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What do you use when you didnt carry a tripod .... Elbows
I come across this little orchid in the scrub when I was stalking some Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo's. Its a Fringed Hair Orchid (Leporella fimbriata)
I used my 28-80mm with MC7 Macro converter and inbuilt flash. So down on all fours- hold the breath.
The picture was taken in Landscape and Ive cropped to Portrait.
So any suggestions?

Most of my macro work is free hand in the feild also.
It seems a touch over exposed on my monitor.
I am envious though that you are able to capture these types of orchid where you are. They don't grow over here.
You may be able to use a little pp to help out. I tend to use 500th of a second exposures to start at present when using the flash.
Hope some of this ramling helps,
Regards Colin

Hey Biggzie - I can honestly say that I've never ever used a tripod for my macro shots Pretty much all of my stuff is in the field, and 'wild' so if I pfaffed around with a tripod, well, I wouldn't get the shot

I do like this shot, but would have preferred it from a different angle - maybe front on or slightly more from the side - the oof parts of the orchid hanging down are just a little distracting.

According to your exif, it was taken at 3pm, 1/200 f3.2, iso 800 with flash - just wondering why your iso was so high .... was the light a bit bad??

Well done just the same - and even more so, as most people would have wandered past the flower and not even noticed it was there

Hugs
Rel

Thanks for the comments

It seems a touch over exposed on my monitor

Arent monitors fun. This photo apears dull on my laptop, way too dark on my LG 17'crt, dull on 1 of my Dell 17'crt's and about right on this Dell 17'crt. I tend to do all my editing on this Dell 17'crt because I find that it displays all pictures more naturally than all my others.

would have preferred it from a different angle - maybe front on or slightly more from the side

It was taken on the angle to minimize damage around me. Elbows and knees placed so not to squash other orchid leaves etc and I didnt want to remove any plants. Also this angle gave me a less distracting back ground.

According to your exif, it was taken at 3pm, 1/200 f3.2, iso 800 with flash - just wondering why your iso was so high .... was the light a bit bad??

Exif is missleading and light was bad. Firstly, this was taken with my 28-80mm f3.5-5.6, set to 80mm. So Im starting with f5.6, then putting my MC7 behind, I loose 2 more f-stops. The MC7 doesnt report aperture properly, or focal length on my camera. iso800 is also the centre iso of my camera. I seem to get noise on 1600 & 3200, but dont notice much at 800.
Secondly, it was overcast in Stringy Bark scrub below the bracken. I didnt have much light to work with. Im struggling with my flash setup. I had a good system with film, but the flash units and off camera flash setup doesnt work properly with the digital body. This photo was one of the better balanced where the flash was not too harsh. Ive picked up some reflectors to play with and I want to get a softer diffuser attachment to fit my flash. Ultimately I want to add a good marco lens with off camera flash but $ is the prob.

Basically Im trying to get ideas to get more out of what Ive currently got.
Thanks for the feedback