10 Creative Macro Photography Project Ideas

Are you looking for some interesting and out of the ordinary project ideas for your close up or macro photography? Want to break away from the usual flowers, leaves, plants and mushrooms? Tired of bugs, butterflies and spiders? All of those can make great close up subjects, but certainly not unique ones. Here are a few macro photography project ideas that may inspire your creativity:

1. Cutlery. Knives, forks and spoons can make great macro subjects. Arrange like pieces together to create lines and patterns.

2. Feathers. Feathers are beautiful close up. The central shaft creates a strong line which may be curved or straight, while the rest of the feather provides a soft texture. Use bird feathers that you find or purchase, or pluck one out of your down pillow or duvet!

3. Water droplets. This one is a classic, but be creative, and find your water on unusual surfaces like a wire fence, a cobweb, or a rear-view mirror. Early morning dew makes almost any subject magical. In the Spring or Fall, your can look for frost instead of dew.

4. Glass. Close up photos of fine crystal glassware can yield wonderful abstracts filled with curved lines and reflections. For added fun, place glasses side by side, or one behind the other to create lines where they overlap. You can fill the glasses with colored water for even more creative images. Finally, you can add a sheet of clear, but textured glass (available for purchase at stained glass craft stores) in front of your glassware. The possibilities are endless.

5. Foil reflections. While you have your glasses full of colored water, why not pull out a sheet of kitchen foil, or some shiny silver craft paper? Use your macro lens to shoot down into the foil and capture the reflections of the colored water in its folds and creases. This exercise is a tricky one, and requires patience, but the results can be very rewarding.

6. Fruit and vegetables. They're not just good for your diet! Fruit and vegetables make great macro photography subjects. Try kernels of corn on the cob, citrus slices, or go for more exotic fare like dragon fruit. You can place translucent slices on a lightbox for a clean, bright white background. You can also photograph the fruit or vegetables on plates in complementary colors.

7. Rust and Peeling Paint. Fascinating rust patterns can be found on an old car, or even a metal garbage can in the park. Peeling paint graces old fences and walls. Most people pass by such items without a second glance. Not you! Break out your macro lens, and reveal the hidden beauty. Just beware of harsh shadows if you are photographing in bright sunlight.

8. Car Details. The sleek lines of shiny chrome and trim on a polished car can provide hours of photographic entertainment. You can photograph your own car, but don't be shy about taking your camera to an antique car show. Car owners are usually proud of their vehicles, and won't mind your photographing the details.

9. Animal Bits. The texture of fur on your pet dog, or the wrinkled skin of an elephant at the zoo, can make a great close up shot. Paws, claws and teeth are fun too, as long as you keep out of harm's way. Finally, eyes always make compelling subjects. Shoot close ups of the eyes of your dog or cat (or a person, too!).

10. Tissues. For some high key abstracts, and a really unusual subject, try photographing a tissue. With a little imagination, the lines and shadows formed by the soft folds can create some intriguing images.

For a bonus, take a fresh look at ordinary objects around your home, such as light bulbs, shoe laces, book pages, clothes pegs, straws, holiday ornaments, or pencils. Try to find interesting patterns, lines, shapes, and colors, and create a little close up magic.

I hope these ideas inspire you to get out there with your macro lens and start shooting!

If you want to learn more about taking macro photographs, be sure to check out my two eBooks. They are filled with helpful tips, useful information, and spectacular, full color images to inspire you to create better close up photography.

To find a wealth of photography tips designed to improve your pictures, visit my photo tips website at http://ultimate-photo-tips.com/. Whether you're looking for the answer to a specific question, or just want to explore and learn, Ultimate Photo Tips has hints and techniques to hone your skills and boost your creativity.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julie_Waterhouse

Creative Photography Activities: Macro Photography (Tiny Things)

This is more properly called Macro Photography, where you are imaging small items. You'll need:
- A source of bright light (open window, bright sun behind a person outdoors, etc.)
- Some tiny things - paper clips, coins, paper currency, stamps, beans, you name it.

Camera Setup:
Mode: Aperture Priority (Often shown as Av on the mode wheel)
ISO: 400 or so (your f-stop and available light levels will determine this)
White Balance: Custom
Aperture: Mid-range, from f/5.6 to f/16.

Watch out for: Focus. Depending on your lens, you can only get so close to the objects before the camera can't focus on it. You may be able to back up a bit and zoom in, but without a special Macro lens or close-up attachments, your focusing distance will be limited. Check the minimum focus distance on your lens, and stay farther than that distance. If you put close-up attachments on your lens, you can get very close.

White Balance Setup: Take a shot of your reference paper right where you will photograph your items. Make sure it's bright gray, and set custom WB.

The Pose: Compose your items any way you would like. I suggest to start with a random arrangement, with your focal items clearly set to be positioned for good focus and imaging.

Framing the Image: Consider a plain backdrop such as white, black or a single other color with a small "nap" (eg not a towel). Determine if you will want the entire image in focus, or just some of it. For an entire image to be in focus, you'll either need the subjects to be exactly parallel with the image sensor (meaning you shoot from directly overhead for flat items laying on a table), or a very tiny f-stop (meaning focus zone is wide). Try both - a smaller f-stop for very small and tight focus areas, and larger f-stops for wider focus zones.

Take the Image: Your shutter speed may be limited by the light levels. Brace the camera or better, use a tripod if you have one. You may want to switch to manual focus to set the specific focus point.

Analyzing and Improving: Vary your camera angle and lighting if you can. If you camera has a live view feature, use the image magnifier to check your focus. Vary the f-stop and camera distance/zoom to change the amount of the field that's in focus.

Advanced Tricks: In post production, use the unsharp mask to sharpen up details of the small items. This is best used after the rest of your editing, and right before you save an image at a particular size.

Macro Photography on Your Southern African Safari

The best lighting for nature photography is the first 2-3 hours after dawn and last 2-3 hours before dusk hence most game drives are done during these times.

The safari vehicle leaves camp before sunrise and returns by about 09h00 and then leaves again at about 15h00. That means for six hours you don't photograph - unless you are a macro photographer of course, which means you can shoot all day and night if you choose to!

As nature photographers we photographs mammals, birds, landscapes and macros. Macro photography simply means photographing small subjects, such as insects, flowers or reptiles at life-size or greater magnification.

The four most famous southern African game reserves of Kruger, Kgalagadi, and Pilanesberg in South Africa as well as Etosha in Namibia provide great opportunities for macro photography.

Please keep in mind that these parks have dangerous animals so please do not get out your vehicles - there are more than enough macro subjects to be found in the camps and picnic sites!

Kruger National Park
During the summer months, between December and April, the Kruger becomes a macro photographer's paradise!

There are millions of insects, many of which come to your bungalow at night because they are attracted to the lights. In addition some camps, like Punda Maria, Berg en Dal, Mopani and Pretoriuskop have walks that you can go on inside the camp perimeter to look for insects.

Alternatively just walk slowly around any camp examining the trees, bushes and bungalows - you will find hundreds of insects to photograph plus some wild flowers and reptiles!

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
In most months you will find scorpions to photograph. In summer they are easier to find than in other seasons. In addition there are preying mantids, moths and a host of other insects that you can find by walking around Twee Rivieren, Mata Mata and Nossob camps.

If you are staying in the wilderness camps you are not allowed to walk around the camps as they are unfenced. Don't fret, because many insects will come and pay you a visit at your dune cabin.

Pilanesberg Game Reserve
Macro photography can be good in the Pilanesberg, especially the summer months. All the camps have indigenous trees and bushes between the bungalows and Manyane camp has a walk that could take you up to three hours to do.

When you stop at the picnic sites don't forget to look around - we always tend to find scorpions, grass-hoppers and unusual flowers to photograph.

Etosha National Park
The three main camps have a lot of trees and bush for you to explore, while Halali camp has a walk that goes up the hill within the camp - an excellent spot to look for insects and wild-flowers, especially in summer and spring.

Even though summer and spring are obviously the best times for insects we have had the odd insect surprises in winter. Insects are very hardy creatures and even in winter the days in Africa can get warm, thus encouraging the insects to come out.

Here are our Top-Ten Photogenic Macro Subjects, that we have photographed in the above four game reserves and that you should look for when you are there on your safari:

Armored ground Crickets: These crickets have a 'shield' on their backs containing spikes so they make excellent macro subjects.

Dung Beetles: Dung beetles make good subjects especially if they are pushing their dung balls! Also Keep a look out for the rhinoceros beetle, one of the 'small-five' as they are also photogenic beetles.

Emperor & Mopani Moths: There are a few moths that have 'eyes' on their wings to scare predators away but the two best subjects are the Emperor and Mopani moths as they have huge eye patterns on their wings.

Geckos: These lizards are found in nearly every bungalow and they provide us with much entertainment as they either fight each other or stalk and catch their prey.

Mopani Worms: The Mopani worm is one of the most colorful and interesting subjects to photograph. They are multi-colored, have spines on their backs and can be found in Mopani trees or crossing the park roads in the Kruger and Etosha.

Red Romans: These spiders are also known as Sun Spiders and they are not venomous but can give a nasty bite. People are scared of them as they seem to want to attack you but they are just running to your shadow!

Scorpions: They tend to emerge from their homes on windy nights and this is when we find them walking around the camps looking for their dinner. Please remember that the scorpions with small pincers and thick tails are highly venomous so don't get too close to them. The scorpions with large pincers and thin tails are not as venomous. One year I was stung by the thin-tailed scorpion and it felt like a pin-prick that burned slightly for a minute and that was it. If it was the thick-tailed scorpion I may not have been writing this article today!

Velvet Mites: These tiny red mites have a velvet-like sheen to them and can be found in damp sand.

Whip Spiders: They are also known as tailless whip scorpions and have two long, pincer-like front legs that they hold out when walking and they use the other six legs for walking and probing to their sides. They look very scary but are harmless.

Wild flowers: There are many superb wild flowers to photograph such as Foxglove, Thunderbolt flowers, Devil's Claw, Cat's Tail, Black Storm, Sickle bush 'lantern' flower, Impala Lily and Purple-pod Terminalia.

Macro Photography Gear
We use Nikon 60mm and 200mm macro lenses. If we need more magnification we will add an extension tube to the 60mm lens, which then provides us with twice life-size magnification. If you don't have a macro lens, or you cannot justify the extra expense, just buy close-up lenses (they look like glass filters) that you can screw onto your existing lens, thereby providing close-up capabilities without the added expense.