When Macro Runs In Your Blood!

Macro Photography. 

   I can proudly say that this is the only thing i am good at it, from top to the bottom. Macro gives a definition and focus to certain elements of a picture frame. It gives a message hidden in the picture. Sometimes, it expresses a picture more than words.

   First time i came across this style of photography was 4 years back, when i was in 3rd year Engineering. I still remember, i had HTC Wildfire with 5 MP primary camera. Since, i am not a professional photographer, most of my pictures are focusing on daily life's objects, household items etc. None of my picture deals with fashion, nature, animal or different types of photography style. 

   I don't dream of becoming a professional photographer by any chance. Nope, not at all. My focus is and will remain on taking snaps of real life events and scenarios, which are well shown in my facebook album. I observe road side banners, shops, hoarding, activities (by humans or animals), buses, vehicles, or anything you come across in everyday life. I take out my phone and take a snap of it. Why am i telling you all this.? Nope. I am not giving a lecture of Macro photography style. Its just, one fine day, i found out that my pictures are quite appreciable and should get some encouragement. Some of my favourite ones are over here. 

These following ones are some of the Diwali shots. Quite impressive, huh!

Well, this one is something which i don't think i can capture all over again, anytime now. What do you say?

Well, one fine day, me and 2 of my friends decided to have a beer and lunch at one of the famous Dhaba on Tumkur Road, Bangalore-Pune Highway. And i came up with few stuff.

That's Hayward 5000. Classic, huh?

What else you can expect in a Dhaba? Black dog or 100 Pipers?

But must say, awesome food they got over there. And that lassi, damn good! I have been planning to go there once again, but timings are not in my favour nowadays. But i will definitely get back there once more.

And then comes, college parties. Yes, cold drinks, snacks, music, abusive and offensive dance( how can i forget to mention it). Damn! I love cold drinks. Could take a bath in it, too.! (I wish i could)

   And then, i didn't want to work and was looking for some real cheap excuses to leave office early, if possible. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. 

   So i shredded whole box, full of my frustration, on top of this piece. Hope she enjoyed it too.! She is good looking though, or she looked good before this happened to her!

     Oh yes, about her head!  She lost her mind when i told her to check out herself in the mirror! Last thing i heard from my lady was,"Oh hell! its mind blowing....No..no...its Mind Blasting.! ".

She is not the only victim. Someone else too lost his mind and his soul too.! You can call him, Mr. Macchar! 

Well, at least he got an oppurtunity to die on my brand new notebook. Its ASUS X500LC. Pretty good technical configuration, must say! This mean machine is pretty fast, of course.! Intel i7, 4GB DDR3, what else one can wish for.

I am not only crazy about the notebook's, i have a thing for Desktop's too in my heart. Cause may be i have used it for a very long time. And every time i looked at my keyboard, i used to think that this shit over here needs some customisation. So, i came up with my own design one day!

  I looked at it and laughed for couple of seconds. This wasn't the first time i screwed up something by myself! I have seen things, which were already devastated and destroyed completely before i got there. So, i am not the one who is responsible for what happened to this little old guy!

So, one day while waiting for my turn during campus selection, i came up with something which was a real time 3D visual image. Or 4D. Maybe  8D. Guess, who cares!

And i am almost done here. Following are some of the random indoor and outdoor snaps.

That'd be all for this post. I am still looking for some of my pretty good snaps that i can at least stand for and share it over internet.

Till then, Sayonara!

Introductory Concepts and History of Macro-Photography

Macro photography, also called and knows as photo-macrography or macrography, is extreme close photography usually of very small or medium sized objects, in which the size of the object is greater than life size or other things near-by the object. 

                                By some definitions, a macro photograph is one in which the size of the object is greater or more focused than the object's environment or its near-by objects. To get more information on the technical requirement of camera's and mathematical ratio of the zoom to the object, there are n number of sources available on internet, primarily Wikipedia.                                  

                                Due to advances in sensor technology, today’s small-sensor digital cameras or the one's embedded in smartphones, can rival the macro capabilities of a DSLR with a “true” macro lens, despite having a lower reproduction ratio, making macro photography more widely accessible at a lower cost, in the cost of an smartphone. 

                                In the digital age, a "true" macro photograph can be more practically defined as a photograph with a vertical subject height of 24 mm or less, which likely to be dependent of camera and the specification allotted by the manufacturer of camera.

History:

       The term photo-macrography was proposed in 1899 by W. H. Walmsley for close-up images with less than 10 diameters magnification, to distinguish from true photo-micrographs which were produced by DSLR's.

Technical Requirements:

         To get an absolute and close to true macro image, certain technical recommendations and requirements are needed to be satisfied while capturing a picture. Out of few, 2 of the important ones are listed below:

1. Depth of Field

2. Lighting

1. Depth of Field:

                      Limited depth of field is an important consideration in macro photography. Depth of field is extremely small when focusing on close objects. This requires either a slow shutter speed, brilliant lighting, or a high ISO. Auxiliary lighting (such as from a flash unit), preferably a ring flash is often used to capture macro picture. Compact digital cameras and small-sensor bridge cameras have an incidental advantage in macro photography due to their inherently deeper depth of field.

2. Lighting:

                   The problem of sufficiently and evenly lighting the subject can be difficult to overcome. Some cameras can focus on subjects so close that they touch the front of the lens. It is difficult to place a light between the camera and a object that close, making extreme close-up photography impractical. A normal-focal-length macro lens can focus so close that lighting remains difficult. These are popular as they permit sufficient distance for lighting between the camera and the subject.

                     However, a smartphone is capable of lighting the object at once using the flash. But the only disadvantage of such flash option is that, the intensity of the light emitted from the flash can't be controlled and may ruin the originality of the photograph.

Evolution of Macro Photography:

                     Macro photography has been used widely all over the world by photographic enthusiasts, which gives a different texture to the picture quality. As a smartphone user, i prefer macro photography to give an amazing impression to all the viewers and the macro zoom isn't that good as the DSLR has. 

                    But, using tools like Instagram or other picture editing tools, one can give a different and innovative texture to his/her clicked photographs. Here is one of my captured image, how you will like it.