A new lens! A few photos. And a poem.
I asked my husband for a new lens for my birthday present this year. Today, he gave it to me, early, so I could practice with it. My birthday's next week.
It's an Olympus 60 mm macro. Andy had one and he did great photos with it. Now it's my turn and I am starting to learn. Emphasis on starting!
The poem:
The Torch
has passed.
His hands no longer capable of artistry.
His knowledge gone into the abyss.
His gifts live in those he
left behind.
I stand to inherit what I can.
He knew so much!
I will do whatever is in my reach,
however small.
I owe him.
I love him.
And I honor him.
The lens he used
is now mine.
I look into its depths
and I see his face,
his smile,
encouraging me.
It’s a new place
for me to dwell in,
but I will make it my own.
I owe him all that, and more.
I accept the torch.
He will live
through me.
November 21, 2024.
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And lucky us you asked for a fabulous new lense! Please thank your husband for our entire community! 
Thank you so much for your generous praise! I still have lots to learn with this one, but it'll come.
I will be looking forward to new pix from you!
I have another farmer's market this afternoon and I'm taking this lens!
Andy was larger than life. Me? Not so much. But I remember. And I'm still here.
Thank you again!
And THAT is the lens I'm talkin' about. Can't wait to see what the farmer's market cache will look like!
You'll be able to look into the innards of the flowers with that!
And Happy Birthday! 
Yup, this is the lens we talked about. It's tiny and light and it packs a wallop!
I was too close for these photos; all of them are ever so slightly fuzzy! That's something for me to tackle.
Thanks for the Birthday greetings! (It's on the 27th.)
Is the biggest challenge I had to tackle, I have a sharp eye but getting the fine line and distance just right has a narrow slice of range.
You'll have lots of fun, you'll discover tiny things you never thought were photogenic!
I'd say you take deliberate care in taking action.
From around 2010...
The rod looking things are slender pine needles. I found it among the likens one the north shore of one of the islands in the middle of Yellowstone Lake. I was using a Cannon PowerShot 120SX, it didn't have a viewfinder, just a monitor on the back so if something was at a weird angle, I had to guess at the focus, but I got pretty good after a while. For a cheap little point&shoot, it had a great lens and took nice macros.
Your poem is a touching tribute to your mentor and dear friend. Yes, make it your own, without regard to the approval and praise of others.
I'm looking forward to seeing your fresh market photos.
I will have the new photos up shortly.
One thing I've learned today: I have a lot to learn! I'm usually too close . . . but I can also be too far! 
I'm pleased that you liked my poem. I just wrote it today. I'd been thinking about it since I knew what my present would be. It worked out perfectly.
"Faint preview" is right!" There will be lots more as I grow more experienced.
I had a great birthday. And thank you for the very kind words on my photos. I think I have a lot to learn about how to get a true macro shot, and it will come with time, and practice.
...and you can achieve this by photographing your subject at the minimum focus distance of your lens.
the frog shots i do are not "true" macro shots, but they are close up shots, for sure. there's no way i could fit any of the frogs i photograph into my M43 sensor at 1:1 or 1x or "life size" because they are much bigger than the sensor. i love that 60mm olympus macro lens...i also have it, but i found that the 0.3x magnification of the olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 pro zoom was more than enough for frogs and i used that a lot more. i sold the lumix G9 and bought an olympus OM-1 but have rarely used it...lately, i've been doing most of my frog shots with the nikon Z8 and the nikon 50mm f/2.8 macro lens. but even on the full frame nikon, 1:1 is overkill for frogs.
i also have a sony A7Cii and i bought the tamron 35mm f/2.8 lens which does 0.5x magnification...so, i call it a "half macro", and it's plenty of magnification for a full frame sensor when photographing frogs...even fairly small tree frogs.
one challenge with macro and close-up shooting (and there are many challenges) is having enough light for both a fast shutter speed (subject or camera movement is magnified when you are close to your subject) and a stopped down aperture (depth of field is wafer thin when you are shooting macro or close up so it's nice to stop down to f/11 or even smaller) while trying to maintain a low enough ISO....because of this, i use a powerful flash with ample diffusion. this way, i can shoot at ISO 64 and f/29 (if i need to) and the flash duration simulates a shutter speed of at least 1/5000.
while some people might call these "macro" shots, they are nowhere near 1:1 reproduction and most of these could have been taken with a conventional lens like a 50mm f/1.8 or something...still, there's an advantage to using a macro lens and that is that they seem to be designed to shoot at very small apertures whereas a conventional lens will start to show diffraction and sharpness loss when you start stopping down past f/8 or f/11:
