The Next Project 🔬📸 · Macro & Close-up Photography

Aug 24 • Gear

The Next Project 🔬📸

Hi everyone,

my new macro setup with a motorized focusing rail is finally ready – and with that, my next project begins. 😊

I’ll start with smaller subjects and gradually work my way into focus stacking with the rail. I’m really curious to see what I can achieve with this setup, especially when it comes to magnification and fine detail.

Alongside my Canon RF 100mm Macro, I’m particularly looking forward to experimenting with my Laowa 25mm f/2.8 Ultra Macro 2.5–5×. And because 5× magnification apparently still doesn’t give me enough to play with 😄, I designed and 3D-printed my own adapter that allows me to attach an additional Raynox macro lens to the front of the Laowa.

I have absolutely no idea yet how useful – or crazy – this combination will turn out to be, but that’s exactly what I want to find out. 😄🔬

Over the summer, I’ve already been collecting quite a few subjects for this project. Everything I found interesting has been preserved in a mixture of approximately 60% alcohol and water. Among them are a hornet, a stag beetle, cuckoo wasps, several different bees, and quite a few other little creatures.

Surprisingly, a lot of them came from a rather unusual hunting ground: the skimmer of our swimming pool. 😄 Instead of simply throwing them away, I started collecting and preserving them for future macro sessions.

So this opens up a completely new area of macro photography for me: controlled indoor shooting, extreme magnification, tiny movements with the focusing rail, and finally stacking all those images together.

It may take a little while before you see the first results, though. Besides work, I still want to make the most of the nice weather and spend as much time as possible outside with my camera. ☀️🐝📸

So for now, this will be my bad-weather project. When the sun is shining, you’ll find me outside chasing insects with my camera – and when the rainy days arrive, I’ll move indoors and continue experimenting with the focusing rail, the Laowa and focus stacking. 🌧️🔬

I’ll definitely take you along for the journey and share my first results – even if the first attempts probably won’t be perfect. For me, that’s part of the fun of starting a new project. 😊

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The Next Project 🔬📸