As mentioned in last Thursday's shot, a recent query by a friend about Olympus macro lenses inspired me to fish out my 60mm f/2.8. That day I shot a bee grabbing nectar from a flowering Agapanthus plant. This morning, however, I decided to dash down to the shoreline before heading for my calcio practice session. My original intention was to grab sunrise light on a seashell.

Except there were barely any seashells. There were a couple, but I didn't get the results that I wanted. Part of this has to do with my long held belief that 60mm (which is an effective 120mm on a Micro 4/3 camera) is pushing the friendship when it comes to macro work. It's too much zoom. Also I would have liked to stop down a bit below f/2.8 to get a bit more depth of field, but the shutter was already getting a bit "ka-THUNK"ey, and hand held I couldn't really risk it.

Also, of course, while I was shooting that sneaky underhanded sod the Pacific Ocean tried to drench me a couple of times (as it always does) but I outran it on each occasion.

In the end I did quite like this washed up strand of seaweed, which is being lit by the newly risen sun from the right of frame. In this one I had in fact stopped down a little to f/4. I was close to minimum range so I still got a depth of field that looks like it was sliced by a Ginsu knife, with the sand immediately under the seaweed being razor sharp, but very, VERY rapidly turning into a sandy coloured carpet in both directions.

Macro photography is an art, and I'm not completely certain that I have the time or patience to become a master practitioner of it... but I certainly do intend to get my hand in a little more often than I have been.