Christmas Cactus macro adventures

Christmas Cactus macros, originally uploaded by stevevoght.

My Christmas cactus is somewhat confused about the calendar. It regularly blooms every season, and right now is no exception -- there are a good dozen flower buds on the window-facing side of the plant, with one bud that burst into bloom yesterday. This gave me an opportunity to test out my macro set-up before heading out into the field. There's nothing fancy about this rig -- it's just a $10 reversing ring and my regular 50mm lens, my junky old tripod, and the SB-600 flash remotely triggered wirelessly by the nifty built-in features of the D80.

A better tripod (or true macro lens) would probably go a long way toward dealing with some focusing issues I had, but given the cost of those items compared to the minor limitations of a reversing ring (focusing is done entirely by changing the distance between the camera and the subject) things came out decently. Of course, I certainly wouldn't want to photograph moving objects! Check out the full set by clicking the picture.