I recently acquired a new and sort-of-exotic lens; a Pentax 100mm “Macro”. This is what people my age may remember used to be called a “telephoto”. When you look through it, you don’t see much of the landscape; so it’s for zeroing in on a flower not a bush, a face not a crowd, a ship not a harbor. I’ve been having tons of fun with it so I’ll load up the Internet with a few more pictures and share some.

When people are showing off the capabilities of “Macro” lenses, it’s traditional to start with a close-up of a flower or an insect. So let’s do both!

Insect on early rhododendron blossom

Yeah, there’ll be a few more flowers in this series; but telephotos are useful for lots of other kinds of things too.



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From: EricH (Apr 10 2011, at 08:25)

I'm not sure what kind of lens that is, but in general, "macro" and "telephoto" indeed meant (and probably still mean) somewhat different things. A telephoto (I think) simply has a longer focal length than normal; a macro, on the other hand, is able to "achieve a reproduction ratio of 1:1", which in plain English means: if you take a picture of a postage stamp, the actual image formed on the film or sensor will be the same size as the stamp itself. (Assuming you're close enough, of course).

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From: David R (Apr 10 2011, at 09:42)

And one botanical nit: that's not a violet. At least, not where I come from, who knows up in Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_(plant)

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From: Tim (Apr 10 2011, at 10:07)

Oops, wonky title. I was referring to the color. In fact, that's a rhododendron.

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