This past Friday evening we had a Organization Team Barbecue and I brought my camera along to take a few photos. I was talking with one of my friends that was there and asked him why didn't he bring his dslr with him. I told him the reason why I brought mine was because you never know when you are going to get the "money" shot.

I was hoping for some good shots but really didn't think much more of it. When I got home I almost decided to wait till the next day to view the photos but after taking a shower I was feeling a bit more awake, so I download the photos into Aperture. I am so glad that I didn't wait because I had a couple very good shots. After a editing the photos a bit to emphasize what the photo is telling I was blown away and knew I had gotten the "money" shot I was after.

Someone recently told me about reversing rings and how they can be used to turn your regular lenses in to a macro lens. Curious as I was, I did some research on the topic and was surprised to learn that as the name obviously states the reversing ring allows you to mount your lens backwards on the camera body.

The downside to this is that you loose auto focus, image stabilization, and aperture control. This is because the metal contacts that make the connection between the lens and body is no longer possible. Here is a shot of me using the reversing ring:

I tried several different lenses that I have and I was completely blown away how great of a macro lens a regular lens can turn into. One article I read stated that a 28-105 lens is about a 1:7 macro with the reversing ring. A normal macro lens is usually 1:1. As with all macro photography and such a high magnification ratio I got the best results using a tripod. However I was able to handhold some shots if the light source was bright enough so I could use a fast shutter speed.

I think the trickiest part for me was focusing on the subject. Because the camera body was not controlling the aperture, the lens basically stayed wide open. It seemed like if I were to move a fraction of a millimeter the subject would either get completely out of focus or another part would come in to focus. I would have to use the zoom to bring the subject into view and somewhat in to focus and then use the focus ring as a fine focus. 

Reversing rings are quite fun to play with and I keep mine with me in case I need a macro lens in a pinch. At some point I probably will buy a dedicated macro lens but right now the price of a reversing ring ($10) is much cheaper than a Canon L macro lens ($1100)