Fujifilm Finepix SR600
 

My boyfriend bought me a new camera. It's a nice little camera, and it has some cool settings, but I am still trying to figure out how to get great pictures with it. One reason he chose this camera was for the macro settings, so I could get some great pictures of the snakes, and tarantula, but so far, I suck at the macro pictures. You can't use the flash with macro settings, so I've found that indoor pictures with it don't work well at all. They're either way to dark, or I have to get so close there is a shadow from the camera itself. I'm so excited that things are warming up a bit here, and can't wait to give it a try outside, but does anyone have any advice on getting some awesome snake pictures? Should I not bother with the macro settings for them? I thought it would be cool to get in all the details of eyes, and scales and such. I need some tips. So far, I am not doing very well. Lol

I'm assuming SR600 is a typo, so I searched for S5600.

Page 46 of the manual indicates a flash range of 30 cm to 2 m while in macro mode. You should be able to utilize flash for macro purposes.

You can apparently also use external (remote/off camera) flash too, which coupled with good overhead lighting, should greatly help for indoor macro photography.

Some links....
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/16819560
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/16820369
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/16820426

I'd look into setting up a softbox for doing indoor photos. This can easily be done by making a cube frame out of PVC pipe, then covering the frame with stark white cloth (I cut a twin sheet into a cover, sewed the edges, and used white Velcro to secure it). You can then opt to use a nice bright overhead light (something in the 5200-6500 kelvin temperature range), as well as lighting from both the left and right sides to drown out shadows. ORRRR...use flashes for the side light.

Example: