Stop and Shoot the Roses

Well it was a crazy, busy week last week and stayed that way right through the weekend. So much so that I had virtually no time to shoot anything for myself. Especially disappointing since I had a new toy in my camera bag that I wanted to play with. Years ago one of my favorite gadgets was a 2x macro focusing teleconverter that eventually got stolen from me. It’s not a very common item, in fact the one I owned, which I had picked up second-hand, was the only one I’ve ever seen in 20+ years of shooting. That is until last week, when I went into the camera store to pick up a roll of seamless for the studio and saw one in it’s original packaging sitting among the trade-in lenses. As luck would have it, the second one that I’ve ever seen in over 2 decades happened to be in a Pentax mount just like the first one had been. As I said, it was still in it’s original packaging and in mint condition. The price was right, having been marked down three times and I felt as though I had just met up with a long-lost friend. I gave it a new home in my camera bag and then spent the rest of the week hoping for a few free minutes of time to try it out.

It has 2 functions, working both as a focal length doubler and as a macro adapter. Late on Saturday I was walking through the Art Colony and in another studio I spotted something interesting and got permission to photograph it. I took a few quick shots that tested the adapter’s teleconverter operation and then had to continue on my way, satisfied at least to have made a partial test of it’s capabilities. I’m being purposefully vague about what I shot because it will be posted here later this week and I don’t want to give anything away in advance.

So then, on Sunday evening when I arrived home and was taking my gear out of the truck I took notice of my wife’s rose bush next to the garage and made a quick decision to set the camera bag down in the driveway, break out a camera, and take a few shots to test the macro capability of the adapter. I was very pleased with the results and am looking forward to when I can carve out more than a few stolen minutes of time to renew an old friendship with this nifty piece of equipment.