As I wrote in an earlier installment in this series, once we stopped to sketch I worked for a while on a crossvine drawing, then wandered away from the group, drawn by thousands of possible subjects to photograph. After I had taken a few quick close-ups at the "flower" setting on my Kodak EasyShare, Brian (our park guide) suddenly asked if I had considered trying to take photographs through a magnifying lens. He remarked that he had never done such a thing, but didn't see any reason why it wouldn't work.I am astonished to say that the results were beyond expectation. Armed only with a Belomo Triplet 10X and a basic Kodak camera, I was able to get some impressive detail and clarity in photographs of flowers, lichens, and even male pinecones. I held the hand lens as flat as I could against the digital camera lens, set the lens for the close-up ("flower") setting, and tried to focus the image. If it focused, I depressed the button fully and took the photo; if not, I moved the camera-and-lens closer to or farther from the subject, and tried again. I felt like a young child with a new, exciting game to play, as I frolicked about the face of Panola Mountain, looking for new subjects. Before long, Brian borrowed a second lens from me, and joined in the game. (He appears in the picture above, hunched over a specimen with his camera and magnifier, on the right side of the photograph.)
My favorite "captures" are shown below. The first three flowers are, in order from top to bottom: sandwort (Arabis laevigata); sunnybell (Schoenolirion croccum); and diamorpha (Diamorpha smallii). Below that is an unidentified lichen in the genus Cladonia, and male cones, likely belonging to a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda).
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