Close-Up and Macro Photography
My interest in nature started when I was six-years old, just being
outside, taking it in, and recording what I saw in my mind. In 1956,
when I was fourteen, my parents sent me on a trip around the
country in an old school bus filled with kids my own age. We
camped all the way, cooked our own food, hung out, and saw some
of the world. Before I left on the trip, my dad loaned me one of his
cameras, a Kodak Retina IIa, and taught me how to use it.
For some reason on the trip I took to photographing, and even
spent all my spending money on more film. When I got back and
had my slides developed, dad was shocked at how good many of
my photos were. He was a very good amateur photographer. That
was the first time my dad was ever pleased with something I had
done so I went on from there. I have never been interested in doing
photography professionally because I make my living doing other
things. Photography for me has always been just a fun way to learn
about nature.
More and more people have cameras these days, if only on their
iPhones, so there seems to be a growing interest in close-up nature
photography. This booklet is not so much a tutorial on photography
(or nature), as it is about some basic information that should be
interesting to many of you wanting to get into close-up nature
photography.
I will mostly cover the gear that you might need and something
about some of the techniques involved in close-up photography.
Close-up and macro photography are similar. Macro photography is
just a little closer yet, when the image on the sensor is the same
size as the subject you are photographing, what is called a 1:1
reproduction ratio. In these articles I will probably use "close-up"
instead of repeating both names endlessly.
I will try to roughly organize this material, but you might be wise to
browse through the various sections and see what interests you. I
may put things down as they occur to me. Finally, I have a number
free e-books (some listed below) that may be more on the entry
level, so I list the link to those here.
The Art of Focus Stacking (books one and two)
Nature in the Backyard (for kids)