cool stuff strummy!
 
I've been thinking about selling my lenses.  I don't use them any more.  The body of course is pretty much not worth anything (35mm), but the lenses are still valuable.

Cool stuff.
 
I bought an old Canon F manual 35mm SLR from a friend with a bag full of lenses. It was a hobby for a period of time that I enjoyed, and even made some money with. 
 
I didn't have the money to buy a bunch of accessories but I found one cool trick that allowed me to do closeup stuff.  Simply remove the normal 45mm lens, reverse it, and hold it in place against the lens mounting ring. Waa Laaa.... an extreme closeup lens. Not the best or a perfect lens, but it works.

Love that stuff Steve.
 
Back when I got the Canon A1 I really wanted to get
a microscope but never got my act together.
Great to see you moving forward with your photography skills. You have the eyes/talent
IMO from the many great photos you've posted.

Hi,
 
My "close-ups" have always taken a cue from the film industry. When you see the stuff on my web pages, I am not much for posing, and only one picture that I posed, would ever be worth while for me, but I was always interested in the "moment" that you saw things happen, and the person was tuned to it. You can see that in some of the pictures, although I did not have the camera lens I would need to be able to have it done better.
 
All in all, the close-up, for me, was about the moment, not the picture itself. But it is neat to see. 
 
Still one of the best I have ever seen as a close-up can not be mentioned here! And it was so well done that you could not figure it out at all! Those are the most fun!
 
There was a film, that played with a bunch of shorts in an Erotic Film Festival once, that showed this beautiful skin, and the camera slowly came around it and caressed it and all that, and it was sweaty and such, and got you really going ... and after 5 minutes of it, it finally starts coming out of the close-up shots, and it was ... an orange!
 
With musicians, I have always liked the "detail" and my favorites still are Daevid Allen doing his glissando, on my webpages, and Burke Harris' hands playing the piano on an afternoon I could see the sun shadows and flares around the piano keyboard, and that shot is primo for me, but not one that most photographers like ... my boss, where I worked at his photo lab at the time, even said, that a teacher of photography would have downgraded me for those flares ... and they made his hands float on the keyboard! 
 
Just tells you what the close-up sometimes, is all about. I, however, have never done plants or "things" in close-up a whole lot, but I can tell you that I have caught some down right nice things, which to me, are a part of that "personality", and often more important than anything else.
 
I have some more "portraits" that I have not posted, or shown, and all of them show more of a personality, than a picture, and for me that is better.
 
Sometimes I wonder why some musicians are afraid of that. Porcupine Tree, refused to have pictures taken of them in 1999, but the shot I got of Richard Barbieri back stage setting up 2 synthesizers to replace the Prophet 5 that took a nasty spill, is, still, one of my favorite shots of all ... you know he is paying attention, and you know he cares, and is worried about its quality! On the same show, the set of pictures of Christian Vander nailing down his drum set prior to the show are also priceless, and then his tears at the end of the show during a standing ovation, are even better and I also took a shot of Stella looking at him, and looking very proud of it all ... and she is no less the massive presence that Magma is than he is! 
 
I would never trade those moments, for anything! It tells you more about the music, and the work they do, than anything else.
 
I had, once, hoped to do something similar with the CHB, unfortunately, the ideas and the thoughts were not to be. That's how it all works ... one minute it's there, the next it isn't. 
 
Folks I would like to photograph one day ... Mike Oldfield and Vangelis. Most of the pictures of them are not good shots showing their intensity and play at all! But this might be because they do not want the flash going off and distracting them, but I can tell you that Gong, had no such problems, and neither did many others!
 
In all instances, I have given the band a full set of 5x7's of the shots that came out. The Gong group picture, was used in a world tour of theirs, for over a year, even though Pip Pyle was no longer there, but having taken the picture of Pierre Moerlin on their next tour was just as valuable for me. Best drummer I have ever seen and heard.
 
Wanted to take pictures of Tangerine Dream, but was not allowed to. Same for Nektar. Same for Hawkwind. 
 
Funny thing ... some local bands I was thinking of doing, got so intimidated with the shots of Gong, that one member even said ... we can't play that good!
 
Go figure! It's about them, not me!

Cheers all for the kind words and encouragement folks 
 
 

Jeff Evans
You also need to do it when the light is right and the sun is bright and at the right angle too.
 
Just be careful not to let the camera fall in though!

A tripod seems to help too Jeff!
 
As far as the lighting goes, those were all taken in sunlight, but I have bought myself a couple of cheap accessories for indoor use and for when the light isn't so good.
 
The first bit of kit is an multi-LED ring light. It's quite neat as it can run off the mains if you're inside, plus it has a few different intensity settings, and you can choose to switch off one half of the LEDs to add shadows to any relief on the subject:
 

 
 
The other unit is an 'O-Flash' which actually fits over my flashgun and reflects the light down to the ring array:
 

 
 
I did check out the prices for 'genuine' Canon accessories before I got the cheaper alternatives. My set of three auto tubes from Polaroid were just over £50, compared to £120 for a single Canon 25mm tube and £60 for a single 12mm tube. The O-Flash attachment was £22 and the ring light was about £25 (and came with a mains lead and six adapters for different lens diameters); a genuine Canon ring flash (which admittedly, is a very sophisticated bit of kit and would be extremely nice to own) sells for around about £450.
 
Bearing in mind this set up is just for my own 'hobby' use, I'm over the moon with it - especially for such a modest outlay.
 
 

RobertB
What fun. I love shooting macro.
You're quite right about manual focus. Where you are with these, the depth of field must be insanely shallow.
I really like the shot with the stepping second hand. I haven't messed with filters much. How does the neutral density filter play into that?

 
Bob, I was using f22 to get the maximum depth of field from my lens, and that was working out at around a second or two per exposure. I used the ND filter to cut down the light getting through to the camera by a couple of stops, hence giving me the extra exposure time. A bit of trial and error with the timing was all it then took to get the shot.
 
I still have two sets of ND filters I got way back when I had my Canon T90. One set are the ordinary circular 58mm screw on type, each has a 'constant' value (i.e. non-graduated) from half a stop up to four stops, if memory serves me correctly. I have step-down rings for using on 55mm and 52mm lenses. The other set are square graduated NDs which I use with my Cokin 'P' holder.
 
 

ampfixer
Great pictures.I have trouble getting my lighting nice and even.
 
Are the tubes Canon or aftermarket? I'm thinking about some aftermarket because the Canon tubes are pricey.
 
Musical instruments can be great for close ups and macro work. Did anyone else realize the watch was running on a quartz movement? Guitar pickups give it away as well.

I chose my quartz watch for exactly that reason John! As it happens, I also had my Omega (left to me by my dear Grandad) out because I wanted to take some close up shots of the movement, but I can't figure out how to get the back off it
 
As for the tubes, see my reply to Jeff above. You can actually buy a similar set of (three) tubes for around £10/$15, but they only have mount compatibility, there is no electronic linkage between the camera and the lens you use with them. Although that takes the autofocus out of the equation, you can still use them in ambient light if your camera can work in fully manual mode with metering. If you're using flash, it does get a lot more complicated though - I wouldn't want to be using guide numbers and tables at those distances and powers!
 
For the extra £40 outlay for the Polaroid branded set, having automatic TTL flash metering was worth every penny.
 
 

Beagle
cool stuff strummy!
 
I've been thinking about selling my lenses.  I don't use them any more.  The body of course is pretty much not worth anything (35mm), but the lenses are still valuable.

 
Thanks Beag.
 
If your lenses are compatible with newer cameras, they should hold their value extremely well. In my case, unfortunately, all my old lenses were Canon FD mount, which they phased out years ago, long before digital cameras in fact. I recently sold my beloved old Canon T90, six FD lenses (Minar 24mm; Zeiss 28mm; Canon 35mmf2; Canon 50mmf1.4; Sigma 35-70mm zoom; Canon 70-210mmf4 zoom), and a 2x extender for a rather measly £160 on Ebay.
 
I still have, and will likely never part with, my first Canon camera - an old 'EX auto', which was only compatible with it's own dedicated set of four screw-in lenses (35mm; 50mm; 95mm, 125mm). I have the 50mm and the 95mm lenses - I used the 95mm mainly as a portrait lens, and I don't think I've owned a nicer lens since.
 
 

Guitarhacker
Cool stuff.
 
 
... I found one cool trick that allowed me to do closeup stuff.  Simply remove the normal 45mm lens, reverse it, and hold it in place against the lens mounting ring. Waa Laaa.... an extreme closeup lens. Not the best or a perfect lens, but it works.

 
Now you're talking real 'old-school' Herb!
 
 
 
 

Your camera journey sounds very much like mine. I had that 35mm f2 Canon lens and it was a favourite. I also sold my film stuff consisting of a Nikon F2 and Canon EF. They were both great cameras but the Nikon was getting hard to maintain and as my income shrank I couldn't afford the film processing. Digital was an affordable way to go.
 
I now use the Canon t3i, also sold as the 600D. I'm just starting to use it for video work to produce some tech videos about tubes. I sold my Nikon D60 to buy the Canon and have to say I wish I'd done it sooner. That Canon is a real nice camera.

My first thoughts when reading the title did make me wonder.
 
Nice pictures Sir Strummy

SteveStrummerUK, thank you for sharing. That is some good stuff! I would like to see more if you have some.

That is so cool . . . more please!

My only trick was to place a piece of frosted gel over the flash to soften the harshness of the xenon flash.