After spending what seems like an eternity peering into the depths of darkness, trying to achieve greater magnification I have made a contraption which enables me to see what I am trying to photograph.

Heartfelt thanks to Nass.

It's still early days but I'm very happy at the moment. I have to get out of the habit of taking half a dozen shots in the hope that one will be in focus.

No more stopping down to enable me to see the subject and losing loads of DOF in the process.







I need to sort out the lighting properly - I hate black back gounds, but I love these tiny little bees, they look so cute.















I could have done with being able to get more of this bee in the frame - I think an auto helicoil would do it. Maybe an auto 2 x macro tele converter with the glass removed would do it.



I don't know what these are - they are tiny little flies, I've not seen them this close before.







And finally a big hug for Danger Mouse who guided me through dismantling a zoom lens for this project.






None of these are cropped and I've done minimal pp (I think) as I have a tendency to over do things. I'm getting a bit of CA especially on the edges of white things. I think this might be solved when I have sorted out the lighting.