Spring Dreaming

Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. 25 May, 2012.

Still battling inertia in 2013…

Like others I am going through a bout of the doldrums now. While I always look forward to winter to catch up with the many tasks I ignore in the warmer months, I know from experience that I won’t succeed, and I will once more enter spring with work undone and goals un-achieved. Still, it is the new year, and while all the personal resolutions are best kept to myself, I do have some plans for macro photography and this blog:

◊ Workshops begin this year. I have had a variety of people requesting workshops in macro photography, so I will be kicking off with some half-day workshops this February. There are many paths to macro, and I will cover different methods of obtaining magnification and the equipment used to support quality macro photography. This may be a precursor to spring workshops that will include practical hands-on work in the garden and in the field.

◊ Video. I have dabbled in video since moving to Canon equipment, but the addition of a micro 4/3 camera to my arsenal will shift me into spending more time learning close-up and macro video this year. This winter I will be contriving equipment  to put through its paces in spring when the bug season returns.

◊ Art. One of my pleasures has always been history, and as entomology has been illustrated long before the advent of photography, I have decided to begin including more historic insect illustrations into the blog.

◊ Microscopy. Sometimes, macro doesn’t cut it. Even with top-of-the-line equipment, most macro photographers balk at taking  hand-held flash photographs above 5x magnification, and only a few extremists are photographing live bugs at the 10x edge (see Ted MacCrae’s posts about life at 8x ). Over 10x and you are entering the micro realm where many invert’s dwell, so I hope to include more posts on microscopic bugs, microscopy and the people who have mastered the craft.

◊ Entomology. I’ll continue on my Ento. 101 project, with added specimens. Yup. I’m gonna start collecting bugs.

◊ Studio. For the longest time I’ve dreamed of having a macro studio. I began developing it years ago, but only this year have I actually been able to pull it all together. This means I will venture into focus stacking and other photographic exercises.

◊ Productivity. Whereas I still have some bug images to share for this winter, I had a deeply disappointing photographic season last year. For a variety of reasons, my buggy stockpile is low. In 2013 my goal is to spend more time in the field with my camera. That means not just more trips, but longer outings and better bug finding methods. Of course, this means I will have to sacrifice family, friends, customers, orphans, volunteer time and all, but I must get more bugs!!!!! 

That’s enough dreaming. I’ll be back to reality again tomorrow with another Week on Sunday.