In the mid 1990’s Macro photography became something of a hobby within a hobby for me. It morphed from a simple dalliance with a close up filter and extension tube into a voyage of exploration, and in the course of a couple of years I had kitted myself out with some of the finest Zuiko macro lenses of the day, along with a host of peripheral equipment to support them.

Our image archive is scattered with numerous projects and experiments that, for the first time, we have gathered together for further viewing. Macrophotography subject matter is vast and we have begun the task of categorising it into different genres. What immediately stood out was the large volume of flower work amassed over a fifteen year period. Gathered here is a sample of this work shot between 1995 and 2000, principally using Zuiko 80mm and 20mm macro lenses mounted to a 65-116 telescopic extension tube, usually attached to an Olympus OM4Ti camera body. Many different lighting techniques were deployed with varying degrees of success. Similarly we tried out several different types of film stock.

Although I do not practice macrophotography much any more, I still have a macro lens in my collection for those times when a small subject piques my interest. Revisiting these old images reaffirms what a fascinating world we live in, and that there is a vast amount waiting to be discovered without leaving the perimeter of a garden.