When I was at Big Meadow in Shenandoah I brought my macro lens and tried to concentrate on the small details from the meadow. I was not very productive photographically, but it was nice to walk in the fields early in the morning after my sunrise photo shoot.



Here is a close-up photo of juvenile milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) on a milkweed seed pod. They were everywhere this time of the year.



One thing to keep in mind that you can use your macro lens just like a normal lens. I saw this family walking in the field and I shot the following photo with my 180mm Macro. I liked the composition, but didn't like the initial edit I made in color. I ended up playing with the image and converting it to black and white. I also added some noise and texture to the photo. It ended up giving the photo a charcoal drawing look that I really like.



I also ended up shooting a lot of video on this trip, but my initial edits of the video are not very compelling. Basically its just a bunch of flowers and weeds blowing in the breeze.

Other than the video, I think my Shenandoah trip was photographically productive in the 24 hours I was up in the park. I'm already looking forward to visiting again, maybe in the spring next time.