Through The (macroscopic) looking glass

I've always been very keen on macroscopic photography, taking photos of insects, textures and anything else that would normally be too small to get a good look at. Here are a few of my favourites from when I was first starting out up until quite recently, along with whatever I can remember about when I took them.

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Touching Nature

When I took this photo I was in Norfolk with my family. My little sister had found this little frog and was holding it excitedly.

The larger hand (okay, thumb) is mine whilst the little hand is my sisters. The frog can't have been more than an inch in size and patiently sat there until it hopped off back into the grass a little later.

There was nothing special about the camera and no special settings, I was only just starting photography and had just been given a little Olympus point-and-shoot to play with. This was probably one of the first times I'd remembered to actually turn on the macro function!

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Hoverfly

This photo was taken a little while later with my Fujifilm HS10 and a Raynox DCR-150 Macro Adapter that let me get far closer to my subjects than before.

It was taken in my family back yard in London which, despite being mainly concreted over, had a little decked corner with a garden around its perimeter that my mum looked after. It had all kinds of flowers and creepers that the insects loved, providing me with loads of (un)willing models that tended to fly off before I'd done so much as get close enough to work out what they were. 

The shallow depth of focus, colours and very tight view in this photo have made it one of my long-standing favourites. It is far from perfect, but it is one that I often look back on fondly, reminding me of summers spent chasing bugs around my back yard with my camera making a total fool of myself and coming back in for a cold drink with virtually nothing to show for all my running around.

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These photos marked a change from a point-and-shoot/bridge camera to a DSLR and CSC (interchangable lens cameras).

These brought new opportunities with them, allowing me to experiment in low light around my university campus to take the two top images. I often walked around campus with my camera in first year when I wanted a break from the coursework and to clear my head a little. Night has always been beautiful to me so I enjoyed combining the artificial lights around campus with natural elements such as these leaves.

It also let me explore textures more, leading to going around my house finding and photographing anything and anything, with results like the one on the bottom left, although I never really left the insect world behind (bottom right)!