The Macro World

Having inadvertently messed up my camera settings Friday, I was forced to delve into the two (yes, two!) manuals that came with my birthday gift from Audrey and Peter. The Basic manual is 32 pages and the Advanced one is 162 pages of fine print. I had been trying to get away with point-and-shoot techniques, but in trying to untangle my mistake I did learn something new. The result is a close-up look at things in the garden.

The inch-long praying mantises in the yard have doubled in size. The one pictured above had just consumed a carpenter ant and is praying for another.


These red bugs are all over the milkweed plants that spring up unwanted every year. I always end up letting them bloom for the fragrance of the flower heads and the interesting butterflies and insects they attract. The seed pods are also fascinating for their structure and the childish fun of letting the silky "money-catchers" fly into the air.

Here is a single flower of Love-in-a-Mist, a very pretty plant that I grew from seeds bought at Smith & Hawken in Westfield. Because I seem to already own every tool they have, I am reduced to buying seeds and amaryllis bulbs - and garden hats.

I have propagated hundreds of purple oxalis, but I gained new admiration for their graceful, dainty flowers after I took this close-up photo.

Discovering the macro mode may seem very rudimentary to other photographers, but I have to start somewhere. This camera can do panoramic images, shoot movies, change colors and pixels and record sound. They say learning new things keeps the mind alert. At the rate that I embrace novelty, I guess I'm set for life.

--Bernice Paglia