Fly Me To The Moon

Since Smallsteps was born, for years I sung her two songs every night; Summertime and Make You Feel My Love. A few years ago, I added Fly Me To The Moon into the mix, and rotate them through each time it is my turn to put her to sleep.

I have a shockingly bad singing voice.

I do not sing for anyone else, except for her. She has realised for a long time that I am not a good singer and even more so in the last couple years as her own voice has improved and she has picked up the piano, but she enjoys the familiarity, and has never said that it sounds bad. Occasionally at other times, she does mention how I could improve.

It was my wife's turn tonight, so I only said good night and asked her what she is going to dream about, knowing that the answer is always the same.

Dragons and Dinosaurs.

It is pouring down outside and there is no moon in the sky (or on Hive), but what I do have an abundance of at this time of year, are flies.

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They come in through the window vents, trying to escape the cold, and while most get trapped between the panes of glass until they get vacuumed up, some somehow (no idea how) end up trapped inside. So, with no moon to speak of, nor dragons and dinosaurs to take pictures, of I decided to take a few shots using extension tubes, which I haven't used for years. An extension tube moves the lens further away from the sensor, which degrades the image and requires much more light, but gives a good enough result for taking pictures of flies.

I used a 60mm prime macro lens.

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I put them on a piece of paper to give a white background and then edited in Lightroom Mobile on my phone, desaturating and then putting in a red blend on the darks, and an aqua on the lights. Just for a bit of fun, because after all, they are flies.

In about a month we will get our new puppy, so I want to get used to using the camera again, as unfortunately, I don't get out enough and my abilities remain limited from lack of practice. Not that I will likely be using extension tubes or a flash too often with a dog, but just having the camera in hand and playing about with the dials helps me get that vague sense of "I know what I am doing".

Which even vague, is rare for me.

I like macro photography though and one day will invest into some better equipment for it. I think it is a good way to make more interesting cover images for articles, and I also like that it is possible to take what is a pretty average subject, and see it from a different perspective. Insects are great, because for such small things, they are so incredibly detailed and have a great deal of weirdness. Though around my place, there isn't the level of weird that was available where I lived in the Australian tropics, but I also wasn't as into photography then either.

A little weirdness goes a long way.

Seeing flies, is still better than having to hear me sing.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

Camera:
Olympus EM-1

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