Viewing nature's treasures enlarged and in detail
Astrophotography is my greatest passion and it is the reason I discovered other types of photography, such as macro photography, among others.
It is also good to regularly get out of the bubble of astrophotography and gain new insights by doing something different. That’s why I love macro photography!
From the moment spring is in the country, I feel excited to grab my camera with a macro lens and head out to discover and capture new, beautiful things.
Macro photography is so enchanting!
Join me on this online walk and let me explain why it is so interesting.
What is Macro Photography in the First Place?
Macro photography is about a world where all the small becomes very big.
It is a very popular genre of photography that allows you to shoot beautiful, compelling objects in close-ups.
With your camera and macro lens, you can enlarge the object you are photographing and admire it in detail whether it is a plant like a crimson clover, a lavender, … or an insect like a honey bee or a fly.
You will discover things that you’ve never seen before and those things are close to you.
Let’s take as an example the facet eyes of a fly (see picture 6) or a dragonfly (see picture 8). These eyes are so intriguing when you see them magnified.
Or even the veins in the wings of a honey bee (see picture 1): so cool to watch.
What equipment do I use for my Macro Photography?
For my macro photography, I’m still using my old and trusty Canon EOS 750D DSLR camera. It’s the same camera that I use for my moon shots when doing astrophotography. The DSLR camera did cost me about €465 (about $494US) in 2017.
The macro lens, the Sigma 105mm F/2.8, I bought in spring 2018 for €399 (about $424US). At the time, a bargain with which I was very happy.
As for batteries goes: I bought additional four batteries of Canon LP-E17H Pro (they each come with a practical USB cable), besides the Canon LP-E17 battery that came with my camera. You can’t have enough batteries when you’re out in the field shooting macro photos.
The amount of macro photos can add up quickly when catching a lot of amazing objects on your camera sensor.
I use microSD cards from SanDisk Extreme 90MB/s 32GB, 64GB or 128GB.
Sometimes, I use my camera tripod Cullmann Mundo 525M but most of the time, I shoot lose out of hand and in automatic focus mode. Insects are very dynamic and move quickly. So a camera tripod is mostly not convenient to take macro shots.
On days, when the sun shines very bright, I like to use the B+W polarizing filter during my macro shoots (see picture 5).
Let’s see the picture below, of a fly on a leaf in a shrub, and that was taken with the B+W Polarizing filter 62 MRC mounted onto my Sigma macro lens.
The polarizing filter causes the reflected light of the sun to be removed from the scene that I want to shoot, giving a nice contrast to my object. In this case, a fly.
I also think it gives a nice soft touch to the background and increases the colour saturation.
Why Fauna & Flora Macro Photography?
There are many objects and opportunities to take macro photos, but my favourite kind of macro photography is fauna & flora.
Especially when spring starts and everything comes to life, I like to grab my camera with a macro lens on it and go on adventures mainly in my backyard but sometimes also in forests.
Since I started macro photography a few years ago, I have become aware that you don’t have to travel far to discover special things.
Already in your backyard or garden, you can discover treasures of nature such as insects, butterflies, dragonflies, plants, flowers, etc.
Did you know that even flies can be awesome (instead of annoying like we usually like to think, LOL)? Look at the picture above for proof.
The details, shapes and colours of all these little gems make macro photography very fascinating.
You learn about insects and plants you’ve never heard of or seen before because macro photography teaches you to look. It teaches you to look around you and study your surroundings. You will be amazed.
When I do macro photography, I am also outside in nature, in the wild, fueling vitamin D 😊.
How do I determine my Macro Photos?
When I have taken a macro photo of something, I always like to know what I have photographed.
So I spend some extra time to determine what object I‘ve photographed, for example, an insect, plant, spider, flower, etc. This way I make sure I learn new things and it then gives me positive energy.
Fortunately, there are great apps like Obsidentify to help me do this. And using Obsidentify is a great way to contribute to science. It’s a win-win 😊.
On Facebook, you can find some helpful groups to help you if you want to know the name of a plant or insect, in case you can’t figure it out using the app Obsidentify or books.
I have some great, useful books for learning the names of plants, insects, dragonflies and butterflies (see picture 9), but these are all in Dutch and I don’t know if they are available in English.
What are the Benefits of Macro Photography?
- You’ll learn to have patience and be observant. Insects, for example, cannot be trained to do things you would like to see them do. This is beneficial for your personal development.
- Macro photography is not only about what you photograph but also when and how. Choosing the right moment! Timing is everything here! This is one of the important things to develop your photographic skills.
- It’s cheap. You can already start with an inexpensive DSLR camera and macro lens.
- It’s a great gift for your mental and physical health. Macro photography can be very therapeutic. You are in the great outdoors, at least if you do macro photography outside like I do, and you get exercise because you have to move and walk a lot. You even have to put yourself in all sorts of twists and positions to capture that perfect shot of your beloved object.
Conclusion
So you see, macro photography is worthwhile. Whether you do macro photography outdoors or even indoors.
It’s still an exciting, wonderful world that you can discover by magnifying it with the help of the right equipment.
You learn something new every time and gain new photography skills.
Moreover, you further develop more personal skills such as patience, a trained eye and timing!
I can recommend macro photography to everyone, but be aware: Macro photography can be very addictive! :-D.
