When I got my new camera, one of the things I looked forward to most was taking macro photos of insects. I had to wait a while to try, since I bought the camera in the dead of winter. I got a few moth and spider shots in Costa Rica. I took more than 100 pictures of the same large beetle over the course of 2 days, and went out at night to photograph giant grasshoppers with long antennae. I also photographed a few different spiders. Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I reviewed the photos later. Some lacked critical sharpness -- including ALL of the beetle photos. The night grasshopper photos just looked bizarre thanks to harsh lighting from my head lamp. I might post some of these photos later when I am feeling less critical (or lacking blog material). In all cases, I didn't seem to be able to get as close to the tiny creatures as other macro photographers seem to get.

Now that I have my teleconverter, I should have no problem getting close! My problem has been, frankly, lack of bugs. It has been a cold, dreary spring, with temperatures more like March than May or June. Last summer, armed with only a little point-and-shoot, I seemed to be virtually tripping over ladybugs, spiders, bees and caterpillars. This year... nada. I took a few bee shots at the Mendel Conservatory, and the results were miserably blurry (there's no such thing as autofocus with the teleconverter).

Today, the sun came out for literally 15 minutes, and I got a chance to practice with this little fly in a now-open leopard's bane (view big for best effect). Hopefully this will be the first of many insect photos this summer!