Alpa Close-Up Arrangement

Early in my photography career, I became very interested in shooting extreme close-up pictures. You will see several of these on this site. This photo shows the arrangement I used for the closest of these, the ones of the grains of salt. The Alpa is attached to a bellows, along with several extension tubes, and a 13.5mm special close-up lens. Focussing was very difficult, due to the very high focal ratio and was done by simply moving the subject closer or farther from the front of the lens. Very bright light was needed as well, due to the high focal ratio and all of these images were taken with a strong electronic flash unit.