How to Shoot the Tiniest CreaturesFrom birds and bees to flitting fireflies, Rick Lieder discovers a magnificent macro world in his backyard with the Tamron SP 90mm and 180mm lenses. |
Article by Jenn Gidman Images by Rick Lieder |
Rick Lieder worked in math, chemistry, and microbiology long before he picked up a camera, but now the Detroit painter and photographer has learned to successfully merge science with his art. "They both are trying to figure out the same questions: What are we doing here? Why? What's our place in the world?" he explains. |
Rick taps into Tamron lenses for nearly all of his work. "I use the SP 90mm F/2.8 and SP 180mm Macro lenses for most of my bird and insect photography, as well as the SP 28-75mm for people," he says. "The 90mm was my main workhorse when I started shooting macro - it's so sharp. I use the 180mm when I want to get a little more distance between myself and my tiny subjects." In Rick's new children's picture book, Step Gently Out
|
Read on for Rick's tips on how to uncover the mysteries and magic of small-creature macro in your own neck of the woods. |
Look around you for interesting subjects. |
When I started shooting macro, I headed out into my backyard (which is rather ordinary, complete with power lines) with a point-and-shoot camera. I realized I could do world-class work there. When you first go out, you might not even think there's much to see. But the closer you look, the more you'll find to photograph. Just lift up a leaf or a dead tree branch and you'll find ants and millipedes and centipedes and slugs; look up and you'll see bees and butterflies. There are probably thousands of species right under your nose. |
Find the best time to explore. |
It's fun to experiment early in the morning. It's still cool then, and these creatures are cold-blooded, so they haven't warmed up enough to fly away with the dew on their wings. You can get some really beautiful pictures that way. |
Head out with an open mind and all the time in the world. |
You have to have patience for this type of photography - this world operates on a much different timetable than ours. Take as much time as you need for a subject, whether it's 10 minutes or one hour. Don't just take the first picture of the insect: Spend some time checking out everything around you. Think about what you want to do, and stay still while you're doing it so you don't spook the insects. I've taken a series of images of a subject, and often the last photo in the series is my best shot because I kept checking what I had photographed and learning from my mistakes. |
Don't neglect your background. |
If I see something I want to photograph, the first thing I do is look at the light and start thinking of it all as a little stage, with this creature present on the stage. I think about where to position myself in this "theater" and to see where the light is going to fall. I combine all of that into a pleasing background, then position the insect within that context. That's one thing I particularly like about the 90mm lens: It helps you show the insects in their environment. You don't just want to show all the details of your subject - you want there to be an emotional connection as well. |
Concentrate on a focal point. |
Try to photograph one of the most challenging insects of all: the firefly. |
When I started shooting these glowing creatures five years ago, I didn't know how I was going to do it. You need it to be dark enough to see their glow, because what you're photographing is essentially just an unpredictable little black beetle. Plus, you only have about 15 minutes to work before it gets completely dark. When I first started, I'd take hundreds of pictures and not get anything good. Now, after years of going out every night during firefly season, I can get some awesome shots (though I'm always rusty at the beginning of every new season!). |
I don't use flash with fireflies, because that overwhelms their light. Out of all insects, no other is more nostalgic or magical and reminds us of our childhood. If you use flash, you're drowning out their light, and they just look like ordinary beetles. Instead, I use whatever light I can find - most of it is reflected light. Sometimes there'll be a car headlight in the image, which I'll use to light up the firefly. Or maybe it's the way the last rays of sunlight reflect off the leaves or off an out-of-focus white house in the background. |
I keep my gear pretty light in these cases, because I have to move fast. It doesn't help that the male fireflies actually speed up and change direction when they flash! I typically use my elbows as a brace and shoot wide open (the 90mm with its maximum F/2.8 aperture comes in particularly handy for that), with the fastest shutter speed possible. That might only be 1/30th of a second, which isn't enough to stop their motion. A lot of it depends on catching them at the right moment and keeping steady. |
Don't stop shooting. |
To see more of Rick Lieder's work, go to http://bugdreams.com or www.cloudboxer.com. |