The newest addition to my little family of lenses is a Macro lens, something I’ve wanted for quite a while! I’ve always admired the work of a friend of mine (whose photos you can find here), who takes glorious botanical images. I think my love of birds may have rubbed off on him slightly, so it’ll be interesting to see how we both go with trying out something a bit different!

I’ve been waiting for the shipment of the Sigma Macro 105mm f/2.8 since around October, so it was like an early Christmas present to get it at the start of December. It’s part of the selection of lenses I chose as my prize for the D-Photo award, and my thanks to Mark at CR Kennedy, the New Zealand Sigma suppliers, for all the help in sorting it all out and letting me try out a variety of lenses before making my decision!

I was planning on going to the Winter Gardens in the Auckland Domain, but I had a busy day trekking all over Auckland and ended up relaxing at Anna’s house with her cat, Rosie, instead. Rosie is gorgeous and timid, but she got used to the camera very quickly. It took me a while to get used to the narrow plane of focus, so a lot of my photographs aren’t sharp in the right place! I can’t wait to get more photographs of her.

The next day I visited the Wintergardens at Auckland Domain in the morning and enjoyed wandering through the Temperate House.

Now that I’m home again, I can just go outside to find flowers to photograph!

This lens is extremely sharp, and it’s very well balanced on the D700 without the battery grip. It’s a joy to use, and I’ve even managed to get in some bird photography with it with the Blackbirds nesting in a tree at work. I’m looking forward to using it as a portrait lens as well! If you’re looking for a Macro lens and the Sigma 105mm appeals, I’d definitely go for it. In New Zealand you can buy it for between $780 and $1000, depending on where you shop.