One Small Square

Continuing my mini-series about insect photography this week, I've decided to talk a little bit about biodiversity. Last week, I wrote about the importance of developing a theme or a purpose for your work. Well, one of my personal themes is to showcase the local biodiversity available within easy reach - right in your backyard, if you will.

Wheel Bug Nymph (as far as I can tell - correct me if you have a better idea!)

This is part of the beauty of insects - they are weird and wonderful, and a lot easier to access than classic "great" subjects of animal photography (eg, lions, elephants, etc). If you haven't spent some time looking at our six-legged neighbors, well, you're missing out. Insects are the most successful group of animals in existence. In fact, there are more species of beetle alone than of any other animal.

Ironically, I don't have any beetles in this post. Whoops.

Why are Insects Important?

Insects are an important group of animals for many reasons. Firstly, they form the base of the food pyramid, supporting small mammals, birds, and reptiles. These smaller vertebrates (insects, as you may recall, are invertebrates) can then support larger predator animals, which, eventually, support us.

Additionally, insects directly support the human population by pollinating most of the fruits and vegetables we enjoy. This is why colony collapse disorder, in honey bees, is such an important issue. If the honey bee disappears completely, the negative impact on our food supply would be catastrophic.

Ok, so I screwed up here also, and didn't manage to include any honey bee images. How about a carpenter bee?

What does this have to do with photography?

As photographers, we have the choice to use our skills to bring awareness to different issues, whether they be social, political, or environmental. Don't be defeatist and think that no one wants to hear your opinion - with photography and other visual arts, you can show people your opinion, and force them to think about current issues. I believe that this is the best use of nature photography, to inspire people toward greater environmental stewardship and engagement.

So what's with the title?

Well, now it's time for you to try a little experiment for yourself (did you try the challenge in last week's post?). You will need a notebook, a macro lens if you have one, your smart phone, or some other device capable of recording what you see. Pick an area of ground - it can be a flower patch, a tree, a stream - and sit. I hope it's a nice day outside where you are! Watch what comes by - fish, mammals, insects - and record them. When's the last time you did something like this? How many species did you find? This is a measure of your local biodiversity, and a reminder that, without your help, it may vanish, forever.

Great Purple Hairstreak

So, what's your passion? Whatever it is, remember that there are many ways you can help forward progressive causes in today's "information age." Don't be silent.

Interested in insects? See my insect photography tips.

Want to see more tips? Check back every Friday for a new post. Click here to follow me on Tumblr and here to follow me on Bloglovin! Don't forget you can also use the nifty sidebar to subscribe via email or RSS feed

Perspective & Photo Challenge

The Art of photography is just as much a challenge as the Skill of photography. Photography hangs in a strange world, a balance between the vision of the artist and the abilities of the equipment. This is another post about the Art of photography. (You can read my last post about the art of photography here.)

Little bug, big world

One of the struggles of artistic photography is to produce images that are more than just physical documentations of the subject. Sometimes this seems easy, but other times it can be more difficult. This begs the question:

How can I push myself to produce more artistic images?

There are, of course, many answers to this question. One thing I would suggest would be to determine what your goals as a photographer are. What are you trying to convey to the viewer? Are you trying to persuade them, amaze them, terrify them? Or are you trying to capture abstract emotions, melancholy, love, peace? It's up to you, but there's very little chance of achieving your goal if you don't have a clear idea of what it is.

So, besides having a "mission statement" for my work, what else can I do?

Photography is, of course, a visual art. Ergo you must force yourself to produce visually unique and captivating images - you will not be able to achieve your goal if no one wants to look at your work. 

Do this exercise.

I've mentioned this somewhere before, but a great trick to force yourself to expand your visual horizons is to constrain your subject matter. What does that mean? Simple: make yourself take 10 (or 5, or 15, or 20) different images of the same subject.

Dramatic backside view

Challenge yourself to think of different "themes" for each shot, and push yourself to demonstrate different aspects of your subject in each frame. This brief series I've done involves a Reduviid nymph (I believe it is a Wheel Bug but I cannot confirm this). Each picture is distinct in evoking emotion in the viewer, although they were all shot on the same morning, at the same location, of the same insect.

Detailed side view

When I look at these images together, they form a story (for me) about the Wheel Bug nymph. It's small, but is a ferocious predator (look at that vicious proboscis!), and is patterned beautifully. Other people probably look at them and think, "gross, that looks terrifying, why would anyone go near that thing???"

Well, to each her own. If you aren't that person alluded to above, you may want to check out my post on insect photography here.

What do you think about this challenge? Are you going to try it weekend? (If you do and  you upload your photos somewhere, feel free to leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see!)

Want to see more tips? Check back every Friday for a new post. Click here to follow me on Tumblr and here to follow me on Bloglovin! Don't forget you can also use the nifty sidebar to subscribe via email or RSS feed

By the way:

Very Small Rocks: Macro Photography Basics

Macro Photography Basics

Baby reduviid 

You may have noticed that I kinda have a thing for arthropods. Okay, maybe not "kind of", but definitely certainly. Quite frankly, I love bugs. And while I believe that insects are amazing photography subjects, I realize that macro photography is not as intuitive as other forms of nature photography. Firstly, you need specialized equipment (should I do a post on this? Let me know). Secondly, you need to understand the technical hang-ups with macro work. Finally, you need to really like small things.

So what even is macro photography?

There is actually a technical definition of a "macro" lens - it must render the subject with a 1:2 or 1:1 reproduction ratio. In other words, the subject must be at least half as large on the film as it is in real life. Make sense? (Note: Some sources only consider 1:1 ratios to be true 'macro', but I believe that this is nitpicking).

Dew-laden flowers

Okay, so besides being small, what's the difference?

The main technical difficulty of macro photography is learning how to handle the magnification power of the lens. In short, the extreme magnification creates problems for the photographer.

1. Focusing Problems

At very high magnifications, the depth of field becomes very shallow. Thus it is imperative to focus your images carefully. A few millimeters' change in the focal plane can create entirely different images. Pay close attention that your desired subject is actually the point in the frame you are focusing on. I would recommend using manual focus. As a corollary to this tip, a tripod is helpful in ensuring that you don't accidentally twitch and move your subject out of focus.

Hornet Clearwing Moth

You can see in the image above how shallow the depth of field is. Unless this is the look you are going for, I would suggest stopping down to a very small f-stop to maximize your available depth. 

(If the above discussion about depth of field is confusing you, you may want to head over here to read my article about f-stops.)

2. Choosing the Right Subject

I've spoken (and written) before about how I believe there are 3 main components of a good photograph: lighting, subject, and composition. Depending on the type of photography, these individual elements attain greater or lesser importance. For macro photography, I believe that choosing an appropriate subject is paramount.

Parasitized Tobacco Hornworm Caterpillar

You should seek out subjects with interesting patterns, textures, or behaviors. Okay, you say, I'm supposed to be doing that anyway. And that's true -  but the key here is to discover subjects that are not easily appreciated with the naked eye. With the magic of your macro lens, you are transporting the viewer to place she cannot otherwise go. In short, your camera becomes a tool with which to expose a hidden world. In my obvious opinion, insects make wonderful macro subjects, as their bodies are etched with color and detail we rarely notice at our native scale.

Hover fly

3. Lighting Difficulties

Because of the issues discussed in tip #1, macro photographers often stop down very far. This results in little available light to shoot with, and thus blurry images. To combat this problem, many photographers choose to use flash to illuminate their macro images. Personally, I prefer the appearance of natural light in photographs. However, if you like flash - go for it! But don't let anyone try to convince you that you "need" expensive lighting gear to undertake macro photography. None of my images are shot with flash.

Parting words:

So there are a few technical challenges posed by macro photography, but they are not insurmountable, even for beginning photographers. Overall, the same basics of light, subject, composition hold true with this, and any, genre of photography. While equipment can be expensive, there are entry-level devices that can help elevate your images to the realm of small (macro lenses are even available for smart phones now). Would you like me to write a post about macro equipment? Let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, it's insect season again! Get out there, and get CLOSE.

If you're interested, in this article, I talk briefly about finding great insect subjects.

Want to see more tips? Click here to follow me on Tumblr and here to follow me on Bloglovin! Don't forget you can also use the handy sidebar to subscribe via email or RSS feed. Check back next friday for a new post, and thanks for reading.

The F Stops Here: Photography Basics Part 1

Photography Basics Part 1: A Practical Guide to Aperture

View Part 2
View Part 3

This is going to be the first post in a small series explaining some technical photography basics which can help you improve your photography skills. With the improving sophistication of automatic metering systems in digital cameras, technical knowledge of photography is becoming less necessary. However, if you want to have artistic control over your images, you should learn a few basics.

What is an F stop?
"F stop" is another term for "aperture." Aperture is the name for the hole through which light reaches the film - or digital chip - when the shutter is lifted. This allows for exposure of the film/chip and also focuses the light onto the surface.
The F stop is expressed as a fraction. Thus, "larger" numbers actually mean a smaller aperture. For example, when people talk about "F 16," they really mean f/16, or f over 16. F/8 is therefore a larger aperture than f/16.
These numbers, by the way, are based on a mathematical sequence and they are scaled such that each number down (bigger number but smaller aperture) represents a halving of the light intensity from the previous stop.
Make sense?

What does that mean for me?
The size of the aperture determines two things: 1. The amount of light that reaches your film (in conjunction with your shutter speed, which is next week's topic), and 2. Depth of Field (which is mostly what we will focus on today).

What is depth of field?
Depth of field is a measure of how far back in the frame objects remain in focus.

This is an example of a picture with a shallow depth of field. It was taken with f/5.

You can see here in the example above that detail has only been captured in the lacewing's head. Objects father away from the camera, the rest of the picture, blur softly out of focus. This technique is often used for pleasing artistic effect.

Here is another example:

This picture also displays a shallow depth of field. It was taken with f/6.3

A shallow depth of field allows all attention to be focused on the subject, because background objects are not rendered in detail. This can be advantageous for macro images.

This photo has a greater depth of field. It was shot at f/9.

This photo has a greater depth of field than the previous examples. Note it was taken with a smaller f/stop. A smaller f/stop (eg, f/22) creates a larger, or deeper, depth of field. You can think of this as a small opening focusing the light more sharply, allowing more items in the frame to be rendered in detail. Notice that even items far away from the camera are recognizable. I could have stopped down even farther in this shot to obtain greater detail.

Another example, taken at f/7

What's the deal with the light?

Remember that we said the f/stop affects two things: the amount of light that reaches the film and the depth of field? Well, the farther down you stop (a smaller f/stop, a bigger number), the less and less light reaches the film. This means that your exposure will have to become longer to compensate - and that will be next week's topic (click here to read Part 2 of Photography Basics and here to read Part 3).

Feel free to leave any questions you have below.

Did you see this post about lighting? Check it out!

Want to see more tips? Click here to follow me on Tumblr and here to follow me on Bloglovin! Don't forget you can also use the handy sidebar to subscribe via email or RSS feed.

Evening Walk

It's probably obvious to you, by now, if you've ever picked up a camera, that lighting is important. Many photographers wax poetic about the delicate pre-dawn light that waking up at 5:00 AM affords you. I can't disagree - the morning is beautiful. However, I feel that evening light is under-appreciated. Glowing and golden, it illuminates subjects in dramatic backlight or highlights textures of scale or fur. Plus you don't even have to get up early on your day off.

Taking advantage of the harsh evening light can make for some interesting portraits.

The sun has been blessed with Midas' touch and can charm even the most drab subject into bedazzlement.

Walkingstick - Phasmida

Of course, when working with subjects that are naturally flashy, strong evening light ratchets up their attire to an almost gaudy level. Here, I had to be careful not to overexpose highlights on this Japanese beetle.

Japanese Beetle (invasive)

Unfortunately, this sort of "magic" lighting fades quickly, so if you want to take advantage of it, you'd better work fast!

What's your favorite time of day for photography?
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The Strangers

There are a lot of bugs. A mind-bogglingly large number of species, an inconceivably immense biomass of creatures. Many of them are quite familiar to us - they buzz, bump, and crawl their way through our lives, either as pests, terrors, or pieces of wonderment. However, some of them are quite strange and foreign.

Antlion - Myrmeleontidae

Here is one I rarely notice - the antlion. Now, some of you are probably thinking, "that's not what an antlion looks like." This is probably because you are familiar with the larval form, which the pincered creature children often find hiding in tiny sandpits in playgrounds. It undergoes metamorphosis and then becomes this guy. It's still a rampant predator, even in its adult form.

Mayfly - Ephemeroptera, poss. Ephemeridae hexagenia

Here's one you're probably a little more familiar with - the mayfly. Similar to the dragonfly and the damselfly, the mayfly can be distinguished by the characteristic filaments protruding like a tail. They are famous for their incredibly short adult (winged) lifespans, lasting only a few days in some species.

I found both of these guys on the same day, while taking a brief hike in Fort Worth Nature Center. Both of them were resting on vegetation below eye level, reiterating the importance of looking down when insect hunting. Finding insects is a skill that improves with time and practice, as you learn the sometimes subtle clues that announce an arthropod presence. Admittedly, I know that this is not a skill many care to perfect, but, as a macro photographer, insects provide variable and interesting subject manner at finger's reach.

How do you feel about getting close enough to bugs to photograph them?

Want to learn more about bugs? Head over here for a brief lesson in entomology!

It's All in the Way You Look at Things

Here's a quick little demonstration showing the impact of changing your shooting angle:

Leaf Footed Bug, probably family Coreidae

...And here's the same bug on the same flower. 

Both pictures are interesting and each has its own particular merits. For example, if I wanted a reference photograph to identify what species I've encountered, photo #1 is obviously more suitable.

However, I find photo #2 to be more visually interesting because it showcases the bug from an angle that I am not used to seeing it. 

Which one do you like best?

Equipment info: Nikon D70 + Sigma 100mm macro