People often ask me “how did you get that angle?” or “where were you standing to get this picture?” The answer is really pretty simple. I try to think like and be like a bug!
When I am in my yard or at a park or wherever I am taking my photographs, I almost always use my macro setting and get down and dirty with the camera. What is down and dirty? How does this relate to bugs? Easy! I will lay in the grass, squat down to the ground level, look up from the subject instead of down at the subject, etc. I imagine myself as the bug on the ground. What would that viewpoint be like? What would a bug see? How would what a bug sees be different than how we, as LARGE humans, see things? When you begin to think like a bug and be like a bug, you can get some really interesting photos!
One of my favorite ways to be a bug is to take photos from underneath my subject. I am always amazed by this viewpoint. You see sky and earth and mushroom gills and stems. You see all sorts of stuff you miss by just looking down on your subject. I absolutely love mushrooms and take lots of mushroom photos from this angle!
I also love to take pictures of bugs themselves using the macro setting. You not only get to see the bug up close and personal in a way you most likely never have, but you also get to see the plant they are perched on or munching on from their buggy viewpoint! I really have a new found appreciation for bugs because of this. They really are beautiful creatures and simply amazing to study!
A third way I use the bug viewpoint with my photography is to simply take straight photos of yard weeds using my macro setting. When you find a weed in your yard, really really look at it. There is probably a bloom on there somewhere. It can be as tiny as a pen tip, but it’s there! I will get my lens as close to that tiny flower as I can, use the macro setting, and click. I never know what I am going to get, as it’s hard for me to see the details of these tiny wonders with my own eyes. But when I upload the pictures to my computer, I am often amazed by the gorgeous results.
Nature never ceases to amaze and hypnotize me when I am in it. I find new things every outing. Stepping outside of yourself for a bit and playing pretend like we did as children goes a long way in nature, especially with macro photography.
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