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| Agapostemon (metallic green bee) on Helenium flexuosum (Purple-Headed Sneezeweed) |
For the past several years I have amused myself by attempting to take good macro photographs using the simplest possible equipment. Until recently I used the 2-megapixel camera on my Kindle Fire HD6 with an old, scratch-up loupe that I held up to the lens. I actually got very good results and became hooked on the hobby. I upgraded to a clip-on macro lens and got better results. Lately, I've started using the 5-megapixel camera on my Android LG phone (with the same macro lens) and can sometimes get even better results. Here are a few things I've learned through trial and error.
-- Use a macro lens (loupe) on your cell phone. Here is the one I bought this spring to replace my hand-held loupe --
12.5x Macro Lens 
-- Is your camera fixed focus or autofocus? It scarcely matters, but know what you’ve got! The Kindle Fire HD6 has fixed-focus camera. With the macro lens attached you have to hold the camera a precise distance from the insect or flower to get an in-focus image. My Android phone has an autofocus camera. This means the image can be brought into focus over a greater range of distances, but there is a delay between when the camera determines the focal distance and then snaps the picture. Any movement during that period can lead to out-of-focus pictures. Either way, I can count on having to trash most of the pictures I take.
-- Pray for good light! Keep your shadow (and that of your camera) off the subject. Good light leads to faster shutter speeds and sharper images.
-- Put an insect on that flower. Shoot ‘em while they are napping, mating, drinking, or dining! Be stealthy, work in cool weather, stalk at dawn/dusk. Insects are interesting in themselves but they also give a sense of scale to your macro images of wildflowers. Many insects are most active in the heat of the day. That's often when you can most easily find them, but it's also when they are the most skittish.
-- Hold the camera steady. (Brace yourself and use timer if necessary.) Movement of any kind can destroy your focus. Even touching the screen to take the shot produces enough tremor to ruin most photos. Wind is another problem. And shaking hands are the worst!
-- Take lots of shots and later “Trash” most of them. Taking multiple shots with the camera at slightly varying distances seems to give me the best chance of snapping the rare "perfect-focus" macro image.
-- Adjust, crop, label. Sometimes the color values of a camera are a little off. I find that Google Photos does a fairly good job of adjusting colors if that is the case. A 5-megapixel image is big; sometimes you can crop it to zoom in on a single flower or a tiny insect. Labeling is key to providing images that are memorable for yourself and useful to others. As often as you can, try to identify the wildflowers and the insects you photograph.
Finally, here is a link to an album of some of my better photos from the summer. For each image, click on the little info icon to see where it was taken and what I could find out about it. My hope for the future is to map some of the best wildflower walks in North-Central Arkansas at different periods in the year. What better way to get out an enjoy nature!
-- Is your camera fixed focus or autofocus? It scarcely matters, but know what you’ve got! The Kindle Fire HD6 has fixed-focus camera. With the macro lens attached you have to hold the camera a precise distance from the insect or flower to get an in-focus image. My Android phone has an autofocus camera. This means the image can be brought into focus over a greater range of distances, but there is a delay between when the camera determines the focal distance and then snaps the picture. Any movement during that period can lead to out-of-focus pictures. Either way, I can count on having to trash most of the pictures I take.
-- Pray for good light! Keep your shadow (and that of your camera) off the subject. Good light leads to faster shutter speeds and sharper images.
-- Put an insect on that flower. Shoot ‘em while they are napping, mating, drinking, or dining! Be stealthy, work in cool weather, stalk at dawn/dusk. Insects are interesting in themselves but they also give a sense of scale to your macro images of wildflowers. Many insects are most active in the heat of the day. That's often when you can most easily find them, but it's also when they are the most skittish.
-- Hold the camera steady. (Brace yourself and use timer if necessary.) Movement of any kind can destroy your focus. Even touching the screen to take the shot produces enough tremor to ruin most photos. Wind is another problem. And shaking hands are the worst!
-- Take lots of shots and later “Trash” most of them. Taking multiple shots with the camera at slightly varying distances seems to give me the best chance of snapping the rare "perfect-focus" macro image.
-- Adjust, crop, label. Sometimes the color values of a camera are a little off. I find that Google Photos does a fairly good job of adjusting colors if that is the case. A 5-megapixel image is big; sometimes you can crop it to zoom in on a single flower or a tiny insect. Labeling is key to providing images that are memorable for yourself and useful to others. As often as you can, try to identify the wildflowers and the insects you photograph.
Finally, here is a link to an album of some of my better photos from the summer. For each image, click on the little info icon to see where it was taken and what I could find out about it. My hope for the future is to map some of the best wildflower walks in North-Central Arkansas at different periods in the year. What better way to get out an enjoy nature!
