With nature at our doorstep we have a number of photographic opportunities. And they often are closer than you think…

Just step into your garden (or a local park if you don’t have a garden) and you will find so many opportunities to photograph flowers and other plants or insects.

If you do have a garden you’re in a fantastic position because you can photograph knowing that nobody will disturb you. You can photograph at any time of the day or night knowing you’re on your own in your garden. You can also create a set up for your images.

Here are some of the tips for you for your Macro Photography adventure:

–  You don’t have a garden? No problem. You can buy some flowers and photograph them at home. Create a small home studio (could be even in your kitchen) and photograph them.

–  When photographing small creatures, use wide aperture for shallow depth of field. Just not too wide as it’s macro so the depth of field is much narrower as with normal photographs taken with normal lenses.

–  In the autumn pick up leaves on the ground. Sometimes there will be some interesting creatures hiding underneath and you may have great opportunity for some fantastic photographs.

–  If the weather is bad take your “studio” indoors. Arrange some flowers on the table (or any flat surface) and place them by the window for some natural light. Or use a lightbox to lighten them from underneath. Use plain background. White typically works great.

–  Try taking photographs at different times of the day. Light changes during the day. Explore the light. And if you’re photographing larger groups of flowers, use wide aperture to create a soft blurred background around them.

–  Set the focus beforehand. If you’re going to photograph faster moving animals, set the focus first (on a flower for example) and when the animal (or insect) appears just take pictures without wasting time on focusing.

These are just some ideas for you to create some fabulous macro photos. Enjoy!