There is always a lesson to be learned. The more you know, the more you can learn.

Of course, this is not whatI learned this evening. I learned some things which were obvious and some thatwere even more obvious but it should be mentioned that things which are written down tend not to get lost that easy.

1. The tripod is your friend. Compared to my first attempts the shots from today are pearls.
   I used a UV lamp to add some light from below, so the picture got some strange coloring.
2. It is easier to start with dead things. Things that move are very hard to track down. So I have to postpone the casting of ants for my first movie.
3. Aperture can never be small enough when working with the retroadapter. I cranked it up to 16 to achieve a reasonable depth of field.
4. Macrophotography is a black hole. Black holes eat light, so bring more than plenty. In addition to some ambient light I used a torch from one side and on from below. This is easy when you work on a glass table but can be difficult when you work in the field.
5. Everyday things make good models. Tough there are some things we already have seen very often. Interestingly you can add some new dimension. A UV-backlit button with the ends of two needles looks strange. On another shot I used a laser to get some color from below and got some weird light effects from the frosted glass of the table.
   

Tipp: Positioning of the camera

When you use a standard tripod and do not have any fancy macrophotography equipment It might be difficult to find the right position for the lens, because the distance where you can get the sharp and right spot is very small. I use a cheap laserpointer to light up the target spot and psoition the camera until the screen or viewer shows the red dot.