SANParks.org Forums

Photographs of small animals, insects and flowers of South Africa:
A lot of patience and skill is required to take good shots of these active insects but it can also be loads of fun, something different to the ‘normal’ images of South African Wildlife. Flowers are also great subjects when shooting macro, vibrant colours and sharp detail makes for a lovley close-up image.
Here are my first tries at Macro photography
.

Great shots, LP. Cool theme too.

Thanks Gwen cant wait to see some other macro

not easy when this gives you the fly around?pic taken at Olifants.

Great Leopardspotter
Keep it up

Not quite macro, but close-up:

On a walk near Olifants


Just outside the tent in Punda, camouflaged extremely well. Only the fact that it moved made me see it.

Maybe not quite macro but didn't want to get too close to this fellow:



Cheers,
CD

Txs for reminding us of this topic Clever Dog


Macro is a great way to enjoy much more photography while in camp or on a regulair daytrip in your neighbourhood,park or in the wild places

Some very important pointers imo for getting good macro shots.

This example are a few mushrooms, about 2 cm high.
There are three important rules for succesfull macro
1) Because you get real close to you subject always remember that the sharpness is very small. I think that i only had 1 cm of my subject real sharp. As you can see on the middle ones. Therefore it is very important to get you subject in a straight line. If you want a the body of a insect sharp make sure that you dont take a picture from a angle.
And the chosen aperture is also important, as with making pictures with any lens. The higher the number the sharper the whole image. And in this picture and only wanted the colour in the background, but not all the details.
I chose F13 for this.
2) Always use a tripod.
3) Do a bit of weeding. In this picture i got rid of a few tiny bits of this and that in the foreground. And in the background made sure that nothing would disturb and attract the eye.

The same rule applies to wildlife portraits. We dont want grass sticking through a eye or a branch growing out of our animals head, do we?

And the great thing about macro is that if you dont have a real macro lens, a close-up lens would do fine, or a tele.
My mushrooms were to tiny for a tele, but bigger subject, plants or stones etc will also do great as subject.

O nearly forgot, macro is also a bit demanding on the back.
Dont be afraid to go on your knees, or kiss the ground.

Macro photography does allow a person the pleasure of pursuing one’s hobby in places and at times when the “normal” subjects are not around. It can, however, lead to some amusing moments. Picture a rather large rough-looking character in fetus-position on the ground, down on his knees intent on snapping a tiny object when suddenly a pair of small scuffed sneakers shuffles into view. When you lift your head you find yourself level with the runny nose of a three-year old who wants to know: “What you doin’?”

Macro photography is not subject matter explained to a toddler – do not even try… They query every explanation you give them with: “Why?”. (Kid, don’t you know any other letter of the alphabet!?)

Now, when I draw anyone’s attention under the age of 21, I mumble: “…lost it, found it, thanks” excuse myself and move to another spot.

Just thought I’ll mention a drawback of macro photography…

Here are some of my macro efforts:

Intriguing pix, Johan, esp that last one Wasps??

@all, great pics!

You are right - wasps it were in the roof of the Lake Panic hide, right above my head. They were well-behaved though, it was not any wasp activity that caught my eye, but rather a swallow that had it's nest closeby. Noticed the wasp nest when attempting to "shoot" the swallow coming out of its nest.

What is great about many Marco subjects is that they SIT STILL! So, often in desperation, (like in this case )I take the easier shot...

Theres always something about to do a macro photo of .

The biggest thing is a nice sunny day without any wind I find ,
this allows 1 to use high aperture values .





Both these are taken on a kiggelaria africana tree (Indigenous) Which is a host plant to these butterflys .
the butterfly was laying eggs , which in turn become those black caterpillars .

Best thing about the caterpillars is that they bring some cuckoos to your garden , I have seen red chested and diedricks eating these caterpillars .

Sorry Bucky, but must disagree with you
The worst time of day to do macro is a nice sunny day
As with macro the details are tinny and shadows kill the scene as you can see in the butterfly. The head and part of the body is in the shadows.

Imo the best time of day is during the early hours,cloudy days,or in the shadow.

Still love the pic btw

I agree with bert about the light - best shots giving quality images are taken on cloudy days. However, when shooting stuff like flying bees, you want as much light as possible to "freeze" the action. The brighter the light, the easier it is to achieve that without having to go to very high ISO settings. The trick is to plan your shot so that shadows are minimal. Get there early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Then shoot with the sun directly behind you. Great action shots can be achieved this way.