Want more photography posts? Here’s a Photography 101 course from Sarah. You can find her favorite equipment here, and here’s what I use when not pulling out my phone’s camera.
I’m not going to claim that this post is going to change the world, BUT maybe if some people looked at things from a different perspective… I don’t know. Maybe we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in?
Click on through for my favorite way to change my photography perspective.
I have a kid that loves (LOVES) bugs. He loves catching them, and could spend hours just lying on his belly watching the little critters do their thing.
Pretty early on, I realized that taking macro photos of the insects that he finds is a great way for us to observe and learn about the organisms. And luckily for me, having one of these simple macro lenses clipped on my phone made it easy to take macro photos on the go.
Macro lenses give you a thinner depth of field, which can make it trickier to get a nice clear image, especially when your subject is on the move. I’ve found the ideal situation to be one where I can rest my phone hand on something stable; that way I eliminate any possible shakes that would blur the image. It also helps to get comfortable with your lens by practicing on still subjects. Snowflakes are an ideal subject.
Once you’re comfortable with still images, it can be a lot of fun to make some macro videos. But again, but aware of that narrow depth of field. One sudden move and your subject will be blurry. We found these slugs having a picnic one afternoon, and they were perfect for videoing – they didn’t move yet their eating provided a lot of interest for a video.
The more you photograph micro creatures, the more you’ll learn about them. For example, after watching dragonflies one morning, we realized that they often come back to the same perch between flights. So rather than chase them around. I sat in one spot with my phone ready and waited for dragonflies to land. After a few minutes, I had a number of great portraits.
What do you say? Are you ready for that new perspective? This lens is very similar to the one that I have. I bought mine years ago, and can’t find the exact listing, but it was definitely nothing special. Just something small and easy to clip only the phone.