Tuesday 24 January 2012

Day 24: Motherly Advice


Out of the blue I missed a call from Mum today, and when I listened to the voicemail it was along the lines of 'just calling to give you some advice on taking Macro photos'. I thought, and almost muttered out loud in a mixture of surprise and excitement: 'Crikey! Mum's been reading my blog!'.

My mum is good at just about everything she puts her hand to, not just because she's naturally talented in her chosen fields but because she works at it, learns, gains experience and shares the knowledge gained.

For some time now she's been hunting out and documenting Orchids around her home town and further afield, I think it might have been my Nan & Pop who stirred this interest initially. The documenting side of things requires photos for reference and as many of the Orchids are tiny the use of extreme close up photography is a must. Mum has some spectacular photos of Orchids adorning the walls of her home and she's produced most of these herself.

As mum was offering advice on the subject I was keen to listen and try it out. The advice was on how to deal with the frustrating auto focus on point & shoot cameras that always seem to focus on something other than the subject you're trying to capture. It's quite simple really: When the auto focus is focusing on the background put something behind the subject, whether it's a piece of card, your hat, your hand or anything else that will bring the focus forward. Once the lens is focusing on what you intended you can remove the backing and take the shot. It seems so simple, wish I'd thought of it myself for the praying mantis photo shoot.

This afternoon I scoured the back yard for something else of interest to shoot up close and as usual the back yard delivered. This colourful little spider made the cut for today's photo, it took a couple of attempts but using mum's method made the job a lot easier. Thanks mum!




1 comment:

  1. Good advise from your mum. Quite a clever little trick, will give it a go when I get my point and shoot out next and this rain stops.

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