Macro photography, attempts #1 and #2

I picked up some very cheap extension tubes and a reversing ring for my DSLR, hoping to do some macro photography with them. However, I sort of ignored that both my lenses default to having their apertures at their narrowest setting (rather than their largest, which for some reason I assumed) until instructed otherwise whether electronically or via the aperture lever. This made it a bit more difficult to do a lot of the shots. I have a 49 to 52 mm step-up ring coming in the mail which will let me use the old SMC Pentax 50mm lens, which has an aperture ring, but it appears to be on a slow boat from China so it’s not coming anytime soon.