Fun with macro extension tubes

On walking out of the backdoor of my house this afternoon, I noticed a Praying Mantis clinging to the bottom of the screen door.  I quickly went back inside, grabbed my camera, lens, flash, TTL cable, tripod and a pair of macro extension tubes and set out to capture the little guy.  Thankfully, he sat still while I got set up and eventually was shooting.    It was difficult to get the focus just right, since I was very close to the bug and the depth of field was very thin, even at f/22.  Since I haven’t yet ventured into focus stacking multiple shots yet, I’ve had to go with a very small aperture, at the risk of diffraction.

The Macro extension tubes I used were a cheap no-name brand I purchased on eBay.  They are made just for the Fuji X mount and have pass through AF contacts.  Considering the price, the build quality is alright and they work pretty well.  To get into macro photography more though, I’ll need to learn a bit more about technique.