Being stuck at home doesn’t need to stunt our creativity. With just a few simple items that you probably already have around the house, we can create interesting images and have fun experimenting by doing macro photography. You have many items around the house that would be fascinating to explore and photograph close up.

I’ll describe my first attempts at macro photography here.

Keeping it simple and inexpensive

I wanted something simple to do while keeping the creativity and sense of exploration alive. I already had a Lensbaby Edge 35 Optic lens, so I purchased their Macro Converters (tube extensions) so I could do macro. I also purchased a helping hands kit to hold items in place.

Bonus tip: You can purchase a helping hands kit for under $10. The one I chose had four arms and a USB-powered light, so I opted to spend more.

Photographing the craggy back of a seashell

I used the helping hands holder place a seashell in front of the camera, then carefully focused. I got some good detail. This is a 16-second long exposure here, illuminated with my ProtoMachines. At least for light painting, I was more in my element with this last photo.

Shell with helping hands. AfroKen is sitting on the base watching the action.

Bonus tip: If you don’t have alligator clips with rubber tips, use a lens cloth or something else for jewelry or anything else fragile that you don’t wish to scratch.

Have fun by exploring

I’ve never done macro photography before. I enjoyed the challenge. In many ways, I found macro photography very different from what I ordinarily do. I’d say the most challenging aspect was getting things sharp because of its insanely shallow depth of field. But this is so much fun to explore the tiny micro worlds that exist all around us, seeing things as we’ve never seen them before.

I am satisfied with how they came out and feel good considering it was a first attempt. Sure, these may not appear on a magazine cover, but the sense of fun and exploration was satisfying.