Macro Photos.

[JohnP]

These are amazing macro shots... but having said that there is no way that they could be taken in out the field. Obviously I appreciate the time and skill involved in setting up shots like these but it's not the way I like to take macros. I  would only ever take live insects that are free to buzz off at any time and in many ways I consider it more skillful as there are often only seconds to get the shot and not all the time in the world like taking set up shots with carefully positioned lighting etc.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/9927514/Bug-eyed-macro-photographs-of-insects-by-Ireneusz-Irass-Waledzik.html

[Guest DaveW]

Not all of the bugs in these high magnification shots are always killed to order John. Just look on your windowsill on a warm summer day and you will find many already dead ones.  Plus some are simply chilled in the fridge for photography, not killed.

 

Believe you me getting shots like that with proper lighting, plus right amount of diffusion and just the correct orientation is equally as skilful as photographing insects at smaller magnifications in the field. It is certainly not point and shoot photography, if it were everybody would be doing it.  You will note there are far more field photographers taking the easier shots at lower magnification's than perfecting his type of photography.  Excellent pictures and well lit.  I looked up his name and found his site here:-

 

http://500px.com/irassmakrofotografie

 

"I consider it more skilful as there are often only seconds to get the shot and not all the time in the world like taking set up shots with carefully positioned lighting etc"

 

Not a case of being more skilful for many photographers John, it's just that many want to be point and shoot practitioners and do not have the patience to set up for other than hand held snatch shots. No longer wanting the trouble of using tripods, cable releases and multiple flash set up's and then breaking them down again after the shot.  That's why the mobile phone camera has taken on, because people no longer want to lug bulky equipment around with them, plus everything must be instant and simple these days.

 

As you know yourself John, macro photography is more difficult to do than say just pointing a camera at a building or a landscape and clicking away, therefore many conventional photographers do not want that hassle and cannot get used to the limited depth of field macro photographers need to master.  All those problems are literally magnified with high magnification photography.

Edited April 7, 2013 by DaveW