I like hiking light. Dragging a whole lot of photography gear is just not my thing, because I want to enjoy the hike as well. So I have a big dilemma when I have to choose the gear for mountain hikes because I want to be able shoot both flowers and landscapes. And since the 150mm macro is not much of a landscape lens, I needed a way to transform the 24-105mm zoom into a macro. Answer: extension tubes. Since I’ve never tried this combo, I had no idea if it really works or not but the proof is in the pudding so today I tested it on some wood anemone buds I found. The idea is not to compare the 150mm macro to the zoom with extension tube, but just to see if the zoom kit can be used for flower close-ups at all. It turned out it works fine! Problem solved, I now have my light-weight photography kit for the long day hikes. The irony is that two of the components in the kit are the oldest pieces of photography equipment I have, the monopod which I got in the very beginning when I started with photography (except I’ve switched the ballhead) and the extension tube set which also dates back in the early days before I got a dedicated macro lens.

At this time of the year I do the same walk every weekend, kind of an inventory round to see when the flowers will start popping up. The wood anemone above was shot at hembygdsgården because there’s still about 20cm of snow in my favourite wood anemone spot. Another flower that’s about to bloom is the daphne, I have high hopes of seeing some flowers next weekend because the buds are getting quite big in my favourite daphne spot. I didn’t expect to see any open daphne flowers so imagine my surprise when I came across these pink beauties with their amazing scent when I was inspecting the Svartån waterfalls today. There was too much water in the creek to inspire me (small creeks work better for me when there’s little water in them) so finding the daphne was perfect. But regardless of the amount of water, it was great to be out there. The wind was horribly cold and completely negated the warm sunshine, it was even snowing at one point, but it didn’t stop me from sitting down and enjoying a cup of coffee (or two) and be happy about the changing season!