It's Way More Than a Camera
- Tony Dickey
- Aug 12
- 2 min read
A common response to a great macro photo is: "You must have a great camera." Expect a polite non-response.
Cameras play a key role in providing images that engage the public. Without the public mind, what good is an image that rests on your SD card or hard drive? What you do with your photos is perhaps more important than taking them. If you do something repeatedly, you will improve. I'm proud to contribute to the citizen science of iNaturalist and raising awareness social media, but apparently this is one only one of many steps.
Recently, I moved to selling my photos across a variety of media. It was never my intention to move in this direction, but repetition builds proficiency. Pollinators and plants belong to each other. The intent remains to emphasize that relationship. Along the way, an important skill developed
I got good at capturing bees in flight, sometimes with their tongues out. It has become my signature image. I learned this skill by taking and processing tens of thousands of images. My toolbox contains both camera and a personal computer. My camera never taught me how to observe insects. The two images here are from the same instance, so to speak. Each tells a different slightly different tale. The enlarged pic emphasizes a female bee in flight--we can clearly see the pollen on the branched hairs of her hind legs. We also see her antenna at alert for new sensations. The eye is drawn to the segments of her abdomen. We sense the sun via reflections that glisten across her. The second image, the same, just cropped differently, provides a sense of place, direction. The viewer might expect she flies to another part of the shrub. Some may ponder what type of shrub draws such a beautiful insect. It is a Ceanothus or California Lilac bush. I am in constant awe of what we can do with a camera and software these days. The images you see on this post are my interpretation of what might attract the viewer. A different photographer would likely make different choices. I also serve various audiences, so there are decisions I must make with them. I go over that in my series, My Journey in Macro Photography. In many ways though, the camera is the easy part. It's also hella fun. Every pollinator photo day brings long lasting rewards. I meet lots of people with similar interests. It's way more than just a camera.
Lovely article, and philosophical. Do you have a link to this series you mention, "My Journeys in Macro Photography?"
While practicing with your instrument is tremendously important, the quality of the instrument you use is equal in importance. Many inexpensive camera lenses suffer from Chromatic aberration. It is a prismatic effect that cause color distortion around photographic subjects. In some situations you can work around the issue by closing down the aperture aka "F Stop" but the trade off is slower shutter speeds and blurred images. While there is no substitute for practice, equipment quality is equal in importance.
see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_aberration
Lovely shot. Nice article.
Here's what photography has taught me in nearly 50 years: 1) Buy the best gear that you can afford, 2) the lens is more important than the camera body, 3) most important: one must have a visual eye to make a shot, i.e. one must have a sense of design in composition. I have seen many photos by geeks who can speak of all the technical minutia of photography yet their actual photographs leave much to be desired aesthetically.
Great article that enlarges our awareness of some of the intricacies of photographhing polliinators. Thanks for this information and perspective. Great pictures!