Super Macro Photography
Super Macro of a California Poppy using a Powershot S2
Recently I met Alexander Black, a professional photographer who has dived deeply into the world of super macro photography. Super macro is the ability to focus to 0 distance from the lens. That’s right — it can focus on an object in direct contact with the lens (when I went to the pro camera shop looking for a camera with super macro, they insisted such a thing did not exist).
Super macro opens up some interesting possibilities; if you look at Alexander’s website, you’ll see what I mean — the photos look like abstract art, and combine beautiful forms and color.
Initially we were looking at buying the Canon Powershot SX10, and were tempted (ok I was, Sandra didn’t care) by the addition of 1080p video on the Powershot SX1, but unfortunately neither of these were in stock at our local store. They had an Olympus SP-590, but the Olympus was considerably more expensive than the SX10 and did not have HD video like the SX1, so…
I looked on eBay, and scored a Canon Powershot S2 for around $100, the cheapest solution by far. I figured Sandra and I would have a chance to play with this feature, and if we liked it spend the extra money — or perhaps would discover the 5mp “old tech” was just good enough. Sandra has been playing with this camera all day.
The above photo was my first serious attempt at using this camera, judge the results for yourself. When I get a chance to build a serious gallery, I will. Oh, and other than reducing the size, the above photo has not been altered in any way in Photoshop (no color adjustments at all).