Photowalk 14 - More Macro!

When the skys too boring, or the view not inspirational, why not just go Macro and have some fun in the undergrowth?

Seriously though, I love Macro Photography, but it can be hard to create something different from the thousands of "flower" shots out there, that everybody takes the first time they get a macro lens or capable camera. So on this short Photowalk I tried some unusual angles, and got stung by nettles all over my legs. (Note to self - wear jeans next time, not shorts).

I'm not sure what that buzzing is on the video - could be midgies flying around or the sound of the auto-focus motor- my apologies.

Now, I have to say that these videos are a little misleading. Although I play the camera shutter noise as if I'm taking the picture, the images shown in the video are the result of editing in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. My main PC went pop a few days ago, so I'm back to using an old P2 HP Vectra, which is very slow. This means that instead of using Photoshop CS3 I've returned to Adobe Photo Elements 2 - but I tell you what, having to adjust images with a slightly more limited pallet hasn't been a problem, in fact its been a joy just to play around with levels, fill lighting, and adjusting the different colour channels with hue / saturation adjustment layers.

You don't really need the full version of Photoshop to work on ordinary Photographs - you can do almost anything in Elements, including layer masks, and it's a lot simpler and faster - I'll do a tutorial soon.

Here's the images, as usual click on them to go to Flickr to see the larger sizes.

For this shot I had to get really low, so I was shooting blind, just taking the picture, looking at it on the lcd screen, then taking another. Shot at f3.5 for a narrow depth of field, maybe I should have opened up the aperture so that more of the petals were in focus. I did miss the Spot Healing Brush from CS3 (and I think newer versions of Elements) because I could have used it to quickly remove the dark blotches on the under-side of the flower. I should have used the clone stamp tool, but I was rushed for time, and I think this looks ok.

The tide was out, so I got down on the beach for this shot of some sea-grass being gripped by algae. I rested my camera on my hat, then just played around until I got a nice angle.

Hmmm. A leaf? I don't know, I like the colours and texture, I guess its a little abstract compared to what I normally do.

The bad point of this Photo is that the centre of the plant is too soft - out of focus. I was standing over the plant to get this framing, so the subject is mostly in shadow (ie mine!) but I like the way that the background is brighter for a change. I reminds of some alien space ship, with the leaves some sort of solar array. Or Maybe not. I love it though.

I have to make a little confession. The flower on the right was copied in from another shot. I couldn't get both subjects in focus at the same time, they were at different heights, so I went for the Photoshop option. Forgive me.

This was another surprisingly productive Photowalk. (The Cache was hidden by stinging nettles and thorns by the way.) I really enjoyed trying to find strange angles and backgrounds rather than the normal run-of-the-mill perspectives.

Thanks, Rob.