NOT a Macro ~ Floral Friday!

"Quietly She Waits"

(1/640 sec.@ F/4, ISO 125, 50mm prime lens, tripod, overcast light, pattern metered)

Delicate petals, rich color, dramatic framing. All reasons why I love taking images like this. You can fill the composition with a single subject and it never gets old, for me anyway. But, like many things in the photog world an image like this gets different reactions. Some will say of this photo, "lovely close-up!" (at least if they like florals) and I've had others say, "great macro!"

Which is also a nice thing to have said to the photographer. But the later would be wrong. Quite simply because this in not in fact, a macro.

Now, most would say..."close-up, macro - big diff." But there is. A macro gets you so close to the subject that it's tiniest details can be captured. So much so that you can lose the sense of scale associated with the bug, flower, or dew drop the artist chooses to capture. And obviously you use macro type gear to achieve it. Macro lenses, extension tubes, bellows, lens babies, they all are needed to make that uncompromising macro image. Like the ones you'd see at a friend's site here. And there is more to read about macro photography here.

Knowing that, when you look at the image above you then know it's just a close-up. My prime lens (my portrait lens for most days) emphasizes detail and soft depth of field under low light, allows me to get in fairly close, and then I can crop in even closer if I feel like it provided I'm shooting in RAW and working in a large file. This also works very well with my modest telephoto too. Except instead of leaning into the flower, I'm at least 4 feet away and zooming in tight. And it's still a dramatic image without needing additional gear which is always nice. But hey, if anyone wanted to donate a macro lens to my meager collection, I'd not turn them down. Anybody? Hello? Ahem... moving right along then.

This was taken last fall in the Gage Park Rose Garden, in Hamilton. I loved its perfectly shaped petals and the subtle color infused around the edges. A very graceful, innocent specimen. Like a young girl. Eagerly waiting to be noticed. Waiting for her "close-up".

Have a great day gang. Thanks for the ramble! Next week our featured guest will be a fellow photographer from Canada who really truly excels at macro photography. Prepare to be amazed.