Any of you out there into murder mystery novels.  My brother Bob has written a great series of seven books and is working on the eigth right now.  The series is based on a senior citizen sleuth Jim Richardson.  Check out the books at, MurderNovels.com

I would like to thank those that took the time to take the survey for the three-day ”Macro Bootcamp”.  It was good to find out a few things I needed to know to set this event up. 

I’m honored to have Tamron, Lensbaby, Photoflex, and Hunt’s Photo so far as sponsors that will provide macro lenses for the participates to try out, and  door prizes.  With the help of the sponsors I was able to lower the price off this event from $189.00 down to $149.00. 

I have  set a tentative date as March 26,27,28 and will be held at the Embassy Hotel in Livonia Michigan,  (a beautiful hotel just outside Detroit). I’m still contacting companies to sponsor for door prizes. 

It will be a great learning experience, fun and entertaining.   I will have  more details about the workshop and will be taking registrations hopefully by the end of the week. 

This workshop will be limited to forty participates, so don’t wait long when it comes time to register.

This morning we had a good frost with the leaves at a perfect stage for group shots.

Check back as the “Three Day Macro Bootcamp” in March is almost ready to announce a date and Sponsors.

To see more frosty group shots go to, www.tinylandscapes.com

Here’s some simple macro tips, read them before you head out into the field to shoot.

Macro Reminders,

Look for subjects that have contrast, colors, textures, light.

Check your camera settings before every shot: ISO, white balance, Jpeg, Raw, etc.

When shooting flowers or any standing subject, check the background before shooting. View from all sides to find the least distracting background.

For a less composed look, place straight lines on diagonal rather than vertical or horizontal through the frame.

Arrange the image so the main subject is in the thirds of the frame rather than the middle.

Make sure the subject you pick to shoot is the one in the best condition. No blotches, missing parts, discolorations, etc.

 For a soft blurred background, set the f/stop in the smaller number range. For the sharpest image throughout set f/stop on the largest number. Try to remember: bigger number, bigger focus – smaller number, smaller focus.

If possible, shoot your subjects in overcast or shady conditions. If subject is in direct sun light use a diffuser to shade the subject, unless you’re using the sun light for special effects like back lighting, or side lighting.

Make a copy of this and carry it in the field.

tinylandscapes.com

I’m looking at offering a in depth three-day Macro Bootcamp.

It would start on Friday evening, seven hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday.

The class would be for beginners to advanced photographers and cover all aspects of macro.
The workshop would be instructional only covering Lensbaby, stacking images, working all depths of field, Reverse lens, composition, abstracts, equipment, technique.

Please go to my survey to offer your opinion. Click Here

If you watch old westerns, the fastest shooter in town was well-respected, and so is the new Tamron 60mm fast shooting macro lens.  This f/2.0 out shoots the other  macro lenses by a full stop.  This really helps with macro as we tend to shoot subjects like small moving critters, flowers blowing in the wind, and if you’re like me, I shoot a lot in wooded areas were it can get pretty dark.  So to help stop a moving subject or speed up my shutter in low light, the Tamron 60mm macro fits the bill. 

The wide f/2.0 aperture of the this lens also helps to blur backgrounds, which is a problem you usually have with the short focal length lenses.  I had no problem producing a nice blured backgrounds or abstracts, and the results rivaled some of my longer focal legth macro lenses.  This lightweight lens is also great if you’re hand holding shots.

Those of you that know my style of shooting know that I like to shoot a lot of subject using full depth of field. I was very happy with the way this lens performed when stop down all the way. Nice sharp images though out.

Here are a few shots from the Tamron 60mm macro lens.

www.Tamron.com

Starting in the month of October I will be publishing a short monthly newsletter.  The newsletter will help you improve your macro work with  a monthy macro tip, photography equipment news, and and my updates for workshops, art shows and new products.

Click below and add your name to the email list.Click Here

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 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.

Hunt’s Photo will be having their big annual sale at the end of October. If you have something in particular you’re looking for, e-mail Gary at digitalguygary@wbhunt.com and let him know what you’re looking for and he will call you to let you know how much you can save when the big sale starts. These will be their lowest prices of the year on almost everything photo related.

Hunt’s has recently changed their 800 phone number. You can now contact Gary Farber at 800-924-8682 ext 2332 or by e-mail at digitalguygary@wbhunt.com or Kathryn at knazzaro@wbhunt.com. The old 800 still works, but they have modified the connection system with the new number.

Check them out.

www.huntsphotoandvideo.com

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.

http://www.naturephotographers.net/onlinecourses/ will be starting their new online workshops on November 1st.  I will be teaching the macro workshop.

The Nature Photographers Network™ is pleased to present its series of online nature photography courses. NPN online courses are conducted in “virtual classroom” private forums and are instructed by today’s top nature photography professionals. Students are granted access to the virtual classroom for the duration of the course. All lessons and interaction with the instructor – and other students – take place in the virtual classroom.

Each course includes six lessons, which are presented in publication-quality PDF format. Each lesson is allotted one week for completion and includes a shooting assignment. The student may post questions in the virtual classroom at any time during the week for the instructor to answer. Once the assignment is completed, the student will post their work in the virtual classroom for instructor and peer review. At the completion of the course, each student will receive a personalized Certificate of Completion.

You can pay for the course via your PayPal account or directly with a credit card. We are so confident that you will enjoy and benefit from any of our online nature photography courses that we offer a no-hassle, no-questions-asked 100% satisfaction guarantee. Once the course commences, you have 14 days to cancel and receive a full refund.

 We look forward to your participation!

Any one looking to sign up for the macro course go to http://www.naturephotographers.net/onlinecourses/

I’m writing this from my hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky.  In town to do the St. James Court Art Show. This art show is rated in Sunshine Artist magazine as the second best art show in the county.  Draws around 250,000 people over three days and has over seven hundred artist from across the county.  Stop in and say hi if you’re in the area.

Over Labor Day weekend I was in Harrisville, Michigan exhibiting at an art show.  I arrived Friday morning to set up, and I had the afternoon off to go out and do some shooting.  I was staying at a friends home during the show and we planed to head to an old light house on Lake Huron, where I wanted to shoot some of the colorful rocks off the point of the lighthouse.  We waded out into about a foot of the cold clear water and began shooting abstracts of the rocks.  The wave action that was hightlighted by the sunlight create interesting patterns as it distorted the colorful rocks.  I was shooting some macro images earlier with my Tamron 90mm macro and decide to use it when I ventured out for these images.  My settings for the three images were, f/8. shutter 1/2000, and ISO 1600.   The high shutter speed stop the movement of the waves and captured some interesting lines in the rocks.  In the last image I caught a wave that was just entering the frame.

“Macro and More” in the Eastern Sierra mountains of California.  Jack Graham and I still have an opening for this  workshop October 8th thru 11th.   Anyone interested in joining the group let me know, mgmoats@yahoo.com

NEW!! www.naturephotographers.net  will add a new feature to their site next month.  They will be offering online workshops for nature photographers.  I will be teaching the Macro workshops.   Below are some of the courses.  More will be added.  Each course will vary, but I think most run around six weeks.

The Ultimate Digital Nature Photography Coursewith Richard Bernabe.    

The Essentials of Digital Landscape Photography – Part 1: Field Techniqueswith Darwin Wiggett.  

Learning to “Speak” the Language of Visual Expressionwith Samantha Chrysanthou.    

Fine Art Abstract Photography – The Art of Seeing and Special Techniqueswith Joesph Rossbach.    

Creating “Wow” Images – The Fundamentals of Landscape Photography Composition with Ian Plant.    

Macro Nature Photography with Mike Moats.

Looks like the course will get started hopefully next month.  Contact me for more details, www.mgmoats@yahoo.com

Won’t be long and I’ll be shooting some of these Milkweed seeds popping from their pods.  Fall is right around the corner as I felt it in the cool air this morning while out shooting.  Fall is my favorite time to shoot. 

If you’re wondering what it is I can’t figure out as the title says, it’s the mystery behind the business cards I give out at my art shows every weekend. At the beginning of each art show season I order thousand of business cards to give out at the shows. 

At the pace I’m going it looks like I’ll give away about five thousand cards by the end of the season in October.  It’s amazing how many people want a card to take home, what’s more  amazing is  out of all those cards taken I get no calls to place  print orders.  I’ve had only one sale so far this year from all those cards, and I don’t think anyone called and order anything last season. 

How can that many people take cards and yet have so little success in sales.  It puzzles me on why someone would take the time to come up to me and ask for a card and then throw it away when they get home.  I’m not the only one that this happens to, I have mentioned this to many other artist only to hear they have the same response to all the cards they hand out.   So it’s not just me. 

My sales this year are the best in four years since I started doing the shows.  It seems sales are based on impulse and if they don’t buy it at the show you’ve lost them once they leave, even if they have picked up a card at the show. 

You probably wonder why I bother to give out cards at the shows if the success rate of sales is so poor.  It’s because it’s more of a hassle to explain to the customer why I don’t carry cards then is  just to hand them one and have them on their way.  Once I forgot to bring cards to a show and people were actually upset because I didn’t have cards, taking the attitude you must not be much of a business man if you don’t have a business cards. If they only knew what a waste of money and time those business cards are. 

My wife is quilty of this, when she goes to an art show she picks up cards and never orders from those artist and when I ask her why she bothers to pick up a card, she has know idea. 

I know someone will read this and have a story about how a simple business card made them a big sale, but in my business they are pretty much useless.

Take a moment and check out the images from our participants in the Oregon Macro and More Workshop in June 2009.

www.macroandmore.com

I’m  honored to have been added as a”Macro Master” on the Tamron lenses website.

www.tamron.com/macrospecial/

Despite the continuing poor economy my sales are up for the forth year in a row.  This year I’ve added some large frame pieces in the 24×36 size. These large sizes are selling well and also draw people into my booth.  One of my new images that is selling really well is of dew drops in grass with an Oxeyed Daisy reflecting in each dew drop, which has really gone over well with the customers. Shot with my Fuji S5 and a Tamron 90mm macro lens.

Check out my latest in books and online macro course.

www.MikeMoatsBooks.com

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.