Macro Photography is one aspect of photography that is really fascinating to me. It really makes a person super observant to his surroundings. Photographic Society on India, had a presentation on Macro Photography today. Luckily it was my morning shift today, so made it to the seminar on time.

The photographer named Yuvaraj Gurjar was at the centre stage. The seminar had already started, so i took the only available seat. The photographer stated off with a slide show of his collection of macro photographs. They were visually very appealing. He is basically into insect photogaphy specially butterfly. Also in the slideshow were photographs of snakes, some venomous, some not. He also gave us a brief story behind some of the photographs.

The part i liked the best about this seminar was the holistic approach which the photographer has taken towards nurturing this art. Specialising in Macro Photography, he stated that most of his Sundays are spent in some forest or the other. He has done immense research on the insect species as well as reptiles, which is very paramount, if one really wants to capture some mind blowing shots. Equipment used by him is top of its class. But its person behind the camera that really matters.

Some of his photographs like the life cycle of a butterfly from the egg stage -> to the larvae stage -> to the caterpillar stage and finally emerging outta the coccoon to the full-winged butterfly state, were sheer brilliance at work. His knowledge on the various species of butterflies and their locations, their lifestyles was very exhaustive. Came to learn that there are around 4000 species of butterflies of which around 1000 or so can be found in India. North Eastern states like Arunachal Pradesh have a very dense population of variety of butterflies.

Macro photography is one thing i havent really explored sans some random shots. It is fascinating for the simple reason that it magnifies miniscule details of objects which one would never give a second glance to. After hearing the photographer on the research to be done if one really wants to excel in this kinda photography ie. Macro Wildlife Photography, my respect towards the art has just increased. One gets to see Nature in a completely different light. Plus Macro Photography is a great excercise for the body as one can definitely not hope to take photographs at just the eye level. So kneeling, sleeping on ones stomach and the likes are very much the positions one needs to get in to get the perfect shot. And since DSLRs hardly come with a swivel screen, so one has to do all of the above to see his/her result on the LCD:d

All in all an hour and a half well spent. Photography is so VAST, each aspect of photography is an entire subject in itself. That is good in a way cos it keeps the mind at its active best. At its creative best. It never lets those grey cells rest

Take Care

Ciao