Flowers, a Pool, & Canon 70-200mm Lens

Flowers, a Swimming Pool, & Canon 70-200 Lens

I went back to a place where flowers were planted next to a swimming pool.  I really like that blue water as a background.   Unfortunately, it is late in the year and there are not many flowers in bloom so I just shot a few of whatever plants happened to be around the pool.

Extension Tube and My Favorite Lens

I shot these pics with a slim, 12mm Canon extension tube between my Canon 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS II lens and my 5D Mk II body.  This 70-200mm lens is just outstanding and I love its sharpness and color.  I don’t know why some lenses pop color more than others but this one does.  The f/2.8 designation means that it can open its aperture wide to allow for nice blurry, arty backgrounds.

As I write this, Canon has five(!), yes five 70-200mm zoom lenses in their lineup.  They put everything into these things and they are some of Canon’s best lenses.  When you see the President surrounded by journalists snapping away with white lenses, most likely they are one of the Canon 70-200mm lenses.

I shot these pics with the most expensive of these five, the f/2.8 lens with image stabilization.  But the best deal is the great f/4 with image stabilization at a much lower price; you just lose one stop of light and a bit less background blur.

The only problem with using a lens like this for flower photography is that I can’t get too close to the flowers because the lens just won’t focus that near.  So a neat trick is to slip an extension tube between the body and lens and now you have much more latitude over where you can stand in relation to the flower.  Want to be close?  The extension tube will allow you to get macro close.  Move away?  No problem here either since I was using the thinner of Canon’s two tubes, I can move back pretty far and still lock focus.  The big limitation of an extension tube is you can’t focus on infinity, otherwise known as “far away” and I don’t care because I am shooting flowers and not mountains.

The Equipment:

Galleries: Flowers and Nature. Tags: 5D Mk II, 70-200mm 2.8, Extension Tube, and Manfrotto Tripod & Head.