It can be easy to think that macro subjects have to be exotic, fancy and beautiful to produce amazing shots, but this blog is to tell you that this couldn't be further from the truth!
What do you think about when someone says to you ‘macro photography’? Maybe amazing upclose shots of an insects’ eye? A beautiful flower in the summer sun? Or Sam Kite’s blackout macro? (absolute shameless self promotion – go read my last blog if you haven’t already!).
But what do you do when the weather outside is awful - cold, windy or rainy and you want to take some macro shots?! (I can’t actually remember if it was any of those things when I took these shots, but for the sake of my powerful blog telling, let’s pretend it was Armageddon type weather!).
What you can do is create a wacky soft box for your flash out of an old pringles can and search around your house for some macro subjects (please note that you don’t have to own a flash for this, it just helps to have that extra source of light!).
Pretty simple to make, cut out a shape for your flash to go in, then use masking tape to attach (masking tape doesn't leave sticky residue on your flash) and then cover with black tape to keep any light from leaking out!
When I say search for some macro subjects, I’m talking the most basic, mundane subjects that on the face of it are pretty boring, but could possibly make for some interesting shots.
I’m going to run through some of the ideas I had, some I have seen in youtube videos before and some I found off my own back. I will first show you a picture of my mundane object in all of its not so impressive glory and then show you my shot that resulted from me looking at in in a different light.
Classic bubbles, the subject of many blogs/videos about this idea, but for a good reason, they can produce some amazing patterns and interesting shots!
From this...
I got this...
Kitchen scourer – another classic one! You just have to look at the intricate patterns that can be found in one of these to realise that they will make a very interesting shot.
From this...
I got this...
Ice has the ability to look very cool however you shoot it. For this shot I got ice from my freezer and placed it on top of an ice cube so it didn’t melt and I shot away!
From this...
I got this...
Plastic bag – I saw this one in a video and just had to try it. A scrunched up plastic bag has the ability to look out of this world and produce some amazing depth and patterns when shot with a macro lens.
From this...
I got this...
Now to fire off a few quickly!
Toothpicks + matches – anything that stands on end produces some great shots!
Rosemary and Thyme – I was searching in my kitchen for some cool subjects and thought why not try some herbs - I really like the results
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Sultanas – hey they were in the cupboard!
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Cacti – looks pretty cool, not much else to say!
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Make up brush – anything with small details will produce great results!
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For this last one I wanted to show you just how basic and simple you can go and still produce very interesting images! I’ve put this one the other way round to allow you to see the images and then guess what it was that I was shooting…?
Did you manage to guess what they are?...
STAPLES!!!
It really can be something as boring as staples! They can make a very interesting image!
Thanks for reading,
Sam.