Welcome to a whole new world

Out in the back garden, my wife spotted a ladybird she wanted to take a photograph of, so I suggested she try using my macro lens (Sigma 105mm, if you're wondering, a fantastically sharp 1:1 macro). Anyone who's done a reasonable amount of macro photography will tell you that this kind of photography requires learning a whole new set of techniques, especially when you get towards 1:1 ratios where subject distance is critical and auto-focus becomes largely pointless. They will also tell you that the effort put in to learning macro is well rewarded, opening up a whole new world of photography.

This is my wife trying to learn some of those techniques. She couldn't have started under more challenging circumstances: dreadful light, occasional breezes, and a camera-shy ladybird all done hand held on a Nikon D40x which has no integral focusing motor which meant that there was absolutely no possibility of using auto-focus. (This isn't a problem on my D80 which does have an integral motor for lenses such as this macro). Despite these difficulties, she did really well, and she's told me she will be posting one of her shots on blipfoto later :)

Welcome to the world of macro photography Fran :)