Keio Mogusaen plum blossoms 2022
The Keio Mogusaen plum blossoms in 2022 were beautiful. I was excited to see them for a special reason. I would use the Fujifilm MCEX-16 macro extension tubes I recently purchased. While I got many good photos, the day didn’t work out as I had planned. Still, I had a great time and learned something.
While on the train to the park, I saw the weather looked pretty good. But, it did look a little hazy, which worried me. And that worry was well-founded. I proceeded straight to the top of the hill upon arrival. Mount Fuji wasn’t there. Clouds covered it. That was disappointing, but there was nothing I could do about it.
There were few people at the park, and the flowers looked incredible. Mount Fuji could wait until another day. I was happy with the plum blossoms. It had been a few years since I had seen them look so good.
I used the extension tubes after getting most of the necessary pictures. Using them made me nervous because I had limited time.
The MCEX-16 macro extension tubes were easy to use. They went between the camera and the lens. The build quality was superb, and they fit snugly.
By the way, do you know what extension tubes are? Well, I often talk about buying a macro lens for photographing flowers. My budget wouldn’t stretch for one of those, but I got the next best thing, extension tubes.
Extension tubes are a poor man’s macro. They are cheap and allow you to get close to your subject. Actually, with them attached, you can only focus on things near your camera. That is the downside, but they are better than nothing.
I couldn’t believe how close to the flowers the lens needed to be to focus on the flowers. The Fujifilm 16-55 mm f/2.8 has a minimum focus distance of 30cm. With the tubes and the lens extended to 55 mm, that distance became approximately 5 cm.
Well, I learned one thing about extension tubes. I need more practice. They make the depth of field narrow. I had one part of the flower in focus in many photos, but the rest were too blurry.
That’s not a problem. It became a learning experience. I’ll practice with them again when I have time. Eventually, I’ll work out how to get the best out of them. Hopefully, that will be before the cherry blossom season.
Keio Mogusaen plum blossoms photo gear:
- Camera Body: Fujifilm X-T3
- Lenses: Fujinon XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR
- Extension Tubes: MCEX-16 macro
Rohan Gillett
Rohan has lived in Tokyo for 30+ years. He loves photography and plans to capture the entire city.
Check out these other flower articles:
External related websites
- Keio Mogusaen (official website)