Lenses

Hand-Held Macro Photography

Posted by Rob on Sep 15, 2009 in Equipment, Flash, Lenses, Macro, Summer, Technique | 13 comments

Hey all – Rob here…

Since starting photography in 2004, May to August have always been my most productive months. There are plenty of subjects to choose from: birds, amphibians, flowers, insects, landscapes… On weekends, I’d often head out before dawn to the Ile Bizard marsh to photograph birds, frogs, turtles, otters or other marsh residents. When I don’t feel like getting up before dawn, I’d set up for macro photography a little later in the morning.

This year? Man, oh man… May, June and July were cool, very wet and windy. Montreal had record amounts of rain in July (4.6 inches), with some rainfall on 26 days out of 31 days. You can forget about going to the Ile Bizard marsh for bird photography in these conditions, as it will be very quiet. And windy or very sunny conditions make traditional macro photography extremely difficult.

The Bug Hunt

Posted by Rob on Jun 15, 2008 in Lenses, Technique | 1 comment

I love this time of year for photography, particularly since developing a taste for macro and insect photography. As you probably know, I’ve been doing photography for a little less than four years. Until last year, my main spring and summer subjects were birds.