Photos 52 Project for 2025 - Join in!

I've been very lazy recently with using my camera gear so I started a 2025 one-photo-a-week challenge to give myself a kick up the backside.

It's macro themed (close ups without an actual macro lens are fine) and any kit or skill level is welcome so feel free to join over on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/groups/52projectmacro/

If I manage to do anything half decent or interesting, and anyone is interested, I'll possibly post it here with a 'how it was done' bit as I expect to be messing around with all sorts of extension tubes, lighting, and reversing rings. Probably a bit of focus stacking in Photoshop too.

 

Week 1 is utensils. I decided to try some cross polarisation.

Camera: Pentax K3ii
Lens: Tamron 90mm Macro
Filter: Hoya Circular Polariser
Other: Samsung Tablet
Software: Lightroom


Cross Polarisation Forks by Philip Veater, on Flickr

To get the effect I placed some clear plastic forks on a brightly lit background. This was my Samsung tablet, displaying a plain white background, with the brightness on full. I then attached the CPL filter to my lens, put the camera in manual, and took a few shots. I tried some other angles and tripod mounted shots too but this was my favourite of the bunch as it really shows the cross polarisation effect.

 

Nice! Very "Apple wallpaper"

 

Have been late uploading the latest photo challenges due to being busy with a holiday and stuff. I've caught up now though.

Week 2 - Plant Life
We've got an Orchid in the lounge I I love the bird/alien look of the flower. Nothing fancy with the camera here, just tried to capture the creature close up.

Week 3 - Matches
I really wanted to get a close up of a match striking. But with limited lighting options I couldn't raise the shutter speed enough to freeze it. Abandoning that idea I took a photo of a match igniting, around 1/400s IIRC, and continuous mode. Max speed of my camera is around 8fps so I chose the capture I liked the best.

Week 4 - Coins
Wasn't feeling creative vibes for this one. Dug out some old Euros from the kitchen drawer - the one everyone has that's full of random junk - and stacked them. Lit from above with a small LED lamp and used a black book cover to add a shadow where I wanted and control light coming in from the side. Camera was mounted on a tripod so I could extend the shutter speed to compensate for the lack of light.


Alien Orchid by Philip Veater, on Flickr


Ablaze by Philip Veater, on Flickr


Euros by Philip Veater, on Flickr

 

Week 5 - Shapes
I was struggling to find anything interesting to photograph close-up. In the house at least. I admit I've been lazy with the project and the spark of impetus I was hoping for hasn't arrived yet. That being said I grabbed some sprinkles (cake decorations) from the cupboard and got in nice and close. Edited in Lightroom for the B&W conversation.

Week 6 - Currency
This was a dissapointing theme given I'd photographed some coins only a couple of weeks before. I don't like this one. Pretty boring.

Week 7 - Within Reach
This theme fell during the week I was building my new PC. I thought some of the components might look interesting close up. In the end I went for the graphics card. The photo is the rear of a 5080. Nothing particularly fancy about the editing or the photo but I did use a tripod to use a slow shutter speed - both to remedy a lack of light and use of a small aperture to increase depth of field.

Week 8 - Under The Sink
I had fun (and some stress) with this one. The photo is of bubble mixture mixed with some glycerin to try to make it a bit more stable. Initial attempts using my flash completely failed so I switched to natural light. The downside was having to use a bigger aperture and higher ISO to get something useable. The bubble was made by dipping my lens hood (not connected to the camera) into a bowl of the mixture, then waiting for the colour to develop, but not waiting too long as even with the glycerin popping was inevitable. I'd like to go back an experiment more with this technique as, if I can sort the lighting out, the sharpness, DoF, and noise should be able to be improved a lot.


Sprinkles by Philip Veater, on Flickr


Fiver by Philip Veater, on Flickr


GPU by Philip Veater, on Flickr


Psychedelic by Philip Veater, on Flickr

 

Week 9 - Fibers

Found some colourful wool in the kids craft drawer and got in close. This was taken using an old Pentax 50mm f1.7 lens reversed onto a set of extension tubes. Lighting was natural (windowsill) and a long exposure was used aided by a tripod. Edited in Lightroom to taste which included a heavy vignette and pushing the texture and clarity sliders.


Wool Fibers by Philip Veater, on Flickr