Close Up with Insects – Dec 23

This month’s Challenge was themed “Close Up with Insects” and our members again went out and did their thing.

We invited Mark Braun to be our guest judge this month. Mark is an advanced Amateur photographer Mark served on the task force that led to the International Photography Hall of Fame moving to St. Louis. He currently Co Chairs the board of directors, the Collections Committee, and is also a member of the Hall of Fame Induction Committee.
More information about Mark and his work can be seen via his website.

Congratulations to all who took part and many thanks to Mark for taking his time over the festive season to select his favorite 3 images.

Our next Exhibition will be a Print Exhibition on the 29th January at the usual place but with a slight time change (20:00) as opposed the the normal 19:00. The theme kicking off 2024 Exhibitions is “Black and White“.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Selected Images

01 Apollo Butterfly and friends Heidi Beck
06 Fly On Daisy by Heidi Beck
12 Hendrick by Robert Pool

What Mark had to say…

Both depth of field and focus are right on in this image and combined with the contrasting blue background make the subjects jump off the page. With three different insects in the image the maker also does a nice job of showing the interaction of species while feeding. the only distraction in the image is the bright green at the bottom. While it can provide an anchor or orient the viewer, I’d either include more of it, crop it out or if possible use vignetting or desaturation to down play the brightness.

I’d normally want the subject off center but the high degree of detail captured offset by the blurred background works very well. Again, the maker directs and holds the viewer right on the subject. The green and yellow along the top of the image are a bit distracting and could be desatureated slightly but this isn’t a significant issue.

Because depth of field is such a great factor in macro photography of any kind, a full frontal image is very difficult to pull off. The fact that the eyes are in focus really makes this image. It’s a bit hard to tell if the whole face is in focus or a bit soft on the screen, but eitherway, the eyes make this image. Using the strong vignette pulls you into the subject and is well used in this case.

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