I wanted to see how close I could get with reasonable resolution using the Leica M11 Monochrom. The upper photo of the coin is somewhere between 5:1 and 10:1, meaning many times larger than life size. I used the Monochrom with a Leica Macro-Adapter-M with the Novoflex M-mount to Nikon F adapter, a 36mm extension tube, and my Zeiss 50mm f/2 macro lens.

The hardest part was getting the tripod and subject configured so the coin was well lit and close enough to the lens. This kind of thing is usually a “MacGyver“—in this case involving two tables, two books, and a black velvet background cloth.

For another photographic MacGyver, check out my notorious WASP image: “It took some contortions on my part to get my tripod close enough to take this picture, as you can see in this photo Phyllis took of me in my pajamas photographing the wasp with my tripod raised up using diaper cartons.”

Having had a fun time seeing the capabilities of the gear, I turned my attention to making patterns with whatever was at hand, in this case a collection of the small change brought back from various foreign travels (click on the images to view them larger!).