Outdoor Photography How To

Summer is a good time to get outdoors and shoot macro photographs of insects, flowers and other tiny critters. And best yet, you rarely have to venture beyond your backyard to find a variety of interesting subjects.

Norwegian photographer Daniel Modol was shooting video of a distant storm from the terrace of his home in Gjerstad as lightning bounced off the horizon. Suddenly with a BOOM, a lightning bolt struck just a few feet away. And when we say, “boom” we mean it; this is a loud video so turn down the volume before watching the clip below.

It’s often difficult to make compelling images when shooting in the middle of the day under harsh lighting condition. But in the video below you’ll learn how to make use of contrast to create dramatic silhouettes.

Spend even a short time looking at Jackie Tran’s spectacular landscape and cityscape photos and it won’t come as a surprise to learn he’s a graphic designer as well as a photographer. His years of design experience are apparent in the way his compositions use lines, shapes, and colors to draw viewers into and around his images. 

Landscape photographers often shoot at smaller apertures to increase depth of field in their images. But while that technique can deliver an “acceptable” zone of sharpness in both the foreground and background, there’s a better approach if what you’re striving for are spectacular images in which acceptable isn’t good enough.

Whether you’re photographing exotic beetles in the rainforests of Ecuador like entomologist Phil Torres, or shooting more common insects in your backyard, the video below will help you capture dramatic images that look like they were shot in the studio.

Summer is a great time for close-up photography of flowers, insects, and other tiny subjects. But macro gear can be really expensive, especially if you want to venture into the realm of super high magnification that exceeds a 1:1 reproduction ratio.