I have always enjoyed capturing a moment, a vision, a detail. With three littlies and subsequent limited time I went through a phase of only taking milestone photos. That all changed when we started our little family 'business' Ngahinapouri Swan Plants. I started taking photos again and rediscovered my passion. I challenged myself to take a photo a day and now have a great record of activities in my garden, many are macro photographs.
Check out the new childrens book Blaze- Guardian of the Monarchs that incorporates Macro photography, alongside some other fun imagery.
So what is Macro Photography?
Macro photography captures small objects and scales them greater than life in the photo.
Below are some considerations if you are interested in the process:
1. Equipment
Camera
Many cameras have a macro setting and even phones can take amazing photographs. I primarily use a Canon EOS 60D.
Macro Lens
A few years ago I purchased a macro specific lens, and I have never looked back. It is my absolute favourite lens!
It can double as a portrait lens and is a very sharp prime (fixed) telephoto lens. You just need to remember that it is a fixed lens ...there is no zoom.
Tripod While I have one ...I do not use the tripod for my garden/insect photos.
2. Quantity - One shot or more...
If you have a studio setup with a stationary object fixed in a special setting with the lights all angled perfectly, camera fixed on tripod ...you may be able to get the shot you want first time.
I prefer to take photos in the natural environment. This leads to a whole lot of anomalies that you don't have to consider in a more fixed setting, including:
The subject moving (either by itself or with other elements-eg wind.
The light changing or not quite being in the right place.
The subject may not have a clean background.
In these cases I am quite happy to adjust my angle, and take more photographs. I guess that is the bonus of the digital era. Sometimes when photographing a butterfly you start further back and get closer and closer and then maybe you can get a shot as it takes off. I actually love that you don't know what is going to happen, what shot you will get when you step out the door.
2. Subject - What are you focussing on
I took the below photograph lying on the ground. This Monarch wasn't long out of its chrysalis. This gave me a little more time for the capture (although a lot of movement is required to pump up the wings!) I wanted to capture the head area and blur out the background. The settings I used in this capture was: Fstop 5.6, Exposure time 1/200 sec and ISO-400. There are lots of training videos online or you can do courses as well, to get your head around this terminology (that is if you wish to use the manual settings on your camera).
Macro photography consideratons:
To summarise, you need to factor in:
1.Equipment -What do you want to do?
2. Frequency- how many shots are you prepared to take?
3. What detail do you want to focus on?
You don't have to invest in fancy equipment to achieve some stunning results. Try what you have to start, and see where it leads.
What will you find when you step outside?
Please visit my website here to find out more, and also please sign up to the newsletter below, to follow the journey and keep up to date with latest news.
Comment below and let me know your favourite type of photography. I would love to see your images as well!