Being forced to expand what I photograph and because of the reasons mentioned last week, the decision was made to start my macro photography journey. First, I visited the University of YouTube. Many YouTubers say conflicting things, but if you look at enough videos (at two times the play speed to save time) soon a general consensus start to appear as to some basic equipment to get. Next, I watched videos to get ideas of what and where to shoot. Lastly, I looked at some settings and editing videos.

          This "research" sent me to B&H Photo to purchase what was needed. I programed a "macro mode" into my camera's memory bank with the recommended settings. Ready for action, I started to explore a garden and a field. The macro world is small and thus not noticed easily. So one has to stand still and just look. Move in closer and just watch for movement. Soon I started to notice ladybugs, ants, and other insects.

I snapped away and my macro journey began. Let me warn you though, that I was greeter by frustration. Getting and keeping focus is difficult. The insects move and the wind makes the plants sway. But the biggest challenge is the small depth of field. I will talk about how to overcome this problem in a future part of this series. So what have I discovered so far?

1. Patience is key. I just kept on trying and trying. After a few hours I got the hang of it.

2. It is immensely rewarding to see the images come to life, to look at the fine details of insects I have never seen before .

3. Even though my first focus was on insects, I soon realized that you can look at anything through the macro lens.

4. So I decided to start with easier subjects, indoor flowers do not move. 

A mist sprayer makes the world of difference to add interest. In a few hours I already had some nice images. I am really enjoying this type of photography now that I have learnt a few things and have the right equipment. I highly recommend that you give it a try.