in bloom (and stupid lens tricks)

At last, we're getting some semblance of spring and summer, and the few flowers we have that bravely survived the snow, rain, and hail are showing their faces.


Yay columbines - I'm always kind of surprised when they emerge, because the foliage is usually buried under a pile of faster-growing, more aggressive plants.



some sort of daisy - I don't know the name, but I sure wish we had more. They're so showy and neon like, they almost seem fake. And of course, the bleeding hearts are blooming prolifically. I look forward to these every year.



the back spurs of a columbine, in macro:



I have been playing stupid camera tricks again, as in this earlier post about free-lensing.  The above macro is the result of  holding the 50mm prime backwards against the camera body, without a mount or protection for the rear element. Suggesting this has elicited cries of horror on other boards, and despite the fact that I recently had to clean dust off my sensor (not as a result of free lens or reverse macro - more from changing lenses on a dusty bus in Turkey), I can't resist doing it again anyway. I  actually do have a very nice macro lens - a non-metering 55mm/3.5 Nikkor, but the ability to just whip your lens off and turn it around - well, I just think that's cool.

Using the free lens the right way around - the rear element held towards the camera body, but not mounted, allows a bit of light leak. I'm trying to get a lensbaby-ish effect, but didn't quite succeed this time. Still, I like doing it, and I like the unpredictability of it, and indeed, lack of control.



I can totally understand why people find the idea of a loose, unprotected lens reckless. But I like experimenting, and really, I am not careless with my things; most of my possessions last decades, and I take good care of them. But I like to use them, even if it means using them in ways the manual might warn you against, and sometimes, just because I can.