a couple of months ago, i picked up some kenko macro extension tubes and i have been really wanting to use them for some close-up small work for a while. i love all kinds of photography, and each specific type of photography has its own draw. and while a lot of people gravitate toward macro to shoot pictures of eyes, bugs and flowers, i think i am more interested in shooting miniatures, like toys. i am attracted to the idea of building small scenes and bringing them to life.

over the weekend, i was doing some cleanup and found some souvenirs we picked up from puerto rico last spring that we never gave to anyone, including some miniature fishing boats that were just so fucking cute.

so this morning, i took some inspiration from a youtuber who suggested using bokeh backgrounds for macro shots. i found a nice sunset image online, wadded up a blue hoody, and made myself an ocean scene. then i dropped the little boat in there and slapped the 30mm extension tube on along with my tamron 70-210mm lens and went to work.

i came away with two images i really liked. the first, because the folds of the shirt were catching some nice ambient light and the boat was at a nice dramatic angle, and the second because the setting sun is in just the right spot and the netting is very clear due to the angle i shot the photo.

the one issue i have with these photos is that the front of the boat is catching some ambient light from the room and reflecting that a bit, which makes no sense because the sun is behind the boat and the color of the light is off. i’m being super critical to find that problem, but i feel like those details matter, so next time i engage in macro work, i’m going to try to correct for that issue. live and learn, act and review.

anyway, since i’ve already broken the photo seal, here are the two images i shot this morning. don’t get too spoiled, though. i don’t necessarily plan on posting photos every day.