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Macro Photography
From my first macro pictures, I knew I had found something that could keep me busy and immersed in photographing the mysterious world of insects and other small creatures and objects, even the very fine print of any document and labels on bottles. Once on the computer monitor, they all become readable.
Taking pictures of insects is definitely not a cake walk. One has to be stealthy in approaching the subjects; no sudden or jerky movements, just slow fluid motions. Never cast your shadow on your subject because doing so will make it flee. Being in good physical condition will greatly help. At times you will find yourself in very unusual positions to take the shot that you always wanted of an insect under a blade of grass on your lawn. Many times, I found myself lying flat on my stomach just to get a low angle on a creature that insists on getting much lower than I can position my camera. Macro photography involves very close distances between the lens and the subject, which results in a very shallow depth of field. The closer you get, the shallower the DOF, and the shallower the DOF, the more likely you won’t get a sharp picture. To compensate for the shallow DOF, I use a very small aperture, f/16 and up. The small aperture means less light can get to the sensor. This could mean underexposed images, so a flash unit is necessary.
I do all my macro shots handheld because I like to be able to move easily within my wife’s flower beds and the wild flowers of the countryside. Setting up a tripod to shoot an insect is out of the question. A tripod can be useful, however, to photograph flowers and other inanimate objects. I just prefer to handhold my camera when doing macro work. Controlled breathing is very useful in handheld macro photography. Since your DOF is very shallow, inhaling and exhaling can move the camera out of focus. You must be able to time your shutter with your breathing, usually depressing the shutter fully on the exhalation cycle. Until I got the timing right, most of my shots were extremely out of focus. Practice makes perfect, but I still do get some out of focus macro pictures. The last thing that I found interesting and quite enjoyable is identifying the bugs I have photographed. I own a book on butterflies but for identification of all the other bugs, I always log in to my account at BugGuide.Net. They have thousands of pictures of different insects. You may be able to identify your bugs by browsing or you can submit an ID request. In about 30 minutes to half-a-day, you will get an answer. Yes, macros complement my wildlife photography and bring me a greater understanding of nature’s balance and my immediate environment. |
 
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