Nature photography

I LOVE to take pictures, mainly of nature. And although I have a huge fear of bees, and don't really like bugs, I have this fascination with taking their picture..........LOL

The trick to insect photography (my opinion only) is first and foremost great lighting. If the sun is out great, if it's cloudy, you probably won't get a great shot. A powerful zoom is also needed and if your camera has a setting for closeup shots then that's even better. You should be at least 24" inches away to get a clear shot. Sometimes you can get closer and still get great focus but most of the time you'll have a blurry mess unless you get back far enough and then zoom in. A macro lens is very good to have. The best thing to do is just play around. It takes me many, many shots to get some really good ones. Sometimes I get lucky and get almost a whole role of good shots but it all depends on lighting, timing and of course the subject you're getting a picture of :o)

Comments

[Muhaiminah Faiz]

Excellent pictures! I'm crazy about nature photography... :)

[ournewestmember]

WHERE DID YOU SHOOT THESE?? Gorgeous! That sunset reminds me of beautiful skies in upstate NY :-)

[flowox]

some of the flowers were in my garden in Ohio but the sunsets I shot in New Mexico where we live now :)

[claytonlc]

Great topic of conversation. Here's a quick note: Contrary to what one might expect, cloudy can sometimes be the BEST possible light. Think about those days that the sky is overcast but somehow you still want sunglasses. What this does is diffuse (soften) the sunlight so that it hits the subject from more than just the one angle. Ever have your photo taken by a studio photographer that uses those upside-down "umbrellas" on his or her lights? In this case, the clouds do exactly what those umbrellas do. Diffusing/softening creates less contrast in the light on your subject (not so bright highlights, not so dark shadows), so your photos have less washed-out areas and much more detail where the shadows would otherwise be black. Sunlight does create shadows that can add drama to a photo, but when shooting the style of "macro" photography that deals with flowers and insects, having all that great detail can really make the image more compelling. These overcast conditions can be great for color as well. Under a clear sky, lots of blue light is reflected down onto the subject, coloring things in a way that our human eyes miss (or rather, compensate for), but the camera definitely sees. This is similar to the way taking photos inside at night with incandescent lighting makes for yellowish/orange photos, when our eyes don't really notice it. Of course most digital cameras now have settings dealing specifically with these conditions, usually under a menu called "white balance" (or something similar). Anyway, overcast skies provide a nice clean white light that reveals colors more vividly, and "truer" to their natural hue, or rather the hue that we understand them to be. Concerning using a zoom, your distance from the subject will greatly affect the feel and quality of your photo. This discussion is fairly introductory so I won't go into depth here, but I will say that if your hand isn't steady and you zoom from far away, the sharpness of your photo may be compromised. You may get better results from up close, although other factors can influence your results. For detailed info on this, search photo books (or google) for "depth of field," "aperture," and "focal length." Anyway, hope this helps someone out there. I concur with the advice above that the best way to improve your photos is to take as many as possible. Pay attention to how conditions, and your own decisions, affect each photo, and remember these results next time you're in a similar situation. I typically shoot digital these days, but in terms of rolls, I would hope for about one or two good shots per roll.

[Ian1104]

it didnt work? how do i do that?

[Ian1104]

cool yoz this is my sunset at my house if i know how to attach images

[Lithops]

Maybe you could expand this instructable to cover something more than just the obvious?

[Wafflicious]

howd you find the flamingos? zoo? or live near native ones?

[imagxz]

These are really nice...but maybe revise it to teach something?

[FarmGirl84]

Um... what can I learn from this? I would love to hear some tips about how you got such amazing pictures.

[iamthemargerineman]

I agree with mikeasaurus. you've got some good stuff here... but ehm... well... what about the rest of us?

[mikeasaurus]

The Good - Nice pictures, clear, crisp, great colours. The Bad - Not an instructable.

[Bran]

Very nice! What camera do you have?

[flowox]

I have a sony mavica that some of those are taken with. Some I shoot snapshots with my jvc camcorder and some of them are taken with my Minolta Maxxum HTsi Plus SLR camera. I use the Minolta for closeup the most and it's 35mm. Took me many years to get all the cameras but I love taking pictures :)

[Spl1nt3rC3ll]

Cool.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Awesome pictures! I love nature photography.

[GorillazMiko]

Great pictures! The first two look very awesome!