A few shots from the Meijer Botanical Garden

I was heading yesterday to Indiana for a macro presentation at the Calumet Photo Clubs Annual Photo Clinic, and decided I would detour a little and stop in at the Meijer Botanical Gardens.

I’ve been here before and have some nice images, and this time I’m looking for subjects with patterns, lines,  textures, and cool lighting. I just processed a few on my laptop, so not the best to process on.  All processed with Nik Software.

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Featured Macro Photographer – Vickie Liptak

This week I would like to feature a photographer from the cold snowy state of Alaska.

Facebook has been a great place to meet other macro geeks and that is where I learned about this excellent macro photographer, Vickie Liptak.  Read Vickie’s interview and check out her great images.

#1 How many years have you been shooting.

While on a hike on Kauai in December of 2009 I bent down and took my first macro picture. From that moment on I’ve learned to take a closer look at nature and see the beauty that so many people miss.

#2 What camera, lenses, tripod make do you use.

I started out using a small point and click. I’ve recently bought a Cannon Rebel T3 and can’t wait play with more.

#3 What are your favorite subjects to shoot.

Small weird things like bugs, mushrooms, raindrops, spider webs, olive oil floating on top of my cooking rice, and anything that will make people will wonder “What is that?”

#4 Do you shoot a certain style of macro.

I’ve had no photography education, and do not read manuals so I would have to say my style is pure dumb luck.

#5 Have you won any awards, been published, or any other successes.

In 2010 I won Grand champion at the Alaska State Fair, and first place in my division, and judges choice in 2011. I have also sold prints, calendars, and greeting cards of my photos.  Of course being featured by Mike is an honor too.

#6 What program(s) do you use to process images.

Picasa 3

#7 Where are you from.

Born in Michigan, raised in Florida, spent 5 years in Tennessee before ending my gypsy travels in Alaska 20 years ago, where I live in Sarah Palin’s home town Wasilla.

#8 Your website, or blog address.

Works in progress

Nik Software and a Daffodil

I was looking at a potted Daffodil setting in the window sill and liked the way the two flower heads were positioned and also liked the green leaves in the lower part, and thought this might make a nice vertical panorama look.

Here is the set up in my stairway where I have the best natural lighting.  It is really dark outside so not quite enough good light so pulled out my LED light to help out. I’m using one of my printed backgrounds.

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Photographed it with my Nikon D7000 and my Tamron 90m macro lens, with f/stop set at f/16.

Here is the original out of the camera and cropped like a vertical pano.

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Of course the only way to process now a days is with the Nik programs, and my first step is in the new Color Efex Pro 4.

I had no idea’s on what I wanted to do with this image, so just played with the different filters until something appealed to me.  I actually ended up using a few filters starting with the “Detail Extractor” and then hit “add a filter” and played with all the filters again until I decided I liked the soft dreamlike feel of the “Polaroid Transfer”.  Last and this is a first for me, I added a border in the “Image Borders” filter. Here it is.

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Next step was to go into Nik’s Viveza 2 and do just a little fine tuning, I adjusted the flower colors and brightness a little. I put a control point on the background and moved the “Structure” slider to the left to soften the background a little.

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After this I decided to play a little more and go back into Color Efex Pro 4 and see if anything else would look good. As I clicked on all the different filters I ended up liking the soft hazy look and the muted colors of the “High Key” Filter. Sometimes it’s just the way you feel at the time of the processing, some days I like the dark dramtic moody look and some days the soft dreamy less colorful look.  This is today’s mood.

If you are thinking of purchasing from Nik Software, let me save you 15% use my code. “Moats”

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Shooting Puddles

I’ve mentioned before on this blog about photographers needing to know when changes occur in the  environment so that they are in the right place to take advantage of shooting opportunities.

Last week I used my snow shovel for the first time this winter, as we got about three inches of snow. Two days later it was forty degree and pouring rain. I knew that as all that snow melted I would have icy puddles when the temps drop back down below freezing.

So yesterday morning I headed to the park to find puddles. The melted snow settles in low areas and the ice will have some cool abstract and many of the puddles will have leaves locked in the ice.

Here’s one of the puddles.

Here’s some more puddles I was searching for art.

Here is one cool image of some interesting bubble formations.

There are always some nice puddles in the two track roads.

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I found this nice arrangement of leaves and some bubbles.

Shooting with my Nikon D7000 and a Tamron 90mm macro, F/8.

With a little magic in Nik software I made a big change in the look of both these images.  I wanted a dark ice so used the “Dark Contrasts” filter in Color Efex Pro 4 which blacked out  the ice in the background and gave the images a more dramatic feel.

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Here is the image how it look out of the camera.  Pretty boring looking, but thankfully I have Nik Software to make these images pop. I cropped the image off the right side and cloned out the leaf on the right.

Get out to shoot puddles after a good thaw and refreeze.

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New – Creating Art With Macro E-Book

I have just finished my latest e-book for macro geeks called, “Creating Art With Macro“

This new e-book is designed to help you create beautiful art with macro photography

This 185 page e-book is loaded with macro information, and only $14.95.

I’ve combined and updated some info from each of my past e-books into one.

It covers:

Equipment and Accessories
Benefits of Macro
Elements of Design
Composition
Lighting
Depth of Field
Finding Character in Nature
Flower Portraits
Shooting Tips

Cost $14.95

Purchase Here

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Macro Monthly Shooting Poll

Nice Tripod Feature That Comes In Handy Sometimes.

If you’re paid attention to the tripods that many macro photographer’s use, you will be aware of this unique feature.  This was first seen in the Manfrotto tripods.  Recently I’ve been alternating between my Feisol carbon fiber CT-3342 tripod and my Vanguard Alta Pro 263 tripod.  The newly designed Vanguard tripod has the same feature with a center post that extends up and horizontal.

Buy Here- Vanguard Alta Pro 263 tripod Hunt’s Photo
Buy Here – Vanguard Alta Pro 263 tripod Outdoor Photo Gear

You can see in the photo how the center post has been set in a horizontal position  moving the camera away from the tripod.

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This feature came in handy recently when I was trying to shoot a floating leaf in this hole in the ground.  I wasn’t able to use the tripod over the hole in the traditional position, but by setting the center post in the horizontal position over the hole I was able to get the shot.

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Here was the image I was shooting.

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My Little Cactus Macro

Every home and garden center in my area has a section full of little tiny pots with little cactus.  Many of these cactus have cool designs and nice textures.  I bought two recently and set up on my stairway studio to shoot one today.

I usually shoot subjects like these with a lot of depth of field as I like to see all the texture and lines nice and sharp.  But today I thought I would shoot one image wide open (smallest f/stop number)  and one at the higher f/stop to get everything in focus. Using my Nikon D7000 and a Tamron 90mm macro.

Here I am set up on the stairway shooting with the natural light.

With the first shot I could see that I was getting a little to much of the light creating hot spots (bright areas).

Shot at f/stop 4.5

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To cancel out the hot spots I set up a Diffuser to cut the harsh light.

Shot again and now less glare.

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Now for some processing.  The subject doesn’t really have much color so I’m going to remove the saturation and make it a black and white.  It has a lot of nice texture, so I’m going to add lots of structure in Nik’s Viveza 2 to make it pop.  It ‘s not a subject that when I show it to people they are going to get all excited, as the subject is not all that exciting.  So I’ll make it a little moody with a dramatic feel.  The perfect Nik Color Efex 4 filter to do that with is the “Solarization” filter. 

Here is the first version with the f/4.5 wide open shot._________________________________________________________________________________

Here is the shot with the f/45,  for max depth of field.

I like the second version with more in focus, what do you like?

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Creating Your Own Macro Backgrounds

Yesterday Dave had asked on my wall, what background I use for indoor shooting.  I looked back though my blog posts over the last year and couldn’t find a post on this to refer him to, so here is a new post on my backgrounds.

I photograph subjects in nature and print them out.  Here’s how I do it.  I find a subject like a grassy field as I want a nice natural green looking background that you typically see in outdoor flower or bug backgrounds.

I set up my camera and tripod on the grass, and set my f’/stop to wide open (the lowest f/stop number). 

  Here is a shot of the grass that I am shooting at.

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View the grass through your view finder and in manual focus, rotate the focusing ring of your lens until the grass becomes totally out of focus and a solid color.  Next take a photo of the grass while it it a solid color like this.

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Print out this image and you have your background.  Print with a matte paper, not with any gloss as the gloss will cause some sheen from the lighting.  My print you see here is a 18X24 print. but you don’t need them that large.

Here is a image of me using this background.

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Here is another subject I shot for a green background.

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This time instead of having the subject totally blurred like the last one, I just left a little bit in focus, to give it a little texture.

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You can find subjects with different colors like these pink flowers.

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Now I have a background with a little pink color in it.

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Two Heads Are Better Then One

I found this Gebera Daisy in group of flowers I picked up for a workshop and was really excited as it has the “character” that I’m always talking about.  Find character in nature and you have a unique subject that makes your images stand out.  I talk about finding character in nature in my latest e-book Creating Art With Macro. What gave it the character is the two stems fused together creating a two headed Gerbera Daisy.

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I was at my local grocery store checking out their floral section and to my surprises I found another two headed Gerbera Daisy.  Here it is.

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Both images were processed with Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 4 and Viveza 2.  You can see how I processed the first image in my Nik Softwares recorded webinar.  See it Here

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Hey Photogs Of Indiana, See You On Saturday

Come learn more about macro photography by attending

Calumet Region Photo Club’s Third Annual Photo Clinic

January 28th, 2012, 7:30am – 3:30pm

The Center for Visual and Performing Arts
1040 Ridge Road, Munster, IN 46321

Cost only $55, and this includes a continental breakfast and luncheon.

I will be presenting how-to tips on creating art with macro photography.

Time 12:30 to 3:15

Morning presentations by,
Jerry Hug, “The best camera is the one you have with you”
Al Alvis – “Landscape Photography”

Munster, Indiana is close to these cities

Chicago, 26 miles
Milwaukee, 119 miles
Fort Wayne, 119 miles
Joliet, IL 34 miles
South Bend 74 miles
Lafayette 100 miles
Rockford, IL 112 miles
Kalamazoo 125 miles
Grand Rapids 156 miles

For more info and to sign up contact Michael Kobe, 219-924-7890 or mlkobe@sbcglobal.net

Hope to see you there.

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Congrats To Jim Carnevale

I met Jim Carnevale through my workshop in Colorado last fall, and found him to be a very talented macro photographer. Jim mentioned that he had won some awards and I wanted to give him a pat on the back for this achievement.

Jim’s photos took first and second place in EXPO New Mexico.

The Iris is called “Seductively Purple” (nice textures Jim)

Next winner was called “Have You Seen the Cat?” (no, the cat didn’t mess with the tulips, look in the center of the top-most flower and you’ll see the cat.

Great images and congrats Jim on the awards.

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People Need A Connection (Part Two)

When someone buys one of my prints at the art shows, I always like to find out a little about why they purchased a certain image. I hear many stories from my customers about connections to the subject in the image that caused them to buy. This image of a “Lily Of The Valley” flower is one I’ve had many customers purchase and have heard numerous stories of why they purchased it. Here are a few.

My Grandmother had a patch of Lily of the Valley flowers in her yard, and every time I see them, I think of her.

I carried Lily of the Valley down the aisle on my wedding day. (multiple women said this)

They make perfume from Lily of the Valley, and it’s my favorite perfume.

My college sorority’s flower was Lily of the Valley

Lily Of The Valley

People buy based on some sort of connection.

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Special – One Day Macro Workshop

This is the first one day macro workshop that I have offered in three years.

It will be held at “The Framer’s Workshop” in Rochester, Michigan.

February 19th
10am to 4pm

Cost $59.00

This one day workshop will cover

equipment
accessories
depth of field
camera functions
Composition
Finding Character

Experience lever – Beginners to Intermediate

To sign up go Here

Limited to the first 20 people

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People Need A Connection (Part One)

The great thing about being in the art show business is that you learn so much from your customers.  If you sell through galleries or any other source where you don’t have an interaction with the person buying your art, it is hard to know what it is that caused them to purchase your work. In the art show business you are right there making the sale and conversing with your customer, and they are a wealth of information that can help us understand why people choose certain images.

Business 101  -  Listen to your customers!

Sometimes the answer to why they buy can be a disappointment to an artist, especially when the customer says, the colors of this picture matches the colors of my drapes, walls, carpet, etc.

As Artists we like to think that the customer appreciates and values the  subject that we have captured, and that their purchase is not just to match the house colors.

I will say that in the years of being in the art show business and talking to thousands of customers, I have gotten a better understanding of what sells and why.  As I said, many people do just buy for the color scheme, but most buy based on a connection to the subject in the picture. Check back tomorrow for more on this.

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My Goal – Teaching Creativity

Photographer Hector Gerena just posted a nice comment after purchasing and reading my latest 184 page e-book  Creating Art With Macro.  What I liked about Hector’s comment is that his mind has exploded with new ideas, concepts, and compositions.

Bingo, that is exactly my goal in teaching macro is to help photographers expand their creativity.  Teaching when and where to find interesting subjects, looking for subjects with unique character, then composing them properly.   Most photographers that I’ve worked with are effective enough with the camera skills, but the majority lack the creative ability when making a photo. It makes me feel good to hear someone comments that they are inspired and excited to use all the creative ideas that I pass on through my e-books and blog.

Here is Hector’s comment.

Last night I downloaded my copy of “Creating Art With Macro“ and I did a quick browse. I just want to say that it’s full of excellent material, ideas, concepts and techniques. This e-book it’s a must have. I have been shooting macro photography as a hobby for the past 3 years or something this is the kind of photography that I really enjoy the most, but it was not until I found your Blog, webinars and e-books just a few months ago that my imagination just exploded with all those new ideas, concepts and compositions… all of that thanks to your lessons.

Thank you Hector for getting what this e-book and blog is really about, creativity.

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ISO and Macro

One of the big benefits of the digital SLR camera is the ability to change our ISO.  In the film days most nature photographers were using Fuji Vevia slide film, which was a 50 ISO.  When I was using Velvia and shooting in dark wooded areas with a high f/stop, it was not uncommon for me to be shooting 20 to 30 second exposures (shutter speed).

With digital we have the ability to raise the ISO and shorten the time of the exposure.  In one of my workshop I was demonstrating the benefit of a digital camera’s ISO by shooting a subject with the available room light.  With my ISO set at 100,  my shutter speed was at 15 seconds.  I raised the ISO up to 1600 and the shutter speed drop to only one second.  So I shaved off 14 seconds off the shutter speed.

Why does this matter, because if we are shooting outside with a slight breeze, it could occasionally move our subject during that 15 second exposure and ruin the shot, but much less likely that the subject would move and ruin the shot if the shutter was only open for one second.

Because macro photographers many times shoot with natural light and in low light wooded areas, that extra shutter speed we get from raising the ISO is a benefit.

We often shoot flowers that are moving with a slight breezes.  If we can raise the ISO to speed up the shutter we can stop the action of the flower as it moves through the frame.

Just as sports or wildlife photographers stop their moving subjects with the higher ISO we can stop the movement of our flowers when dealing with a light wind.

This image is one that was shot on a heavy overcast days with a little wind moving the bee back and forth.

With my ISO set at 100  and the aperture at f/8, the shutter speed was going to be one second.  This was way to slow to stop the movement of the bee as it passed through the frame in my viewfinder.

I raised my ISO up to 1600.  I don’t remember what the shutter speed was, but it was now shooting fast enough to freeze the subject as it pass by in my viewfinder.  As I was watching the bee in the viewfinder slowly passing back and forth in the frame, I would click the shutter when it was framed right were I wanted it.

In the film days with my Fuji Velvia I would never had been able to shoot this with natural light as the shutter speed would have been to slow, so we are very lucky to have this benefit of the ability to change our ISO.

The spotlight you see on the bee was put there to direct you attention to the bee.  It was done with the Darken/Lighten Center filter in Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro.

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Tripod Kit

Mike Moats Macro Kit

Our pal Mike Moats is conducting Macro Workshops all across the country this spring. He says he’s constantly asked to recommend a tripod and ball head combination for macro shooting. Mike and OPG tested out lots of equipment together, and we’ve come up with a great macro kit at a great price.

Introducing the Mike Moats Macro Kit:
Induro AT113 Aluminum Alloy Tripod
Induro BHD0 Dual Action Ball Head
Induro ELA1 Short Column for Low Level Work
Guide To Macro Composition ebook by Mike

List price on these items separately is $442.00, but we are able to bring the Mike Moats Macro Kit to you at a discounted price of $289.95!

This is a great kit for those wanting to get involved in macro, and it’s great for landscapes too!

Sacramento Macro Boot Camp (Sold Out)

Just did a head count on the Sacramento workshop, and it’s sold out.

Sorry if you missed it.  I’ll be in Carlsbad, CA in the fall.

 

Favorite Images From Matthaei Gardens

You saw my set up and images of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens yesterday, and here are some of my Favs from the last few years at the gardens.  As I explained yesterday that I like to fill the frame when I’m shooting in conditions that are really cluttered making it hard to shoot smaller subjects with clean blurred backgrounds.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

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