Looking for color part II. This pale blue flower was nice in the greenhouse sun, but when I moved to put the red lilypads behind it, it really popped. Always look at your background.

Corvette Museum, Kentucky USA

Bold color and geometric shapes can lead to arresting photos. I knew I wanted to get right up next to this section of the National Corvette Museum, and do it when the sunlight was close to 90 degrees from the side. Why 90 degrees? Two reasons: One, it would provide a little modeling for the curved surfaces of the Museum, and two, it would put the maximum effect of the Circular Polarizing filter I wanted to use to cut down the glare from the sky right behind the Museum, deepening the sky and closing down the dynamic range.

I’m a sucker for shiny hood ornaments. Add to that almost a fluorescent red car and I’m hooked. Shot close in with a wide-angle lens and a polarizing filter to manage the reflections.

The close-up lens, essentially a magnifying lens screwed to the front of your main lens, is much maligned. The fact is, for much of your closeup work it’s a useful tool. The key things to remember is that your depth of field will be greatly reduced, and focusing will be much more difficult. My quick-and-dirty tip for using them is to get in focus once, maintain focus by swaying your upper body/the camera in tiny motions, and shooting *many* attempts. You will find some percentage of your shots are usable.