You are finding much pleasure in isolating detail here. Aside from your technical struggles, which are inherent in Macro photography, your images work best when they are able to suggest or imply meaning, rather than describe it. Suggestion depends on the degree of abstraction, the placement of your frame, and the interplay of light and shadow, softness and sharpness, and the nature of the pattern you can create in doing so. Making Macros for meaning is much more complex than most people think -- it is far more than just coming in as close as you can, and pushing the button. To express meaning, you have to organize your macro image using the same choices in light and space you would use in non-macro photography. Ultimately, expressive Marcos combine abstraction with incongruity to implying human values, just like non-macros due. Good luck, Mo.