The Magic of Macro: What Makes Macro Photography So Fascinating?

Macro photography, and indeed near-macro and close-up photography, hold a special fascination for many photographers. But macro is not an easy photography genre to master. It takes a lot of skill and patience to produce a good macro image. So what makes macro photography so fascinating?

I would like to suggest a few reasons that come to mind from my own experience and they may resonate with you.

I must admit, I am quite new to the exploration of the tiny world with my camera. Despite dabbling with magnifying filters or using a wide aperture to create a close-up image and blurry background, I resisted taking the plunge into 'real' macro photography. The two main reasons for my delay were the cost of macro lenses and the fear that I would not make enough use of these lenses to justify that cost. However, I eventually decided to take the plunge into macro and purchased two less expensive options - a 30mm Olympus macro lens and a Raynox dcr-250 macro attachment - to satisfy my growing fascination with this type of photography.

As I wandered through country lanes with my macro lens recently, I thought about why I find macro so fascinating and enjoyable as a photography genre.

Here are 5 reasons I came up with:

1. Exploring the tiny world is fascinating, even without capturing images. When we begin to look closely and observe the little things that we seldom notice, it opens our eyes to a whole new miniature world that exists all around us. Much of macro photography is done in nature, and in nature alone there is so much to find, but macro can also be practised anywhere that textures, shapes and colours exist. Most phone cameras will capture decent close-up images and this encourages us to observe more closely and capture what we see.
   

   

   Captured with Google Pixel 7 Pro

   
   

2. Macro subjects are always close at hand. Flowers, plants and insects are obvious macro subjects which are often enhanced by beautiful raindrop patterns. Textures are easy to find all around us while all kinds of everyday objects can produce interesting macro results.

   
   

   

   
   

3. Macro photography increases our powers of observation. How many of us notice all the little things that exist all around us? Do we stop to admire the tiny flowers that appear in summer? Do we spend time watching the bees as they travel from flower to flower doing their day's work? Do we notice raindrops as they balance on gateposts or glisten on leaves after a shower? Do we really observe the tiny changes that are taking place around us all the time? For most of us the answer is no, until we take a camera and close-up lens and really begin to observe.

   
   

4. Macro photography provides us with a challenge. It is not an easy genre

to master.

Focusing can be tricky and we very often end up with a blurry subject or

with a very small portion of the subject in focus.

Even the slightest hand movement or a barely noticeable breeze can spoil a

macro image.

Capturing a pleasing macro photograph is challenging but when we get it

right the results are so rewarding.

5. Macro photography is full of surprises!

More than with any other type of photography,

you just never know what you'll capture with a macro lens!

If you haven't already tried macro, why not give it a go?