Macro photography
Close encounters of the macro kind
Edward Weston p. 108
Macro photography – the art of photographing extreme close-ups – has the ability to transform everyday objects into alien forms and totally change our perception of the world around us.
The most common macro lenses tend to be telephoto primes.
As they are prime, the optical clarity is fantastic, while the high magnification means you don’t need to be quite as physically close to your little subject as you might think.
Here Shikhei Goh trains his lens on a giant set of bug eyes covered in droplets of water. By doing so he makes visible the amazingly complex patterns and textures of the insect’s eyes, which most of us have never been confronted with before. This macro effect gives the bug a monumental presence, like one of the cast from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
Even though you’re working on such a small scale, all the same compositional techniques apply. Here Goh has used symmetry to create balance. Also, notice how the shallow depth of field creates a nice three-dimensional effect and draws our attention to specific details.
Now go out and practise
The Lightness of Being
Chris Levine
2004