If you attend a workshop, zoom meeting, camera club program, photo conference presentation by a professional photographer whether it be a landscape photographer, wildlife photographer, macro photographer like me or any other kind of photographer, you would probably expect to hear that they use expensive professional camera bodies and lenses, full blown photoshop for processing their images, top of the line tripod and head, and shoot raw mode. 

Now if you attended any of my workshops, presentation though a zoom program, camera club program, speaking at a photo conference, you would have heard the opposite of what you would have expected from a person making a living for 21 years as a professional photographer. 

I've never owned an expensive pro camera body, my current Fuji mirrorless camera body sells for $899, and I recently saw the Nikon DSLR I own for sale for $875, and that included a lens. 

For the last five years I have processed my images with Smart Photo Editor, which as a standalone program sells for only $29, and not Photoshop/Lightroom like all pro use.

My Vanguard tripod sells for $229, which is much less than the Gitzo and Really Right Stuff tripods that many pros use.

Pro Photographers will tell you always shoot in RAW mode, never jpeg, but you'll be surprised to hear all my images are jpegs, I've never shot in the RAW mode.

I prefer Tamron lenses rather than the Nikon or Fuji Lenses for my Nikon and Fuji camera bodies.

So, I'm opposite of all pro photographers and it's been working great for my 21 years in business.

Booking camera club zoom meetings, need a speaker, let me know, macrogeekmike@yahoo.com

Join my Macro Photo Club online. Over 280 instructional videos. Over 2800 members from 29 countries. 
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MACRO PHOTO CLUB - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer

Also Check out my workshops and zoom programs.

WORKSHOPS - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer

A few years ago I saw an image of a large millipede posted on facebook, and I thought it was such an awesome subject, but figured I would never get a chance to shoot one as I had never even seen one live before.  I was in Louisville, KY, teaching my Macro Boot Camp, and I had Mike Matthews and his frogs and reptiles coming in for a few hours for my workshop participants to photograph. I got a chance before the workshop to go to Mike's home photo studio to do some shooting of the critters.  Mike told me he just caught a large millipede on his driveway the day before, and brought it out to show me.  I was really excited because I told him about the image I had seen of a millipede and that I always wanted to photograph one, but never ever expected to have an opportunity to photograph one, and here it is.  Mike brought it out and it went into a perfect curl, just like the one in the image I saw years ago.  Just lucky timing to get a chance to shoot this cool subject.

I've heard it said, "you should learn the rules, then break the rules."  

Well, if you plan to break the rules, why bother even learning the rules, just make up your own rules.

I tend to follow most of the rules, as they have been working for hundreds of years, why mess with something that works.

Just my humble opinion.

Join my Macro Photo Club online. Over 280 instructional videos. Over 2900 members from 29 countries. 
Info and to sign up. 

MACRO PHOTO CLUB - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer

It's the end of August and only about another month for shooting spider webs before the weather here in Michigan starts to get some frost and kill off all the critters. 

Here is a collection of past spiderweb shots.  

Join my Macro Photo Club online. Over 290 instructional videos. Over 2900 members from 29 countries. 
Info and to sign up. 

MACRO PHOTO CLUB - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer

To many photographers think that if they buy a better camera they will make better images.  They spend most of their time on tech sites where they give you the updates on the latest greatest equipment offered.

If I post here on this blog about some new Tamron lens or some equipment important to what we do as macro photographers, I get tons of hits on those posts.  If I post something about composition, or subject matter, I get far fewer hits on those posts. People have it backwards.

My most successful image I ever shot was of a green fern on a black burned tree trunk (below) and that image won more awards, published in photo mags more times than any other of my images, the full rights to the image was bought by Hewlett Packard for all advertising, and made more money than any image I ever produced, and it was shot in 2004, with a Fuji S2, 6 megapixel camera with an old macro lens from my film camera.  That system was many generations ago in the digital world and it produced my most successful image.

That image did well because it was a great subject and composed well.  It had nothing to do with the camera.  Because if it was about the equipment, then I should be producing more successful images with my more advanced system I use today.

My last three camera bodies (Nikon D7000, Nikon D7500, Fuji X-T30 mirrorless) sold for under $1,000, so you don't need and expensive camera body to produce beautiful macro images. Only reason I upgraded from my Nikon D7000 of 8 years, to the Nikon D7500 was because I wanted a articulating LCD, and not because my D7000 wasn't producing great images. If you can afford more expensive camera bodies, there is nothing wrong with that, but it's not required to make great macro images.  

Once you've acquired a good camera body and macro lens, stop wasting time on the tech sites, and spend your time learning about what makes an image successful. 

Having the tools to produce quality images, but not knowing the difference between good and bad subject matter, and how to compose a subject properly, is going to keep you producing poor images.

If you are one of those photographers that spends all your time on tech sites, change your direction.

JOIN MY MACRO PHOTO CLUB MACRO PHOTO CLUB - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer