Kit Lens to Macro

These shots of an Ant moving around a Mulberry Plant were taken with the Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Kit Lens. Some of you may or may not know that when you hold any SLR lens back-to-front against the camera mount, It shortens the minimum focus distance between your subject and lens. This means you can go much closer to the subject that you are trying to photograph. Unless you already have a macro lens then you really don't need to do this.

But for those who are on a tight budget and want to experiment with macro, then try this out [at your own risk]. Make sure you get the hang of using Manual control on your camera so that you don't underexpose or overexpose.

The problem with doing this is that you're going to risk dust flying into your lens and camera body [so be careful]. You also can't auto focus because obviously you're just holding it in front of the camera mount. The only way to focus onto your subject is to move the lens closer or further.

Which also brings about the need to shoot under bright light to be able to increase shutter speed to avoid blurring from your hand movements. That is why the second shot has a slight blur to it.

Another problem is aperture control. Unless you are using a lens with manual aperture control, you are stuck with the wide aperture of the lens. This means that your area of focus is incredibly thin and you have to be quick to press the shutter when the subject goes into focus.

Having said all that, the shots that you get will really be worth the try :D