Sunday Stills - Closeup/Macro's

Just a few days ago, I ran across Ed's Sunday Stills blog where he poses a weekly photography challenge and gives helpful advice for us would be photographers. I'm going to try to join in with his challenges this year as I can. I'm really looking forward to it and hopefully learning more about techniques and my camera in general. This first weekly challenge that I have joined is closeup/macro pictures. My camera does have a macro setting but I don't know much about it yet. I have read the very small area of my instruction manual that pertains to this setting, but it sure didn't tell me much. My first thought was to take a closeup of the grain in our firewood. I don't have a tripod and don't seem to hold to steady, so all of those came out way to blurry. Next, the marshmallow and chocolate chip topped brownies that I just pulled out of the oven caught my eye, but the winter rainy light inside my house didn't work so well, so I headed Ed's advice and held a piece of Kleenex over my flash to make it not so harsh. That picture turned out okay, but just okay. Not good enough to show off here. I then decided to wander outside and see what I could come up with. The raindrops were glistening and dripping off the end of the rhododendron leaves and I took several shots of a drop hanging precariously on the edge, but that just didn't turn out right either. Finally, I liked how this one turned out, raindrops sitting on the leaves, just not dripping like I'd first envisioned. I also liked the texture of the picture below. This is a little shrub that's in our Secret Garden out back. Yes, I do know that it's Saturday, but I was excited and couldn't wait until Sunday, so these are my Saturday Stills instead.