Posts Tagged ‘Mike Moats’
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
Continuing my post from yesterday, here's a look at some more rock slabs.
I recently purchased this great looking Laguna Lace Agate Slab. It’s always fun searching for interesting patterns in these slabs. I shot this with the standard 1:1 60mm Tamron macro lens, but will be exploring into tiny areas as I add on my extension tubes.
This is the slab I started with
Check out both sides if you buy any slabs, as the patterns vary on each side.
Lots of fun with these rock slabs!
You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
Tags: macro rocks, Mike Moats, slabs, winter
Posted in Articles, Macro | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 17th, 2011
One of my favorite subjects to shoot during the winter months are slab cut rocks, which are thin slices of rocks that are polished smooth exposing all kinds of great abstract designs. Each year I search out companies online that sell these rocks and this year I found “Dandy Slabs” which is a premier site for rare, high grade and old stock lapidary materials – slabs, rough rock and collector specimens. You can chekck them out at www.dandyslab.com.
I shot these images using my Tamron 60mm macro lens. When I’m shooting indoor I like using a short focal length lens and working in close with the subject.
This first rock is a Deschutes Picture Jasper Slab and I liked the rich warm tones and lines.
This part of the rock reminded me of a mountain range, and the bright area on the left is the early morning sun with a large flock of crows in the sky entering the scene.
This second rock is a Laguna Agate Slab. It has a wild design with some great colors. These slabs are maybe a quarter of an inch think and the designs vary on each side so it gives you more options for compositions.
This is the front side
And here is the same rock but from the opposite side, and a little different look.
So check out sites like Dandy Slabs, and pick up some rocks to shoot. Don't let Old Man Winter set you back!
You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
Tags: Abstract, Macro Photography, Macro Tips, Mike Moats, rocks
Posted in Articles, Creativity, Macro | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
As we enter into the first phase of winter here in the northern regions of the US, we find less and less to shoot outdoors. The colors have all disappeared and the plant life has wilted and faded away until next spring. Once the first week of December arrives, I look forward to heading to the local creeks and shooting ice abstract. These images that you see are produced in the very first stages of freeze at the edges of the creeks. In this newly formed ice you will find interesting patterns and unique natural designs. With each winter day the cold adds new layers of ice causing the ice to turn white and erasing these creative designs, so being out there at the first ice is your best chance to shoot these cool abstracts.
A long focal length macro lens (150mm to 200mm) works best as you will be shooting from the bank of the creek and need that longer range to reach the subjects and fill the frame.
You will be shooting at low angles and to increase my depth of field to bring the whole design into sharp focus I use the higher f/stop numbers in the f/22 to f/32 ranges.
Look for designs that have a lot of interesting swirling lines
Sometimes you will come across ice with cool colors. The colors may reflect from the blue in the sky or from brown leaves under the ice, or yellows from low angle early morning sunlight.
As you can see there are some very interesting artwork created by mother nature, so dress warm and don’t let the cold stop you from shooting!
You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
       
Tags: Ice, ice abstracts, Macro, Mike Moats, winter
Posted in Articles, Macro, Viewpoint, Vision | No Comments »
Saturday, October 30th, 2010
Our pal Mike Moats has opened up a new Macro Nature Forum.
Mike's new forum is for macro photographers of all skill levels, and It’s free to register and participate. You will be able to post your macro images in different forums, start or engage in a macro discussion, enter contests, and more. Check it out! www.macronatureforum.com
Tags: Close-Up Photography, Macro Nature Forum, Macro Photography, Macro Tips, Mike Moats
Posted in Articles, Macro | No Comments »
Thursday, October 7th, 2010
The title of this post is a line that photographers hate to hear when people comment on their images. I hear this one a lot at my art shows. Due to the digital and photoshop age, people tend to think great images are produced by great equipment, when in fact low-end camera equipment can produce good quality images in the hands a of competent photographer. The opposite is true as well: top of the line equipment can easily shoot bad images by a careless photographer.
I ran across a video on fstoppers.com called, “The iPhone Fashion Shoot By Lee Morris”. Lee proves that a good photographer can produce good image even with a camera phone.
He attaches his camera phone to a tripod with velcro, sets up some lighting, and does a model shoot to prove his point: that it’s not all about the equipment.
Here is a quote from Lee Morris:
“A few weeks ago I did a full fashion photo shoot with my iPhone 3gs. I posted a few of the images and asked people to critique them (never exposing that they were shot on my cell phone). I couldn’t help but laugh when a few of our readers claimed that these were “the best images I had ever taken.” Nobody ever claimed that they were too grainy, too soft, or lacked detail”.
If you can do this well with a camera phone, just think how good your images will look with a entry level digital SLR!
Most importantly, get out and shoot. Your images will improve, no matter what your equipment.
You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
Tags: equipment, iPhone, Mike Moats
Posted in Articles, Commentary, Viewpoint | 1 Comment »
Sunday, September 5th, 2010
If you’ve ever studied some of the better macro images out there, you’ll see those nice clean solid color backgrounds that allow a subject to stand out, with no distractions to pull your eye away. This presentation just doesn’t happen by accident, it’s carefully planned, and not all that hard to do. Most people that sign up for my Macro Boot Camps tend to be flower shooters, so we'll use flowers as our subject matter for this post.
In the image below you see a nice patch of Dame’s Rocket flowers. When approaching a patch like this, I see so many photographers that head right to the middle of the patch to find a flower to shoot. With all the congestion of flowers, stems, leaves, this approach will only lead to a distracting background and make it impossible to get that clean shot.
For a clean shot, you'll need to concentrate your attention to the flowers at the perimeter of the patch. By finding those isolated flowers at the edges, and shooting at an angle where the background is the farthest away, you'll be able to get those nice solid color backgrounds.
In the image below you see the small cluster of flowers on the far right. That,s what you should be looking for–an isolated group that will allow you to shoot without all the distractions behind it.
Find an angle where your background is the farthest away, as this will make it easier for the camera to blur the background. Use a smaller f/stop in the f3.5 to f/8 range to center your depth of field and to help soften the background into a solid color.
Here is the small cluster that we identified in the previous image. This image was shot using the Tamron 90mm at f5/6.
If you can’t find that perfect flower at the edges and have to shoot into the clutter, go tight to eliminate the clutter!
You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
Tags: Flowers, Macro Composition, Macro Photogrpahy, Macro Tips, Mike Moats
Posted in Articles, Creativity, Macro, Quick Tip | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 18th, 2010
When I exhibit at my art shows each weekend, I have one image that I place in an area of the booth toward the front, so customers passing by with not miss it. This image of dew drops with a flower inside of them always draws a crowd of people in amazement, and the big question is, “did you Photoshop the flower into the drops?“.
No, I did not. In fact, this image is a very easy shot to produce–just find some tall grass in an open field on a dewy morning. Once you locate a nice blade of tall grass with some dew drops, carefully position your tripod and camera close-in to fill the frame, so the dew drops are easy to see. Use a Plamp with one end clamped on your tripod and the other end clamped onto the stem of your choice of flower, and position it directly behind the dewdrops. The closer the flower is to the dew drops, the larger the flower will appear, and the father away, the smaller it will be in the dew.
Once you get the right position of the flower, set your f/stop in the lower range, from f/3.5 to f/5.6. You want to place your point of focus on the flower in the dew drops, and the shallow depth of field will soften or blur the flower. You don’t want to much details in the flower because you want the dewdrops to stand out from the flower and not get lost.
Not so hard, is it?
Have fun and experiment. When you get a good shot, show it off. You'll enjoy answering that Photoshop question!
You can visit Mike's blog here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
Tags: Macro Composition, Macro Tips, Mike Moats
Posted in Articles, Macro, Tips and Tricks, Vision | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Congratulations to macro master Mike Moats, an OPG blog regular and the author of best-selling ebooks in the OPG Store!
Mike just had an article published in the June edition of Outdoor Photographer magazine, which was delivered to subscribers this week and should hit the stands soon.
Mike's article is titled Diversify Your Macro Portfolio and is full of tips and Mike's inspiring images.
You can read the online version of Mike's article here: Outdoor Photographer
You can see Mike's ebooks in the OPGStore here: Mike Moats
Check out Mike's images here: Tiny Landscapes
Tags: Macro Composition, Macro Tips, Mike Moats
Posted in Articles, Macro, Photographer Spotlight | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Spring is finally here with all its color, but I thought I would take a look back at the drab winter and give you a few thoughts.
My cure for the photographer’s cabin fever is finding interesting subjects to shoot indoors. It’s not that I’m a wimp and don’t want to brave the cold, its just that what sells the best for me is images with color, and winter takes its toll on any color in nature here in the north.
I can better spend my time marketing during the winter then out shooting images that won’t sell. As much as I like winter, most people that view my images at the art shows tell me they don’t care for winter and they don’t want to look at it all year hanging on their walls. I’m always looking for something interesting to shoot indoors. Probably the most used indoor subject is flowers, and I do my share of flower shots, but I’m always in search of something new to shoot.
I’ve always liked the look of bird feathers, the lines, texture and patterns have always interested me. I have some turkey and sea gull feathers I’ve picked up locally from the parks where I shoot, but I wanted some feathers with a little more design and color. I went online and did a search on feathers. I found sites that were selling a variety of feathers, mainly used for home decor arrangements.
Here are some images of the feathers I received. I had some fun setting them up and shooting!
I arranged these three feathers at slightly different angles as to not have them looking too composed. Shot at my favorite f/stop, f/32, with the Tamron 60mm macro lens.
With this group I used two colorful feathers to flank the center feather which has more earth tones. The resulting contrast allowed the center feather stand out. Also shot with the Tamron 60mm macro at f/32.
These are tiny little feathers that I arranged in this group. I added a 25mm extension tube that would allow me to focus in closer on this small grouping. I wanted a different and more abstract look, so shot this one at f/2.8. The Tamron 60mm set at f/2.8 blurred the edges really well and I placed the point of focus on the center feather.
Even cooped up in winter, you can get your creative juices flowing!
That being said, I'll still take spring.
–Mike
You can visit Mike's blog here: Tiny Landscapes
    
Tags: Abstract, Art, Close-Up Photography, Macro Composition, Macro Tips, Mike Moats, Tamron Lenses
Posted in Articles, Macro, Quick Tip | No Comments »
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Wow! You Must Have A Good Camera!
Thursday, October 7th, 2010The title of this post is a line that photographers hate to hear when people comment on their images. I hear this one a lot at my art shows. Due to the digital and photoshop age, people tend to think great images are produced by great equipment, when in fact low-end camera equipment can produce good quality images in the hands a of competent photographer. The opposite is true as well: top of the line equipment can easily shoot bad images by a careless photographer.
I ran across a video on fstoppers.com called, “The iPhone Fashion Shoot By Lee Morris”. Lee proves that a good photographer can produce good image even with a camera phone.
He attaches his camera phone to a tripod with velcro, sets up some lighting, and does a model shoot to prove his point: that it’s not all about the equipment.
Here is a quote from Lee Morris:
“A few weeks ago I did a full fashion photo shoot with my iPhone 3gs. I posted a few of the images and asked people to critique them (never exposing that they were shot on my cell phone). I couldn’t help but laugh when a few of our readers claimed that these were “the best images I had ever taken.” Nobody ever claimed that they were too grainy, too soft, or lacked detail”.
If you can do this well with a camera phone, just think how good your images will look with a entry level digital SLR!
Most importantly, get out and shoot. Your images will improve, no matter what your equipment.
You can visit Mike's blog and learn about his workshops here: Tiny Landscapes
Mike's eBooks are available in the OPG store here: Mike Moats
Tags: equipment, iPhone, Mike Moats
Posted in Articles, Commentary, Viewpoint | 1 Comment »