I recently came across this article which shows you how to turn the standard kit zoom lens on an SLR into a macro lens, and thought I'd share the trick with the rest of you. All you have to do is dismount the lens, turn it backwards, set it to a wide angle, and then hold it tightly against the camera body so it doesn't let any light in. Achieving the desired focus can be a little volatile and requires very precise movement toward or away from the subject, but using precision lighting and minimizing extraneous motion can help with the overall sharpness and quality of the final results. Here are a few quick photos I took of objects that were within arms reach to give you some examples.
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