Macro photography

  My stock photos @ Alamy.com

Yesterday I was working in my greenhouse, digging old dirt out to replace it. Suddenly I saw these big spiders(big for Estonia) running around and thought I should try take some photos. 

  I have a Tamron 18-200mm (macro) lens. I got this lens while I was traveling around in Japan. I wanted to get something cheap that I could use in most of situations and this is what the customer service guy recommended.

  For the money I paid for this lens, it's pretty good. The image quality can't be compared to some of the  more expensive lenses, but it's usable in most cases. Stock photography site Alamy.com has some strict requirements for the images you can upload. With this lens I could pass all the requirements easily. 
  The autofocus is a tad slow and not the most quiet one, but I mostly use manual with this lens anyway. This lens doesn't have the VC(vibration compensation), so shooting at the longer focal lengths will be shaky and it's better to use a tripod.
  You can lock the focal length at 18mm. This way you can prevent unwanted zoom or damaging the lens. The front of this lens is kinda heavy and if not locked down, it will extend when carrying it around attached to your camera.
  It does have color fringing  and vignetting, but it's not that bad. I don't know the most extreme cases, but mostly, I can use some software to remove it.

  Overall, this lens is alright for what you pay. If you can, save for some more expensive and advanced lenses(possibly with VC to shoot in longer focal lengths). Always think what you want to use a lens for before you buy, because if you know what you want to photograph, you can choose the best lens for the money you can spend.

  This turned pretty much into a review I guess :) Anyway here are some photos I took yesterday:

My stock photos @ Alamy.com