Keeping it Fresh - Macro Style
Have you ever been in a creative rut? Experienced writer’s block? Felt uninspired to do the thing that has previously brought you excitement over periods of days, weeks, months and years? I suspect everyone has at some point. In this photo blog, I’m going to share one of the ways I keep photography fresh for myself.
Macro Photography is a style of photography where a close up subject (often just inches away) is magnified via a camera, lens, and postproduction software; often to a level the naked human eye cannot ordinarily comprehend. This is a style of photography that I’ve always enjoyed shooting but often forget about in the field. In fact, a day has yet to come where I set out with macro photography being my main objective. Usually, I find my macro style compositions while I’m bent over, hands on knees, huffing and puffing from hiking up and down mountains. It is because of this that I view my best macro shots almost entirely as strokes of luck.
While there are numerous tools specific to macro photography (i.e. specially crafted lenses, tripods, and artificial lights that allow for micro adjustments to improve the image), I’ve found that with patience and a dash of luck you can make natural light and most of your current photography gear (even phones!!!) work for this genre. The hardest part of it is finding subjects to take photos of. Here’s a hint though, they tend to be right by your feet!
One thing to be aware of when shooting macro photographs, stability is absolutely critical for both the camera and the subject - even a millimeter of movement on either side of the camera can lead to a loss of detail in the resulting image. And let me tell you, detail in this genre is key. Some of the most dazzling macro images I’ve seen have been of insects, but closeup images of things like snowflakes and plants are also extraordinary. Arachnophobes beware, here’s a link to an incredible image from Javier Rupérez as an example.
If you’d like to see something of the macro photography process, recently one of my favorite Youtube photographers, Henry Turner, published a video of him shooting macro photography in the woods near his home in the UK. He spent literally an hour getting his tripod, camera, lens, and light set up just right so a single mushroom could be magnified in all of its fungal glory. The result was STUNNING. While I can reliably say I’ve never spent an hour setting up a single image, it was inspiring to say the least and I felt it might be time to share a small blog with some of my favorite recent macro style photographs.
Without further ado, here are eight of my favorite recent macro (or at least close up) photographs from 2025 so far.
“Sleepy Bumble Bee”, “Lucky Shot Bumble Bee”, “Colorado Columbine”, and “Fern Leaves” are all available for print in my Shop as greeting cards and large format prints!
Thank you for reading and, as always, please get in touch if you have any questions!