Tag Archives: Macro photography

Bees on Echinops bannaticus 'Blue Glow'

What better to do on these cold winter days than ponder the future?

In the past few months I have been viewing focus-stacked images by Thomas Shahan, Brian Valentine and Mark Plonsky (see MacroWeb page) that raised a niggling doubt in my mind. These photographers create amazing work with image stacking techniques — work of such high quality that when you see it for the first time it really does set you back on your heels. The doubt that arises is, “Why do I even bother?” These photographers have raised the bar on what excellent photomacrography is. Yet, the focus-stacking technique does have limitations: it requires a subject that is not moving and in the case of most photomicrography and all SEM images (see MicroWeb page), it requires dead subjects. This limitation leads to photographs that give detailed representations, but often tell us little about their lives or habitats or behaviour.

Despite their excellent work (and that of the myriads of other people now practicing bug photography), there is still room for new ideas, new methods and new subjects. What these photographers have shown is the level of quality that is achievable and that anyone entering the field expecting some sort of recognition will have to, at the very least, match that quality.

However, there are still new fields that can be approached. For instance, how many bug photographers out there are recording the fascinating aspects of insect behaviour? How many have moved beyond the craft and into art? What about the photography of insects in flight, or aquatic invertebrates or life cycles? Or macro panoramas? The field is still very open to explore new ideas and to create unique images.

One of the more inspirational of the photographer/bloggers out there is Alex Wild who writes at Myrmecos. Alex is a myrmecologist –  an entomologist who specializes in ants. His photography is not only technically supurb; it is also often highly creative. He has moved his photography well beyond a technical scientific record and into the art of photography. His science also gives him an insight into insect behaviour, which allows him to photograph aspects of the lives of his subjects of which most of us are not familiar.

I am amazed at the quality of the photography and the sophistication of the technique that can now be found on the web. I am not ready to throw away my macro gear just yet, but I have seen such brilliant work ‘out there’ that it has made me pause for a while to reconsider my own approach to photomacrography.

Related articles

• Photographing Insects and Other Small Creatures (nikonusa.com)
• Amazing Photographs: 2011 National Geographic Photography Contest’s winner (thezigzagger.com)