I’ve seen many better macro photos than this, but I’m not sure any have been taken at 22mm. Ever since I bought it, my wife has hogged our macro lens, leaving me with a Canon EF-S 10-22mm (unless the big guns can be bothered to come out). So today I decided to face up to the challenge and try some wildlife shots with an ultra-wide-angle lens. It’s mounted to a Canon 7D, so at its most zoomed it’s a 35mm equivalent.
I tried a range of insect subjects at the fantastic Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which has recently opened a huge woodland area, and this wasp was one of the better attempts. I wish I had a shot of the set up, but basically the blurred white flowers on the mid-left are just about touching the front element of the lens, so the wasp is about 10cm beyond the lens. Unlike some of my other attempts, this isn’t hugely cropped – it’s 4045×2694 compared to the full resolution of 5184×3456, which is about a 60% crop. That works at around 10 megapixels, which is the same resolution as my wife was using with her macro and 40D!
Obviously you don’t get the fine detail on the wasp’s eyes as you might with a macro, but what you do get is a better sense of the scene, and you certainly feel closer to the subject when you really are close to it, with other wasps buzzing around you. It goes to prove the old maxim that the best lens is the one you’ve got with you – there’s always another angle to explore. View more of today’s shots in the Yorkshire gallery, and have a fruitful weekend whichever angle you choose.