Macro Photography

Tech & Theme Challenge

Objective

Have you ever imagined what the world looks like to an ant? That’s the magical feeling we’re chasing with your photography this week. Our goal is to use the techniques of macro photography to explore the hidden worlds all around us. We’re going to learn how to get our cameras close, even uncomfortably close, to our subjects and transform everyday objects into strange, beautiful, and sometimes wondrous landscapes.

Thinking Prompts

To warm up our thinking, consider these prompts. You don’t have to answer them all, but read them over and try to find the one that sparks something in your brain.

1. Remembering: In your own words, what’s the big idea behind macro photography? What are we really trying to do here?

2. Understanding: In your own words, explain why getting super close to a tiny object makes it feel like a giant mountain or a weird alien planet.

3. Applying: Without a camera, find one thing within arm’s reach. Now, describe the “secret world” hiding inside it that you’d try to reveal with a macro shot.

4. Analyzing: Take a look at the photos in the inspiration gallery. What do they show? What do they hide? How does the composition add more mystery, wonder, or confusion?

5. Evaluating: Let’s argue. “True macro photography is impossible without an expensive, specialized lens.” Do you agree or disagree, and why?

Process

1. Decide on your personal goal. Are you on a mission to document the “epic journey” of a beetle across your backyard? Or are you more interested in revealing the “secret caves and alien jungles” hidden in a piece of broken glass?

2. Prepare to take photos:

• Find a subject with interesting textures. Think smaller. Then think smaller than that. A water droplet. The threads of your jean cuffs. The salt crystals on a pretzel.

• Get as close as your camera will physically let you focus. Seriously, push in as close as you can without losing focus or touching the subject. If you have a macro mode (usually a little flower icon), now’s the time to use it.

• Control your light like you’re a movie director. A single, strong light source from the side will carve out all the tiny textures that are normally invisible.

1. Capture way more photos than you think you need. Experiment. Play. Most of them might be blurry messes. That’s part of the process.

2. Ask yourself this week’s Guiding Questions while you shoot. Let them push you to see things differently.

3. Make every photo unique. Tilt your camera. Shoot through a water glass. See what happens.

4. Make sure you’ve met the objective to the best of your ability. 

5. Pick four photos to share with our classroom. Show us the weird worlds you’ve discovered.

6. Try to provide the f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO. This data helps us all learn.

Inspiration Gallery

As you look at these, don’t just see a pretty picture. Use these prompts to deconstruct the image and figure out how the photographer is manipulating your sense of scale.

• The Scale Test: Imagine you’re one inch tall and I’ve just dropped you into this photograph. What does it feel like? Are you in a vast desert? A dense, threatening jungle? A silent, crystalline cave?

• The Texture Hunt: Let your eyes roam the image. Where are the sharpest, roughest, or smoothest parts? How did the photographer use light to make you feel that texture with your eyes?

• The Alien World Question: If you had no idea what this object was in real life, what would you guess? A strange new planet? An alien creature? A microscopic jewel from a forgotten civilization?

Guiding Questions

1. What story are you telling by getting this close that would be absolutely impossible to see from a normal distance?

2. How does your control of focus transform this boring, everyday object into something else entirely? Is it now a landscape, a monster, a jewel?

3. What was the most surprising, weird, or beautiful detail you only discovered about your subject after you got this close?

4. Is the tiny world you’ve created with your camera a peaceful, serene place, or is it dramatic, threatening, and dangerous?

5. How are you using the interplay of light and shadow to carve out the tiny mountains and valleys of your subject?

6. If this miniature scene were a real place, what would it sound like? A whisper? A roar? Silence?

7. What did you choose to leave out of the frame, and how does that mystery add to the story of this secret world you’ve discovered?

Self-Assessment Checklist & Rubric

• ▢  Posted multiple photos.

• ▢  Commented on other’s photos.

• ▢  Participated in discussion.