yoktu fakat güneşli ve rüzgarsız bir sabah olduğu için il denemelerim tamamen başarısız olmadı. Botanik fotoğrafçılığı denince akla gelen ilk yer New York olmayabilir de, aslında mahallelerin sokaklarında çok sayıda küçük bahçe var, kısaca bol madde vardı. Hatta böcekler de boy gösterdi...