Coming Out of The Closet

OK.... I have a confession to make... I bought a macro lens and made my first macro image. Now I'm not sure why I have this mental stigma about macro photographers. I think it's because I've always considered myself a serious landscape photographer and shooting pictures of flowers and butterflies seems like "sissy photography".

It's so opposite to landscape work...

• Landscape is all about the location
  
• Macro is all about the subject
• Landscape is all about foreground interest and leading lines into the picture
• Macro is about putting the subject on a very narrow focal plane
• Landscape is about dramatic low angle light
• Macro is about diffuse even light to pick up detail.
• Landscape often has infinite depth of field.
• Macro often has infinitesimal depth of field.
• Landscape is about exposure bracketing
• Macro is about focus bracketing

I could go on and on, but I think we all get it... This is different. So why am I drawn to macro?

Because I think it will be fun to have total control over your shooting... Kind of like a minature studio where I have full control over composition, lighting... everything. I don't have to hope for a great sunrise.... I create my own through colour backgrounds.

So here's my first crack at a macro shot.



I was very happy with the way it came out and it has really energised me to do more quickly. I can't say the concept was original, I came across some incredible photos from Lord V and Steve Took It on Flickr with lots of links to great tutorials on how they created the refracted images of flowers.

So where to from here.... I want to see if I can bring some drama and landscape principles to the Macro world.... Should be quite challenging when I can't even get a bloody leaf totally in focus... but we'll see.

Stay tuned.