This weeks tip of the week is to work your subject.

The image pictured here is a rose taken in my front yard. The rose is about the size of a dime, very small. I was out shooting and noticed the roses in bloom. I had a 200mm macro lens on the camera, which only magnifies to a 1 to 2 ratio. Taking several shots didn't do it for me, I went in the house and brought out my 105 which went 1 to 1, better but still not great. I added an extension tube, and liked what I saw.

I then brought the card from the camera inside and put it in the computer. It wasn't sharp from one side to the other. I repositioned so the rose was in the same plane as the camera and stopped the lens down as far as it could go, again checking the camera, I have what you see here.

I spent well over an hour working on the shot, often your best results are from repeated efforts to get things right

To learn how to make this kind of shot, I'm teaching a macro photography course On December 4th, 2015 check it out here.