squeak: thank you very much. I'm rather proud of these macros. especially the first one in each grouping (Erotic Red and Painted).
As for whether or not you have made friends with your macro lens or not, I don't know; but your results are quite good. I really do love this one.
I wonder how it is that you feel like your are fighting with the lens? Macro comes easily to me because more often then not, if I'm using any other lens we have I don't feel like I can get close enough to my subjects. I think I'm trying to solve they mystery of existence in every thing I photograph with the macro lens.
I would not however be a good photo journalist though. I see single parts of the story, that individual moment and I want to capture it. I don't see the slightly bigger picture. I would be taking the picture of child playing and capturing the isolated moment there. The photo journalist somehow gets the entire playground of kids in the background, including the bully picking on a couple kids for lunch money. They say "here is a huge story on life and this is my angle" while I'm more of "let me tell you a little story".
Eventually I will get myself to see at least a few more of the bigger picture stories.
