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.

Lesley Smitheringale of Australia  has produced a great new eZine “Natures Paint Box” and I was honored to be one of the featured artist in the second issue.

Issue 2 of this electronic magazine is to instruct, educate and inspire. The full issue contains nearly 50 colour pages including: interviews with the very best wildlife artists who showcase their work; recommended books, sites, blogs and software; tips and techniques plus learn how to airbrush; galleries, exhibitions and competitions; how to set up a website for newbies, gorgeous free wallpapers and lots more…

You can view a sampler and order a copy of the eZine at Lesley’s site,
http://www.lesley-smitheringale-fine-art.com/shop/

Last week on the Essential Photo Gear blog I was honored to be featured as the Nature Photographer Of The Week.   Travis Peltz of Essential Photo Gear did the interview and did a nice job putting it all together, Thanks Travis!  Here is the link to the blog, http://essentialphotogear.com/blog/ Just scroll down to the post.

Tomorrow night April 28th I will be speaking at the Grosse Pointe Camera Club in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.  My presentation with be The Four Seasons Of Macro.  the club meets between 7:00pm till 9:00pm.  The locations is at Brownell elementary school at 260 Chalfonte, Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Come and say hi.

I got out to shoot last Thursday and did find a few late blooming bloodroot, but haven’t processed them yet.  Still lacking on new growth as the only thing showing was some coiled up Skunk Cabbage and a few emerging Mayapples.  I did get a little creative with an interesting formation on a stump I found last fall.  At the time I found it I shot it with some small white flowers I found in a field but wasn’t happy with the lack of color.  My wife had bought some flowers from the store call Sun Stars,  I carried them with me to use with this stump idea.  Shot both images with my Fuji S5 and a Tamron 90mm macro lens, f/stop at f/32 .

After I finished shooting this one I was heading back to the trail I came in on and found a large Turkey feather.  I always keep interesting finds as it could come in handy combining it with another subject.  I went to visit another downed tree trunk that also had some interesting patterns in the wood.  I combined the Turkey feather with this stump.  You sometimes have to use your imagination when waiting for spring to showed up.

In a few days I’ll post one of the Bloodroot flowers I shot on this day.

I got an email from ITSupplies that their offering the Epson 1400 for only $175.00. It’s a 13X19 printer and does a nice job on color prints. Price good till April 30th. Check them out, www.ITSupplies.com

MACRO WORKSHOP / E-BOOK

My how-to Macro Workshop is now an e-book.  I’ve had hundreds attend my workshops here in Michigan and do have some come from out of state, but most can’t afford to travel across country to take a one day workshop, so now you can have the workshop e-book come to you.  

Course Covers

Equipment
Cameras
Lenses
Tripod And Head
Accessories 
Plamps
Diffusers
Reflectors
Camera Functions
White Balance
ISO
Shutter Release
Lighting
Composition
Rule of Thirds
Lines
Contrast
Textures
Light
Two Subject Comps
Color
Using All The Rules
Depth Of Field
Shallow Depth Of Field
Full Depth Of Field
Some Where In Between
Crowding The Main Subject
Viewing From All Angles
My Photoshop Tools

_________________________________________________________

E-book will be sent to you as a PDF for downloading once you order.

Cost $29.00

Order at www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

E-Book will be available by April 20th

It’s tough timing the opening of the bloodroot flower to shoot.  I timed it just right last year but missed them the two previous years.  They only last a couple days, and I usually get there to early and then come back to late.  I’m going out to check my local hot spots this week. 

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

In the last month I’ve present programs for the North American Nature Photographers Assoc. annual summit in New Mexico and the Niagara Frontiers Camera Clubs Convention in New York. 

In February I presented a program called “Making A Living On The Art Show Circuit.  The program went well and had a good attendance.  I had the pleasure to hang out with some great photographers including Bill Fortney (Nikon liaison to the pros/owner of Great American Photo Workshops, and published photographer),  meet Art Wolfe, visited  with friends like my buddy and workshop partner Jack Graham who was there on a awards committee, and good friends Jim Clark  and Walt Anderson of Better Beamer.  http://nanpa.org/

Here I am at NANPA, the room was dark  so hard to see me up there.
Photo by Jack Graham with his G10.

The NFRCC Convention was last weekend and was a lot of fun.  Met a lot of great photographers and got to see some nice presentations, one which was Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscapes website, and had to leave early Sunday so missed Rick Sammon’s presentation.  My presentation “Four Seasons Of Macro” was the opening presentation of the convention on Friday night.  I was followed by my friend Jack Graham who presented a program “20 Photography Tips.  On Saturday I set up some macro subjects that people could bring in their cameras and shoot. www.nfrcc.org

I found out about a company from my home state of Michigan, Essential Photo Gear,   they offer a variety of  unique photo gear for sale,  Take a minute and check them out. www.essentialphotogear.com.  While you’re at their site, click on the blog link.  They just started a new blog and they are doing something interesting, each week they will seach the internet for photographers blogs who have something interesting to say and they will link to the post.  So check out their blog also.

The new e-book is now on sale

Learn how to make money with your photography
see last post for more info.

Running A Successful Nature Photography Business

To order go to, www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

Running A Successful Nature Photography Business

The book will be sold on a CD to be viewed on your computer.  The e-book teaches what I call streams of income and the more streams you use the more money you make.  

Sell prints through art shows
Sell prints through art galleries
Sell prints through art consultants
Sell prints online, through website
Sell images for stock (advertising, calendars, etc.)
Sell articles and images to nature photo magazines
Offer workshops
Offer online workshops
Publish books
Produce E- books
Produce how-to DVD’s
Find sponsors
Give presentations for photo conventions, camera clubs
Open your own gallery

I will breakdown and examine each of these fourteen streams of income.  How to find and approach galleries. You will get information on how to enter the art show business, from tents, walls, how to find and apply to the shows.  Selling your articles and images to magazines and setting up a workshop program.  Publishing your own books, produce DVD’s, finding sponsors, giving presentations, the reality of opening your own gallery. 

Use just a few streams to make some extra money or go all out full time.

You can start with one stream and add on each year, or if you’re really ambitious add two or three a year.   I got to all fourteen in four years.

The e-book will run $59.00 and be worth every penny as a time saver on learning all you need to know to get started making money with your nature photography.

To order go to,  www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

mgmoats@yahoo.com

Jack Graham and I will be presenting a Macro & More talk at the 2009 48th Annual Niagara Frontier Regional Camera Clubs Convention. It will be held March 20,21 & 22nd at the Holiday Inn on Grand Island, NY. We will be presnting on Friday night, and on Saturday we will have subjects set-up for macro photographers to bring their cameras in and shoot. Other speakers are Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape, Rick Sammon, and more. See more details at; http://www.nfrcc.org/convention/speakers.php

I’ve been reading an interesting book called “Last Child in the Woods” saving our children from nature-deficit disorder, written by Richard Louv.   The book reflects the growing international concerns about nature deficit in children and the corresponding social movement that has emerged in the United States, Canada, and other countries.  He talks about the people of the baby boomer and older age group that enjoyed a kind of free natural play in the outdoors that seems, in this era of kid pagers, instant messaging, Nintendo, like a quaint artifact.

One section that intrigued me was how Howard Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard, developed his influential theory of multiple intelligence in 1983.  Gardner argued that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing, was far too limited; he instead proposed seven types of intelligence to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults.

Linguistic intelligence,  “word smart”
Logical-mathematical intelligence, “number/reasoning smart”
Spatial intelligence “picture smart”
Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence,  “body smart”
Musical intelligence, “music smart”
Interpersonal intelligence, “people smart”
Intrapersonal intelligence, “self smart”

Most recently he added an eighth intelligence: naturalist intelligence, “nature smart”.   Charles Darwin, John Muir, and Rachel Carson are examples of this. The core of the naturalist intelligence is the human ability to recognize plants, animals, and other parts of the natural environment, like clouds or rocks. Maybe this explains why some photographers have a natural ability to see and photograph things in nature that others walk right passed. 

Naturalist intelligence deals with sensing patterns in and making connections to elements in nature. Using this same intelligence, people possessing enhanced levels of this intelligence may also be very interested in other species, or in the environment and the earth. Children possessing this type of intelligence may have a strong affinity to the outside world or to animals, and this interest often begins at an early age. They may enjoy subjects, shows and stories that deal with animals or natural phenomena. Or they may show unusual interest in subjects like biology, zoology, botany, geology, meteorology, paleontology, or astronomy. People possessing nature smarts are keenly aware of their surroundings and changes in their environment, even if these changes are at minute or subtle levels. Often this is due to their highly-developed levels of sensory perception. Their heightened senses may help them notice similarities, differences and changes in their surroundings more rapidly than others. People with naturalistic intelligence may be able to categorize or catalogue things easily too. Frequently, they may notice things others might not be aware of. As children these people often like to collect, classify, or read about things from nature — rocks, fossils, butterflies, feathers, shells, and the like.

Do you have the Nature Smarts?

I’ve had many photographers that are curious about why I shoot most of my images at f/32.  To keep it simple and not get all techy, when you shoot with a lens stop down to the smallest aperture ( highest f/stop number)  you lose sharpness.  The ideal f/stop for sharpness is in the f/8 to f/11 range. I tend to shoot many of my images with everything in focus and the problem with macro is as we move in closer to the subject our depth of field shrinks and we have to increase the depth of field to bring the whole image in focus.  I did a test to show how the diffraction is not that drastic and with some sharpening it will bring the sharpness of the f/32 to equal the sharpness of the f/8 and allow me to get focus through out the whole image which the f/8 can’t do.  So you don’t have to freak out and worry about driffraction when you shoot at f/32. 

I shot this peacock feather with a Tamron 90mm macro lens.  The feather is lying flat and the lens is at eight inches away at a very slight angle.  I shot at f/8, f/11, f/22 and f/32 to show the difference in sharpness between the four f/stops. 

These shots are right out of my Fuji S5 camera with no sharpening.

This is the f/8 and as you can see its sharp in the middle but even with shooting at only a slight angle the f/8 fails to bring it all in focus.

The second shot was set at f/11 and you can see good sharpness in the center and a little more focus at the corner but still not enough.

This was shot at f/22 and you can see we have good sharpness in the center and a little more sharpness at the corners.

On the last shot at f/32 we still maintain good sharpness in the center and we have good sharpness at the corners. 

On the next four images I blew up the center of the sharpest part of the f/8 shot, which was the center of the image, and compared it with the  same part of the others to see the difference.

This is the f/8 and you can see it is nice and sharp.

This is the f/11 and about the same in sharpness.

This is the f/22 and you can see its a little less sharp.

This is the f/32 and it has a softer look but not bad.

Now here is the f/32 with sharpening at 120% and as you can see the sharpness is back in and looks as good as shooting at f/8 to f/11.   I may have even added more sharpening than was needed so I might back it off to the 100 range.

So now I have an image that has every part of the image in focus and with a little sharpening my image has the same sharpness as shooting in the f/8 to f/11 range and the diffraction is not a problem. 

So as you can see diffraction isn’t this big scary thing and shooting stopped down works. It allows me to maintain focus throughout an image and still get good quality on sharpness.

The Tamron lens company has a new blog up and running which features pro photographers giving tips with the Tamron lenses.  I will be posting some stuff there from time to time on the Tamron 90mm macro lens.  Click on the link to see the site. http://tamrontechstips.typepad.com/

My latest post there is on beating the winter blahs.

Heading this week to New Mexico for the North American Nature Photographers Associations annual NANPA Summit and Trade Show.  It brings together nature photographers from across the country for a four day convention.  I will be presenting two break out sessions sponsored by Fuji, Lensbaby, and Florida Frames called,  Making A Living On The Art Show Circuit.  My presentations will be held on Saturday Feb. 21st at 10:00 to 11:30 and 2:00 to 3:30.  One of the keynote speakers this year  is Art Wolfe.  They also have a great trade-show with many photo related companies selling products.  My how-to macro book “Tiny Landscapes” will be available for sale in the NANPA book store in the trade show area.   For more info about the convention go to http://nanpa.org/

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

MACRO…and  More
Macro and More® Photography Workshops present  2009 FALL in the   EASTERN SIERRA PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

Mike Moats and Jack Graham

OCTOBER 8-11 2009
COST: $725.00 (travel, meals, etc. not included)
Limited to 16 persons

Maybe one of the most majestic locations for fall photography is located within the Eastern Sierra Region of California. Wedged between the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park and the Great Basin of Nevada, Is one of the most diverse areas in the lower 48 states. This is the setting for our FALL MACRO and MORE

EASTERN SIERRA PHOTO WORKSHOP OCTOBER 2009
This is a combination landscape / macro workshop. We select locations that offer the best of landscape photography as well as some amazing macro photography as well.  Daytime will be spent in the field. Personalized instruction will occur in the field. Choice locations have been determined by many years of shooting in this area under varied conditions Evenings will consist of informal sessions to discuss information on photographing in the area, critique sessions, and general photography information. Reviewing the days work is an integral part of the workshop experience.

You will come away with lots of great images and information and tips that will make your landscape and macro work stand above the rest.
Join award winning macro photographer Mike Moats and Jack Graham this October for what we know to be a very different photography workshop as well as a few highly informative and fun days of shooting here in the Eastern Sierra of California.

With the success of our first “Macro & More” workshop in Oregon Columbia River Gorge last year, Jack and I are repeating it again this year and also adding the coast. we have almost filled the workshop for this year so decided we needed to add more. Eastern Sierra “Macro & More” for the fall 2009.