DREAMY LAYERS

85mm, ISO 100, f/8, 1/80 second

  When I bought my Rebel XS, part of the kit that came with it was a Zeikos lens attachment that was both a wide angle/macro attachment. I was never very fond of the wide angle part of the attachment but I always enjoyed using the macro part of the device.
  The attachment screws onto the end of a 58mm diameter lens just like a filter would. A few months ago I sold my Tamron 28-80 lens which is what I used to attach the macro to. Today, it dawned on me that my Canon 85mm 1.8 USM lens was a 58mm so I dug out the attachment, fastened it to the 85mm lens and went to work on my wife's miniature rose bush.
  One thing I had completely forgotten was that it was terribly difficult to capture pics with this attachment hand held. You have a small window that you have to move into to proper focus and when you are bent over looking down, it can get extremely hard to keep in this window. Needless to say, the first set of images I took were out of focus and disappointing.
  This afternoon, I pulled out the tripod and gave it another shot. Even though it took some effort to move the tripod around and into position, it was a whole lot easier than bending over and hand holding. I got two or three images that I really liked.
  The image today was quickly processed in Photoshop Elements and then imported into OnOne Software's Perfect Effects 3 Free package.  I applied the Dreamland effect with the Sloppy Joe border to the image and I really liked what turned out. It almost cast a abstract effect on the image combined with the tight layers of petals.