Simplicity + Chaos (and more lessons from the garden)
Macro photography is awesome. Here are some things I've learned.
Macro photography is WAY more difficult than it seems
A beautiful flower in sunshine should be a SUPER easy thing to photograph, right?
However, you know the deal: it ain’t that easy!
In fact, it’s a lot harder than I make it sound in the YouTube video I posted, and that’s why I wanted to make this blog post.
With macro photography, it’s even easier to lose sight of the basics. There are a lot of variables that happen with macro photography that tend to be technical. However, I wanted to lean into some more compositional stuff.
Here are a few concepts I’ve learned through years of photographing one garden or another with various macro lenses, filters and even telephoto lenses for close-ups!
(All of these photos were taken this morning using my OM1-MarkII with the 90mm f/3.5 PRO lens - both from OM-System… and no, I’m not an affiliate or have any relationship with them!)
SIMPLICITY
With all the chaos of a garden, it’s important to keep the concept of simplicity in mind. There are a few ways to do this:
Simplicity Using Composition (Mostly background awareness):
This one is fairly easy: just find your center of interest and move so there is no competition for the viewer. Here, you can’t help but stare at the water drop.
Going “wide open” on your aperture, and getting as close as you can, will result in some REALLY shallow depth of field, making “simplicity” even easier.
This means that sometimes even chaotic scenes can be simplified a bit if you can go wide open and nail the focus (my OM1-MarkII has incredible focusing, even at extreme magnification levels).
CHAOS
Now we’re going the totally opposite direction. Instead of trying to simplify the photo and remove a bunch of stuff, we’ll talk about embracing some of the chaos of the garden.
The first way I do that is by sticking my camera into the scene. Literally, inside the clusters of flowers, in order to make it seem like the viewer is “inside” the scene.
These three shots were made this way. You’ll see blur in front of and behind the center of interest.
On these shots, you can see varying degrees of aperture choices. The first and third shots were at f/5.6, while the second shot was f/3.5.
As you can tell, these have a lot more going on in them - intentionally creating context of these flowers in a body of other flowers.
PATIENCE
I’m the WORST at patience. I’ll likely never be a championship wildlife photographer because it takes too much damn patience!
However, in the garden, it doesn’t take long to find some insect, and you only really need patience in short bursts.
For each of these, I mostly waited until the bug was in the perfect spot - and that’s not easy!
Storytelling: The “Little World”
I love the stories I find in the garden.
These scenes can be open to interpretation. I like to frame insects as little adventurers:
Or find little “secrets” that will bring your audience moments of joy (check out the reflection in the water drop):
What stories do you find in your garden?
KEEP THE SHUTTER FAST!
The quickest way to ruin a macro photo in the field is with using a slow shutter speed! I see this mistake all the time with younger photographers.
Here’s the deal: the world is moving. You are moving. The flower is moving, and if there’s a bug in there, it’s moving too.
With all that’s going on, it’s easy to accidentally use a shutter speed that will make you hate macro photography. Even shutter speeds of 1/250 of a second can be iffy with moving scenes.
Here’s what I do: let go of the idea you HAVE to keep the ISO low. This is good advice generally… unless your shutter speed drops. In that case, try to keep your shutter above 1/500 in lighter wind situations. For more windy scenes, raise your shutter speed even more.
Keeping your shutter speed high will also make sure the intense detail of some macro lenses show through:
Here are a few more from the garden:
For more tips on macro photography, here’s my most recent YouTube video:
Cat Stuff!
I love our sweet stray cat, Mabel. She’s a super predator, so it’s fun to watch her catch stuff in the back yard.
No one on the planet will know the spark of personality she has. This morning she ran up a few trees, ate some bugs, pounced on some leaves, and let me rub her belly and chest while purring wildly loud.
She’s full of so much joy.
Please Share this!
Do you know someone who might like the advice I have here, or the general vibe I have? I’d be honored if you shared a link to this. You rock - thank you!
THANK YOU for being here!
I love helping people. Do you have anything you’d like to know about photography? Send me a question, or just say hello.
www.jerredz.com
jerredz@gmail.com
LAST THING FOR REAL:
Which photo makes me look skinnier? This is very important:
