So here we are - at the end of another month and bidding farewell to the bugs for a little while - but let’s go out on a high note, why don’t we?

This week is by no means all about dealing with injury or immobility, but it is an important part of the discussion. We will also be doing some cool post processing, and I will handing out some very useful Top Tips before the week is done.

We kick things off tonight with the last full “Macro Talk” livestream of the month, and in this episode we are going to be talking about the challenges of macro photography for those dealing with restricted mobility from whatever cause. But given that every single one of my viewers is aging at about the same rate, it is a reasonable hypothesis that some of you will, one day, be dealing with the same inconvenient mobility limitations that are already taking a toll on your more birthday-experienced colleagues (but, fear not - your time will come). In fact if we add acute injury to the possible causes of limitation, many of you could qualify to join our ranks long before your first AARP application packet arrives in the mail (mine arrived as I turned 30).

We will talk about some of the more typical problems that may limit our ability to participate fully in the  macro photography  lifestyle. We will compare acute and chronic conditions, and I will share some thoughts on the treatment of each. They we will focus on what we can do to hasten our recovery or adapt to our new reality. I will talk quite a bit on how to stay safe in the great outdoors while extolling the virtues of a voluntary transition to the studio life. So if you are old, infirm, injured, suffering from a physical or emotional condition that limits your ability to enjoy macro as much as you used to, or if you feel that one or more of these situations may materialize in your future, then this livestream and video may be for you. Everyone else should stick around for the second part of this stream when I will be doing a live demonstration of how to change a background in a bug stack. This is a super important workflow for bug photographers, but extra-special today because I am going to give you a pro-tip that will drastically improve you backgrounds and it is one that I have not spoken of in the past.

The Livestream gets underway at 8PM this evening and can be found by following this link. https://youtube.com/live/AU4tD024HQw?feature=share

Before we go on, I think you deserve a reward for getting this far into one of my posts - why don’t you see what macro goodies are on sale at B&H this month? You must need something, right?

Don’t you feel better now!

Now I would understand if even my upbeat and positive spin on chronic knee injuries leaves you wanting something more macro-photographic, and with that in mind I am going to wrap up Bug Month by opening a treasure trove of priceless Top Tips for insect photographers. These little gems are the things that will make an immediate difference in your images and in your enjoyment of your hobby. I think it is also going to be a fun hour, if a little on the fast-paced side of things.

And of course, your link to the stream is here… https://youtube.com/live/SzIOn0NI3-0?feature=share

… and you can find any other important links in this article after the video is released. The URL is https://www.allanwallsphotography.com/blog/old

I am going to do something I never do this month, and I am going to announce the theme for the June 2024 macro competition. I’m doing this because I will be so busy judging the competition from May that I will probably forget otherwise. By the way, I am still trying to decide on how best to level the playing field for the competition. I understand that some of our less experienced entrants don’t feel they have a chance going up against some of our heavy hitters. In reality they do, and our heavy hitters only win some of the time, but your point is well taken. We have some very, very good photographers in this competition and you are right to think it is going to be a battle to beat them, but you can do it.

I have thought of several methods for handicapping and each was more complicated than the one before - and as I am not looking for another job right now, they all fell by the wayside. I thought about making two competitions - one for seasoned macro experts and one for the rest of us - but the only criteria, other than self-acknowledgment as an expert, that made any sense was having won the competition before. All winners become experts when they win - sounds reasonable until you think about what the competition will look like in a year and a half when we have 49 experts dong what we are doing today, and one miserable chap in the other competition where he eagerly awaits the results to confirm that his entry, the only one, did in fact win and that he was now an expert. You see my problem here.

Having everyone just pick the competition they want to enter would be exactly the same as playing golf with my brothers, all of whom show up with such outrageous handicaps that I just pay them their winnings before we tee off. Yes, I think we should at least try to discourage a system that almost begs one to tip the scales just a teeny bit.

So here I am back at the Fusion 360 drawing board with no idea what to do - so I will officially make it your problem by asking for proposed solutions on Tuesday and Thursday, and we will take it from there. But I will be changing things up a bit. Probably the thing that keeps me up at night more than any other is the fear of doing or not doing something that leads to losing someone from this community, but especially when that someone could have benefitted  more than most from staying. So I will give this a lot of thought and will bring some ideas tonight.

And the theme is a tough one. Your challenge is to produce an image that is abstract, but does not have to be a “macro-scale” image, but it must have a recognizable connection to the macro world. The less obvious that connection is, the more vital a well thought out image title will become. Clever compositing could be a very useful tool and is encouraged.

To sum it up in bullets - the winning image(s) will be pieces of original photography that are:

                        1) ABSTRACT

                        2) MAY OR MAY NOT BE A “MACRO PHOTOGRAPH”

                        3) MAY OR MAY NOT BE COMPOSITED

                        4) WILL PROBABLY HAVE  A SHORT, HELPFUL, OR WITTY TITLE

                        5) MUST MAKE A CONNECTION TO THE MACRO WORLD IN THE VIEWER

There is no wrong answer in this competition, but there will become answers that are “righter” than others. I admit that this is a real challenge, for every entrant, and I encourage you to ask for help from a more experienced photographer, if that would help. This is the most rewarding kind of challenge to take on, because when you get an idea and turn it into something - something that makes others think before making the connection and then smile in satisfaction on seeing the artist’s intent - you will have really accomplished something. Technical expertise is still important but it is going to take a backseat to the well thought out, cleverly executed story that the picture will tell.

Oh… and one last wrinkle for next month - if you have ever won one of our competitions - first place, that is, you are limited to a single entry in June’s competition. If you submit two pictures by accident, only the first will count. This is a heavy handed attempt to move towards a level playing field. Let’s see how it works out.

See you this evening!