Winter Doldrums

This is the time of year I get tired of winter up north here in Michigan and have to get creative to shoot. The University of Michigan runs a Botanical garden so I will go there some days, or I shoot some stuff indoors at home like feathers, agate slab stones, flowers, sea shells, butterfly mounts, leaves I’ve dried from the fall, etc.

Gerbera Flowers shot with Tamrom 60mm macro

Nautilus Shell, shot with Tamron 90mm macro

Turkey Feather, sprayed with water, shot with Tamron 90mm macro

Printed one of my ice images, added the butterfly mount on top of the print, did some color processing with Nik Software Color Efex Pro. Shot with Tamron 60mm macro.

Shot at the Botanical garden, U of M.Shot with Tamron 90mm macro

 

Agate Slab Stone, Shot with Tamron 90mm macro with 25mm extension tube.

So be creative and shoot regardless of the weather outside.

Print Sizes

I have photographers that email me asking about my print sizes.  One thing you need to consider when creating your sizes is will they fit a standard size frame that can be purchased economically.  Not everyone wants to spend the money on custom framing.  Custom framing can be costly but it will add an artistic overall look that will enhance the artwork.  What I have found is the majority of my customers at the art shows are going to Michael’s crafts, Hobby Lobby, etc. to buy their frames.  How do I know this, I ask them.  Nothing will make a customer madder than when they go to the store and can’t find a frame to fit your artwork, and now have to pay the price for custom framing.   

Here are the  four sizes I use.
8 x 10,  11 x 14,   18 x 24,   24 x 36

Always check the local stores to see what sizes they carry before you decide what will work best for your customers.

 

Ckeck out the Pro Advice link in the top right of this blog.

Only a few spots left for the Macro Boot Camp in March.

Benefits Of Macro Photography In Nature

If you’re a nature photographer whose passion is in only shooting landscape or wildlife,  you maybe overlooking the many benefits that macro in nature has to offer.  You can start by using just one macro lens and have all kinds of fun, or if you become obsessed like me, then you can expand with more lenses.

Shooting close to home
There is an endless abundance of interesting subjects from your backyard to the local park systems.  With just a little fuel for your vehicle, a park pass and a few identification books, you’ll be on your way to finding what I call Tiny Landscapes.

One Lens
Macro doesn’t require that you have a lot of lenses.  I shot for many years with just one lens, and only within the last year did I  broaden my macro lens stable.

Subject matter changes every month
With the four seasons, we have an ever-changing environment month by month and sometimes day by day.  I can revisit the same areas every couple weeks and find  new subjects. It’s a constant cycle  evolving from life to death.

Shoot any time of day
Landscape and wildlife photographers have limited control over lighting and tend to shoot  early morning and late evening which offers the best light.  Because of the small subjects macro photographers work with, we have the ability to control our light by using  diffusers and reflectors, so we can shoot any time of the day.

Your own personal art
Every image that you view on my website is an original.  They are subjects that were  present for a brief moment in time, until the environment erased them forever, making them my own unique personal artwork.

Ten Favorites From 2009

I was looking over my images from 2009 and decide to pick my ten favorite images.

They are in no order as far as which ones I like best.

#1)  I’ve seen this type of shoot done before and went out one dewy morning with this image in mind.  I was lucky to find an interesting combination of grass and dew.  Placed the oxeyed dasiy in the background.

#2) We didn’t have a lot of frosty mornings this year, but I did catch one morning of frost and got this nice comp.

#3) I found this stump that had this interesting pattern and a hole that I liked, but I thought it needed a little color so I added these tiny flowers which I believe are called Morning Stars. They are only about three quarters of an inch and the area you see is maybe five by seven inches.

#4) This flower is from a May Apple plant.  The top is like a big leafy umbrella and a single flower grows under the umbrella.  I like the way this looks with a soft focus.

#5) Shot this bee on golden rod with the new Tamron 60mm macro lens, very nice fast shooting wide aperture lens.

#6) Shot this while co-teaching a workshop with Jack Graham in the Eastern Sierras.  It’s a trunk of a Briste Cone Pine tree.

#7) This shot was inspired by my photographer friend Jack Graham.  I had seen this comp done by Jack and liked it enough to shot my own.

#8) This was from a dewy morning when the fall color was pretty much gone, so I brought these flowers out with me with this comp in mind.  I like the contrast of the color against the muted leaves.  The dew adds a nice touch on the leaves.

#9) The color and condition of the Sumac bushes this year was awesome.  I’ve shots these many time with a lot of focus, but this year I decided I wanted a more soft abstract feel. The early morning sun was the bright backlighting.

#10) Here’s a cute beetle in some grass.

I was pretty happy with many of images I shot last year so had a tough time picking ten, Hope you liked them.

Scary Day In The Swamp

I was out in the swamps this morning shooting the floating leaves. This was shot after my camera unhitch itself from the head and took a swan drive into the swamp water. My hand shot into the water like out of a canon, so the camera wasn’t submerged more than a fraction of a second. Had no towel to clean it so had to use my t-shirt. It seems to be working fine as this image was shot after the dunking. You can bet I was cranking on the knob that tightens the camera on the head after that.

Lensbaby’s New Fisheye Lens

Lensbaby introduced its new fisheye attachment today.  I had a chance to play with this lens last month and found it very interesting and a creative tool.  I only wish I had more time to spend with it but hopefully this month things slow a little so I’ll paly some more. Check it out at www.lensbaby.com

This top image made it on the lensbaby website (fisheye images) to promote the new lens.

 

What’s New

Back from the workshop in the Eastern Sierras, had good weather and everyone had a good time shooting.  Shot at mono lake, and if you every get a chance to visit the ghost town of Bodie, it’s very cool and a great place to shoot some intresting macro images in the old buildings.  We also got to visit and shoot the bristle cone pines that grow on the top of a mountain at 11,000 feet.   Haven’t had time to process any of the images I shot but hopefully this week I will have time to post some.

Yesterday I was at the Rock Financial Showplace for the Great Lakes Fine Art Show.  It also runs today and tomorrow from 10:00am till 6:00pm and is located in Novi, Michigan.  Anyone in the area stop by and say hi.

The fall color in lower Michigan is starting to turn.  So far the color looks really good.  The last couple years the leaves have been blotchy and lacking good colors.  This years the leaves have great color and no blotches.  So looking for some great opportunities for images.

I’ve been shooting with the new Tamron 60mm macro and Tamrons new 17-50mm lens and will post a review and some of the images.

In 2010 I will be offering a photoshop workshop that will also feature the Nik software programs. They will be one day workshops held in Rochester Hills, Michigan.  No dates set yet, but will I will post info as I put them together.

Macro Memorial Day Challenge

Here in southeast Michigan we had some great weather over the Memorial weekend so I decide to head out and shoot some images for the second annual Macro Memorial Day Challenge.  I am one of two moderators of the macro/flora gallery at www.Birdphotographer.net  (it’s isn’t just for birds) and my moderator partner Julie Kenward  issued the challenge.  You were supposed to shoot images at an aperture that you don’t normally shoot at.  I’m a stopped down f/32 freak and if you visit my website, www.tinylandscapes  you’ll see the majority of my images are full depth of field everything in focus.  So my challenge was to search out subjects and shoot wide open  with my Tamron 90mm macro lens. Shooting with this aperture setting will produce the nice soft blurred background with very limited depth of field on the main subject, sometimes creating a nice abstract look.  Here are some images from my Memorial Day shoot.

Found this little critter and set my focus on him and the shallow depth of field soften the grass and BG.

I set my focus on the very edge of the Mayapple flowers petal and let the rest soften with the wide open aperture.

Found this little dew drop poking sideways through the vertical grass. Place the focus point on the dew drop.

I thought this newly emerging Milkweed plant had a nice flow in the leaves. I focused on the flat leaf facing my camera. 

I liked how the light played thoughout these leaves.  I focused on the ant on the top leaf and the rest soften with the wide open aperture.  It’s hard to see the little ant on this small image size.

Favs from 2008

I’m geting ready for my art shows that will start up in a few weeks and looking through some of my images from last year that I will be printing to sell this year at the art shows, and decided to post some of my fav shots from last year.

Thanks for looking

Mike

New Black & White Macro Gallery

I’ve always wanted to convert some of my images to black and white, but never had a printer that would produce good B& Ws. Last summer I bought an Epson 7880 and the B&Ws are awesome out of this printer.  Not sure how well any of them will sell, but never know till you try.  To check out the new images go to my website and click the Black & White Link.  www.tinylandscapes.com

Have A Great 2009 Shooting

Happy New Year to all you macro photogs out there.  Hope all your days affield in 2009 are filled with opportunities for great images. 

Now that winter has set in up here in the north my art shows are done, the workshops have slowed down, and shooting is limited to a few days here and there.

My new years resolution is to come up with a macro how to DVD and do more postings on my blog.

Check out my new macro how-to book, Tiny Landscapes,When-Where-How

purchase at www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

or

www.Amazon.com  Due a search for Tiny Landscapes

Check out my new Online Macro Nature Photography Course

www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

Website, www.tinylandscapes.com

Low Cost Macro Lens

 

I teach many ”introduction to macro workshops” and a lot of the people in the workshops are there to see what kind of lens they need to shoot macro.  I suggest going for the longer macro lenses in the 150mm to 200mm range and don’t recommend any lens less than 105mm in focal length.  The problem is the longer focal length lens are very expensive and the lesser costing 105 Sigma macro will run about $400.00 and the canons and nikons in the 105′s will run more.  Many don’t want to spend that much for a lens just for macro.  I let them know that they can buy extension tubes and use their normal lens and it will only cost $160.00 for a set of tubes, so its a little more reasonable to start out shooting macro. The problem with the extension tubes is that you have to add and subtract the tubes as you move in and out from a subject, which is a hassle taking the lens off and changing tubes all day.   I’ve  had a few people in my intermediate workshops that were using a Sigma APO DG 70-300mm  zoom with macro capabilities.  Its not a 1:1 ratio that a dedicated macro has, but it will do most of what you need for general macro/close-ups.  The images I saw from the students with this lens looked pretty good.  I decided to purchase this lens and try it out for myself.  When I checked online for the cost, I was surprised it only cost $149.00, ( less than a set of extension tubes.)  I went out and shot a couple hundred frames with this lens and was impressed with the image quality and good sharpness from $149.00 lens.  I won’t tell you that its as sharp shooting as my Sigma 180mm macro lens which is a $900.00 lens, but I won’t hesitate to recommend it to someone starting out in macro and not wanting to spend a ton of money before they know if they like shooting macro. Up top are a couple of images I shot with this lens, these are leaves frozen in ice on a pond.

Check out my new macro how-to book “Tiny Landscapes”

www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

or

www.Amazon.com  Due a search for Tiny Landscapes

Check out my new Online Macro Nature Photography Course

www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

Website – www.tinylandscapes.com

Leaves In Ice

Here in southeast Michigan we are frozen in old man winter’s icey grip.  I got a chance to go out and shoot last week and had some fun shooting leaves locked in ice.  The ice was nice and clean until two days ago when we got about eight inches of snow, so no shooting leaves in ice for a while.

Check out my new how-to macro book, ” Tiny Landscapes” at,

www.MikeMoatsBlog.com

or

www.Amazon.com  Due a search for Tiny Landscapes

 

Feature Article In Photolife

In the new January issue of Photolife magazine photolife.com out of Canada I have an article called “From Hobbyist To Pro, Almost Overnight”.  It tells how I got started and how I began running a full time nature Photography business.  I’ve heard its out in Canada, and should be out soon in the US.

My new how-to Macro book “Tiny Landscapes” can be purchased at MikeMoatsBooks.com  or at Amazon.com do a seach for Tiny Landscapes

www.tinylandscapes.com

Tiny Landscapes Book Now Available Online

My New book is printed and ready to ship, those that have ordered will receive it by the end of the week.

This is a book for the new to advanced macro nature photographer. It’s a simple and easy to read guide to the equipment, camera functions, composition, techniques, and tips. It contains many images, plus information about the subjects, the time of year, and environment they were shot in. The thought process in the compositions. Included will be tips on where to find interesting subjects in nature, and ideas for setting up shots.

To order a copy go to:
www.MikeMoatsBooks.com
or
www.Amazon.com do a search for “Tiny Landscapes”
or
Send me an email and I’ll send you a form to pay by check.
mgmoats@yahoo.com

$19.95 plus shipping, Michigan residents add sales tax.

Art In The Park, Plymouth, Michgan

Getting ready for my second largest attended show of the year, Art In The Park, held in Plymouth, Michigan. It starts Friday, July 11th and runs thru Sunday, the 13th.  I believe it has about three hundred or more artists, and draws a huge crowd.  Sales last year were very good, but due to the gas prices and more layoffs in the auto industry lately, who knows how this year will due.  Hopefully the weather cooperates as we have had a lot of storms this year.

Crosby Fine Art Fair, Toledo, Ohio

Saturday and Sunday June 28th and 29th, I’m showing in the Crosby Fine Art Fair at the Toledo Botanical Garden. The show runs 10:00am till 7:00pm on Saturday, and 10:00am till 4:00pm on Sunday.  Come say hi if your in the area.

Snail On Skunk Cabbage

Go to MikeMoatsBooks.com to order my new book, Tiny Landscapes

My first day out shooting this spring.  The skunk cabbage leaves are starting to sprout.  I found this old snail’s shell, and thought it would be a nice contrasting subject for this skunk cabbage leaf.

Swamp Sycamore

This was shot in early spring as the snow melted and left pools of water in the flood plain of stoney creek.

Happy St. Patty’s Day

Here’s my green shot for SPD. This is a backlit Skunk Cabbage leaf.  The backlighting is from a early morning sun.  In the next few week these leaves will be poping up in the swampy areas, can’t wait!!