Extreme Macro

Monday, December 29, 2008

Macro Video

Here's a collection of some of my favorite images from 2008.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Macro Resolutions for 2009

Female Drone Hoverfly II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

It’s that time of year again –time to take a subjective look at my photos and decide where I need to improve, and the direction I want to take my work in the New Year.

Composition is King: I need to continue to work on my compositional skills, and along with that my lighting since the light is a compositional tool. I made a lot of progress in 2008, but I need to keep pushing myself on this one…

Get Better at Post Processing: I’m already working on this one since my poor post processing “skills” need a lot of improvement. There’s just no sense in spending a lot of time and effort on all the things that I need to do before I press the shutter release only to shoot myself in the foot during post…

Let Conditions Dictate How I Shoot: If there is very little wind and the natural light is good then shoot close-ups. If the natural light is poor but the wind is calm then shoot at life size and use the flash as the primary light source. Last if it’s windy then shoot at 2x and higher since it’s easier to grab onto the flower a critter is feeding on when there is a breeze –they can’t tell the difference between the wind and me touching the flower and once I grab onto the stem the wind becomes a non issue. Continue to work on my technique…

Use Magnification as a Compositional Tool: I started to do this one, but kinda fell out of it. There are some magnifications that just don’t work for some subjects –like shooting a dragonfly at life size. There’s no way I can get the entire critter into the frame, and once I start clipping the wings and the tail I might as well go up to 2x or 3x and just take a portrait. I really need to get out of the habit of shooting on even magnifications –another thing that I started to do and fell out of…

Practice Until it Hurts: Then practice some more…