The year pretty much consists of a dissertation and a self set project brief. I (stupidly) decided to do mine on an area of photography which has always interested me... but have no experience with... at all. I chose to do my dissertation and project on macro photography (photographing something very close up). The project specifically is producing a photo-book of macro images of arthropods. Starting from scratch though has really helped me understand macro photography a lot more, from the equipment used (both cheap and expensive), to expressing a subject which wouldn't normally be seen any other way. There are lots of very talented macro photographers out there such as Heather Angel, Elin Toger, Damon Clarke, Hadrani Hasan, and Thomas Shahan. Thomas was actually kind enough to reply to an email i sent him to ask him a bit about his work and the art of macro photography. (All their work is amazing so go and look them up).
Below is a quick image of my current cheap-ish macro set up. Nikon D90 body, old 50mm Canon prime lens reversed, set of cheap extension tubes, Nikon SB700 speed light, and a flash bracket for a sturdier grip. It's not my finished set up but it still works a treat. Under that is one of the first macro images i ever shot, so i know it's not great, but i just wanted to show how close up you can actually get, and that wasn't even using all my extension tubes!
Pretty much, to sum up, having a good photography year! Getting well into macro photography, and i'll try and keep more up to date with blogging.
(Little tip: If you reverse a 50mm prime lens that has the equivalent of 1:1 magnification. So when you shoot your image will be the same size as the sensor.)
