I would LOVE to get a macro lens, just because they are FUN, but until then I will resort to a new technique I learned about. I kept hearing some people on my photography forum talking about reversing their lens for macro shots, so I Googled it, and found a great page on Flickr explaining how to set it up. Its pretty simple, you just hold a lens (or get a male/male coupler, which is what I am going to get...$8 at B&H) in front of a lens already mounted on your camera. For the shots I will show you, I have my 18-55mm on the camera, taken to 55mm, and then held my 50mm in front of it. When I get a coupler I think it will help with the vignetting too. When you do this, the DOF (depth of field) is incredibly shallow too...maybe 1-2mm wide in some of them.

You also need LOTS of light to be able to do this, because you have to use a pretty fast shutter speed (especially when not using a coupler) since you are more likely to get unwanted blur since you are holding a lens awkwardly in front of the other lens. You can use a tripod, which seemed to help. It was just one less thing to try and keep steady.

Cyrstal Lite powder


These flowers are about 1/3inch across...so pretty small. :)


Crushed Red Pepper


Dried Strawberry


Brown sugar, and an unexpected guest who came by and helped himself. :)