Come a little closer… I’m your kind of flower! By Moira Blincoe LPSNZ
The first workshop in the 2021 PSNZ Workshop Series was held in Whakatane at the end of March, with Macro specialist Matt Leamy dazzling and confusing the eager delegates with his expert knowledge. The morning was dedicated to the technicalities involved in ‘Getting a Little Closer’ to the subject matter. He talked about magnification, focal lengths, distances, sensor sizes, differences in megapixels and the influence they have on macro shots, and much more. This was followed with ‘techniques’ Matt uses to ‘Get it Right’. If maths and calculations are not your thing, after hearing Matt’s details one would be left even more confused and possibly walk away from macro. The icing on the cake was learning about focus stacking and Matt demonstrated how he achieves this superbly with handheld techniques as well as using a monopod, tripod or focus stacking rail. The local Whakatane Rose Garden provided everyone with an abundance of subjects to photograph, from amazing full size dahlias to smaller blooms, butterflies, bees and decayed trees and flowers. It was a macro photographer’s dream. Like most macro photographers it’s so easy to get lost in the moment and truly absorbed with the beauty of the petals, flowers and textures. Using a focus rail for the first time was quite exciting and thanks to Brian Milner I discovered that my Nikon D850 offered in-camera focus stacking… Definitely something new to play with. The delegates all enjoyed themselves and, once again, Matt delivered a superb learning experience for us all. All images on page 37-39 by Moira Blincoe LPSNZ unless expressly stated.
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