Pixiq

l remember when I got my first Canon Ixus back in 2004 and discovered the macro setting, I thought this was just about the coolest thing ever. Spent half the summer crawling around my parents' garden and rediscovering my domestic surroundings in extreme close-up, photographing minuscule details I suddenly found fascinating. 
This all got very boring after a while, seeing as the tiny camera was very limited in terms of me having any say in what was going on. Soon after this, I got my first DSLR (Canon 350D) and while I did actually check to see if there was a "macro" setting on it (yes, let's all have a giggle at my expense), I quickly discovered far more interesting things to preoccupy myself with. The 18-55 mm kit lens actually allowed some pretty decent "close-ups," but it wasn't macro. Soon I started missing the macro. The nerd in me that enjoys extreme close-ups of things felt something was missing. Eventually I decided to get a 100mm macro lens. 

Now, for some reason unclear to me today, while at the store the clerk showed me two 100 mm lenses. The 100mm 2.8 MACRO lens (which I'm pretty sure I was there to buy) and the 100 mm 2.0 portrait lens (which I ended up buying, most likely because it was cheaper). The slightly wider aperture was apparently enough to entice me away from the macro capabilities of the other lens. And boy was this lens as far from macro as I could have gotten. I mean, you have to back way the hell up just to get normal-sized things in focus with this thing. Tiny things, forget it. (OK, it really is a nice piece of glass, and later I took some badass bird photos with it, but I've never REALLY understood why I bought it when there were so many other lenses to choose from. At the time I didn't yet have my 50 mm 1.4 lens, which is even cheaper and would have been a far more practical buy.)

Anyway. Armed now with an 18-55mm, 10-22mm, and 100mm lenses, I was as far from taking real macro photos as I was when I first got the camera. Since I'd bought the 100mm, I couldn't afford the macro as well, so I wondered out loud to a clerk at this same photo store, next time I was there (for batteries or something) if there was some alternative. And he says "why don't you just use a magnifying glass?" I couldn't believe this simple solution hadn't occured to me. Paired with either a 50mm or 100mm prime lens, a magnifying glass can offer the macro enthusiast (that's still not quite enough of an enthusiast to just get a proper macro lens) hours of fun.  

I'll admit, flower macros tend to remind me of kleenex-boxes, but I love taking them anyway:

The following abstracts were taken in the same way, in a fit of boredom one evening playing around with blue-tack and fishing line, using spreads from a huge and very boring book about golf courses (a joke present from a couple of friends) to get different colors in the background:

The creative possibilities are limitless, so once in a while I always find myself revisiting this technique. Have fun experimenting!