Home Forums Gear Photography Summertime Macro

Summer time is the time for macro! When I was a kid I used to spend a lot of time wandering through the woods looking for bugs and other small creatures. I developed an appreciation of nature that is still with me today. Now that I am a big kid, I wander the woods with my camera searching out bugs and other stuff. Here are a couple of tips to help you get into or maybe improve your macro photography skills a little.

First, understand what the focal length of a macro lens does. For instance, the shorter the lens, 60mm, the closer you need to be to make the object bigger. It is referred to as working distance. A Tamron 60mm Macro lens is great for technical subjects, like guns, knives or animal mounts, or flowers even. The Tamron 90mm Macro lens allows you to get a little farther back but still capture the same image. The working distance is greater by a few inches. This is helpful when you are shooting some insects that might fly off if you get too close because they think you are a predator there to eat them. Lastly, a longer macro lens, like the Tamron 180mm Macro lens is great for insects and gives you even more working distance to your subject.

When photographing, depth of field will be very shallow because of the distance to subject. You can maximize the depth of field by making sure you are parallel to your subject. I find that when I do this I can shoot at about f8 or f11 and get the needed depth of field I desire. Another tip is to not chase your subject around. Find their perch or wait at a flower for them to land. If they feel you are chasing them they think you want to eat them. Dragonflies especially, will return to their perch often. If you do have to follow, just like stalking with a gun, do it slowly and stay low.

I really have found the Tamron 90mm VC USD Macro lens with the Vibration Control has increased my number of keepers. Having the VC feature allows you to hold a lens steady for about 3 additional stops. If you are shooting flowers in low light it can help as well if you don’t have the ability to use a tripod. I have handheld that lens to about 1/15th of a second with good results. Macro lenses also double up as great portrait lenses.

There are some great deals going on at Camera Land right now, so as you go through their deals and get ready to place that order with Mark, make sure you check on the macro lenses! As always let them know you are a member of the Campfire for the best pricing available! Post some macro images for all of us to see!

All images were made using the Tamron SP 90mm Di VC USD Macro lens, except the bee which was made with the Tamron SP 180mm Macro lens.