Bloodroot ultramacro, Home

One of my favorite lines describing photography is this: it's cheaper to be a heroin addict than a photographer. It's actually my line, and I use it as a combination warning and lament. Drug addiction measurably shortens the addict's life-span, but photographers can live for a long time... and pine for an ever-increasing array of ever-more-expensive equipment. I am not immune for this. But I don't have, nor, in all likelihood, ever will have, the income necessary to feed the "stuff" addiction, so I've had to make do with what I possess. Much of this, in tribute to the longevity of Nikon lenses, is ancient but still completely usable. This shot, of the inside of a Bloodroot blossom—those early spring beauties continue putting forth new flowers—was made possible when I found, in a bag of old film equipment, an extension tube that I could marry to my equally long-in-the-tooth 55mm Micro lens ("micro" is macro in Nikon-speak) for an ultra closeup I thought was impossible in my pay-grade. The gear is half-a-century old. Happily, like the addicted photographer, it continues to work just fine.