If you think you need a macro lens to elegant intimate shots of botanical and floral subjects, think again! Your Fujifilm telephoto lens does the job beautifully!

There are lots of ideas on how to shoot macro photography here on the internet, and most of them involve the purchase of a for-purpose macro lens. But I’m here to tell you that you can achieve beautiful images without one.

My Favourite Lens + Extension Tube Combo

As you know, I’ve been long been a fan of capturing the seasons in my lovely garden, and I’ve used every lens and extension combo I had to hand… or so I thought.

A couple of weeks ago, as spring was starting to bring the garden back to life, one of my favourite plants in the garden, the hedge of Mexican Orange Blossom, so starting to come in to bloom.

The first week after the first few buds have opened up is my favourite, as more often than not you can capture fully opened blooms alongside really tight buds about to burst in the next few days of sunshine.

I had started shooting with just my beloved XF35mmF2 R WR on my X-T3, but I just felt like I couldn’t get that feeling of being ensconced in the greenery and really close to the blooms themselves.

So, I went back into the studio, swapped out the lens for my XF55-200mmF3.5-4.8 R LM OIS (arguably the best Fujifilm telephoto lens for value for money) and decided on a whim to attach my Fujifilm X-Mount Macro Extension Tube 11mm (or MCEX-11, which I’ll call it from here on in).

As I was shooting into the deeper, darker parts of the hedge, having the OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) really helped in capturing crisp, sharp images of these flowers as they came to life (along with a bit of a nudge in ISO).

The great thing about testing out a new lens and extension combo at home in a light and weather scenario like this is that you can play around with all your settings. Nature really is the best for learning what combination of iso, exposure compensation, aperture and focal points work with certain looks or moods you want to convey.

This band of Mexcian Orange Blooms is protected by an 8-foot tall hedge of Copper Glow (a variety of Tea Tree) and do its feathery branches provided the perfect diffused highlights and shadows on my gorgeous floral subjects.

Waiting for the breeze to pick up, die down and shift direction paid off as it allowed for the smallest and most delicate features to become bathed in light and stand out on their own.

Finding Small Subjects

These two images below of this tiny semi-opened bud I just love as they, for me, really do give you that sense of spring, of new beginnings, new growth in nature. And also how delicate and fragile such a floral show can be.

I was loving the moodiness that I was able to capture with this lens and macro extension combination and really loved the way it captured moody light variations and decided to try it in a different part of the garden. Down the eastern side of the house, there is a narrow space between the fence and the house which we filled in and created this green oasis of tree ferns, other really big leafy green plants. But outside my bedroom window is this beautiful Japanese maple, and right now it’s come alive with a brand new cloak of new luscious green leaves.

Japanese Maples have been my favourite for a long time. Why is it that every time you look at them, you feel instantly zen? A sense of total relaxation. It feels like my own sanctuary looking out onto this beautiful tree every day.

And finally, the crab apple is starting to bud and bloom a little. When it is fully living its spring life, it’s covered in the most gorgeous blush tone flowers. I can’t wait to look for them and capture them real soon!

Hope you’re keeping well!

Much Love

Ps. Do you have a favourite Fujifilm zoom lens?