It is rare that I have a chance to get outside with a macro lens and pretty much every time I do, it is as windy AF. And today, it was no exception. Smallsteps is at a birthday party that my wife took her to for a few hours and the wind is blowing hard enough to make macro focusing a near impossibility for my skills - but screw it - I went outside anyway.
At this time of year, the garden is greenish, but not overly interesting, as most of the flowers have wilted away and leaves are starting to get that shade to indicate Autumn is here. However, there are still some flowers on the mint, and the bees seem to have found it tasty enough to fill their larder, in the absence of pretty much everything else. There might be a camouflaged fly or two in here also.
As said, the wind was up and the plant stalks were swinging around quite wildly, so sharpness is a bit of an issue, even though I was using a flash with a decent macro. Even slight movements in the stem (combined with my own shakiness) results in slightly out of focus images, which with macro, get translated into massive blur and softness.
I like macro photography a lot, but I am not very good at it and I think that one of the reasons is that I don't set up any shots, and I won't even hold the plant still in an attempt to stop it swinging. I am one of those "shoot what I see" types, which works out okay sometimes, but doesn't have the polish of professional photographers by a very long shot. Still, it is fun and challenging, which is enough for me to feed my interest and skill level.
I always feel that macro gets me "closer" to nature, not because I can see it in more detail, but I am actually paying more attention to finding the details, both when taking the pictures and when reviewing and editing them. Often, there are little details that I didn't realize when shooting, that I only notice after. Nature itself is amazing and majestic and this fractals from the universe level, all the way down to the particle level, with the insect level being a place of imaginative horror.
If there was one, you'd have to question the mind of the creator who designs these kinds of creatures, let alone the way they behave and interact, wouldn't you? There is an insanity in there somewhere, whilst still finding a terrible harmony with everything else, all part of the same ecosystem that is eternally evolving at every level possible. The organization required is at a level impossible to imagine, which is why at least in my opinion, there is no organization at all, it is all just decentralized competition and random action.
Which, kind of goes with the chance of getting a good macro shot of insects in the wind - not very likely. Yet, I didn't actually shoot off that many images to get these and they are "okay" overall, considering. Other than a crop and lifting the shadows to soften. And for anyone interested, these were taken on an Olympus EM-1 MkIII, with a 60mm 2.8 lens, some with an off-camera flash, some without.
Buzz buzz.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
