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Sunday, May 05, 2024
By Mike Moats Photography

Lately I've been having fun shooting group of flowers rather than single flowers.  This one is not a group of a flower but a group of flower and buds, plus I like that shooting the backside of the flower is a different perspective.

Fuji X-T30 MKll Tamron 18-300, f/5.6 @ 1/100sec, ISO2000

Creative post processing done in Smart Photo Editor.

The original out of the camera.

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Saturday, May 04, 2024
By Mike Moats Photography

My wife and I went to a local nursery to buy some new plants for our flower beds and came across this flower that I have never seen before.  

I was like, wow, look at this cool flower, have to buy one to photograph. 

The sign behind the pots said it was a Kangaroo Paw Plant.

Shot with my Fuji X-T30 MKll and my Tamron 18-300 and also with my new Fuji 70-300. 

So far not happy with the depth of field at the f/22 on the Fuji lens but will do more tests soon.

I will shoot it again as more of the buds open.

 

Join my Macro Photo Club online. Over 280 instructional videos. Over 2800 members from 28 countries. Lifetime membership only $99.
Info and to sign up. 

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Also Check out my workshops and zoom programs.

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Friday, May 03, 2024
By Mike Moats Photography

When I was in the art show biz for seven years, I sold thousands of my images. I averaged 25 shows a year, and the smallest attended show would draw 25,000 and the largest crowds were at the Ann Arbor Art Fair that drew 500,000 attendees.

In the first year I hung some framed images of my soft-focus flower images alongside of the everything in focus images. 

On a few occasions I overheard different customers talking about the out of focus images and didn't understand them and thought I must not know what I'm doing because these few images were not sharp throughout.

After that first year all the soft-focus images were removed from the booth and replaced with everything in focus images.

No one was buying the soft-focus images, only the everything in focus images.  This is partly why you see my style of shooting tend to be all in focus shot at f/32. 

My thought is that most people photograph subjects with their phone's camera, or point and shoot cameras, and what those cameras do best is get everything in focus.

So, they figure when they make photos, they are all in focus, so how come this photographer in an art show can't get his images all in focus with better equipment.

It's like you're shooting at f/32 with those systems.

I photographed my tripod set-up shooting flowers on the side of my house, and instead of using one of my cameras to take the picture, I just used my cell phone. 

Just like shooting my cameras at f/32 the cell phone captured everything in focus from front all the way to the arborvitaes which were about 30 yards in the background.

So, my cell phone camera is like shooting my cameras at f/32. 

 

Here is the flower I was shooting.

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Wednesday, May 01, 2024
By Mike Moats Photography

I’ve been experimenting with silk flowers purchased from a local crafts store and I have to admit that they look very real. The one problem with photography them is that the fine texture in the silk fabric can be seen in the photos. It is not as noticeable to the naked eye, but the camera and lens sees all. I think these will work out great by adding some artistic filters which will help hide the textures of the silk fabric. The Topaz Impression program or the Glow program Topaz recently released will work great for processing these silk flowers.

I just set them up on my stairway where I have great natural lighting from a large window on the second story of my foyer and using one of my background prints. Holding the subjects with a Wimberley Plamp.

IMG_0963600

So far, I’ve worked with a rose, sunflower, and the two calla lilies you see here.

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Here are my three favorites from my first shoot with the silk flowers. I’ll post some different flowers in future.

_DSC6591 600

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Impressions -Charcol and Pastel - Pastel III 600

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_DSC6597_impression_600

Join my Macro Photo Club online. Over 2,800 members worldwide. 280 instructional videos. Lifetime membership only $99. Info and to sign up. MACRO PHOTO CLUB - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer (tinylandscapes.com)

Join my International Macro Photo Club online and learn through over 280 instructional videos, including many on post processing.  Over 2,800 members from 29 countries.

MACRO PHOTO CLUB - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer (tinylandscapes.com)

 
Wednesday, May 01, 2024
By Mike Moats Photography

May - Macro Photo Club News

May monthly theme - April showers bring May flowers so share your spring woodland wildflower images.

Macro Photo Club members, post your images in the Mike Moats Macro Photo Club Facebook group.

The winner of the April product giveaway for the Litra Light Torch is Andrea Oppenheim.  Andrea, email me at, macrogeekmike@yahoo.com 

The May product giveaway is a Wimbery Plamp. 

For those who are lifetime members, when you signed up you were sent a welcome email.  That email has the links to access the instructional videos so make sure to save that email. If you lost the welcome email contact me and I'll send you a new one. macrogeekmike@yahoo.com

Join the Macro Photo Club at, MACRO PHOTO CLUB - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer (tinylandscapes.com)