Anyone who has visited my flickr gallery would know that I am an avid fan of Macro Photography (specially insects). Some people find my passion for shooting insects difficult to digest. What is so tempting about photographing insects that I can spend hours together behind a small creature to get that best shot? Well, it’s the beautiful patterns, or I should say the designs that the insects are gifted – and we are not. These minute details are which I keep trying to capture as I can not admire those with my naked eyes.
Coming to macro photography, it is not as easy as it seems. First you have to work with not-so-cooperative insects and second you need a powerful lens to capture them. Also, either you need some sort of support to steady the camera (a tripod or a monopod or something where you can rest your camera) or you got to have very very steady hands. I don’t have a tripod yet, so I try to utilize my hands as much as possible.
Here are some tips for macro photography –
- Know limitations of your camera – each camera a minimum distance beyond which it can’t focus. For example in normal macro mode, my Canon S3 IS can focus at 1 cm but not less than that. In Super macro mode, it can focus at 0 cm too, nice.
- Have enough light – for macro photography, you need to zoom a lot to get closer to the subject and hence need much more light than shooting at wide angle.
- Get a tripod (I need to get it too) – As you are working at far end of telephoto range, a small shake can give you a completely blurred image.
- Get a good macro lens – Normal point and shoot cameras are generally not equipped with good enough lens for macro photography. You need a lens which can enlarge the image and still retain the sharpness. I use Raynox DCR-250 lens on top of my Canon S3 IS. This lens enlarges the image 8 times and is very good at retaining the sharpness of the subject.
- Keep away from Bumble bees 🙂
Below are some of my favorite macro shots that I have taken over last 3 years.
And finally this video. It’s much more fun when you can capture such wonderful macro videos. I wish I had a tripod.
You wouldn’t appreciate these lovely creatures unless you bend down on your knees and get to their level to see their world.