Join us in this amazing island experience with a family of likeminded flower photographers. 

This will be my seventh-year teaching at the Madeline Island School of Arts Campus.

Also teaching this year will be, Jackie Kramer, Kathleen Clemons, and Adrea Gulickx.

Madeline Island, nestled in the sparkling embrace of Lake Superior, captivates with its natural beauty and tranquil allure. Lush forests and meadows, painted with vibrant hues in summer, create a picturesque landscape perfect for photographers and nature lovers.

The island's artistic spirit thrives within its small communities, where galleries, local crafts, and a rich cultural heritage add depth to its charm.

On Sunday attendees will take a fun ferry ride from Bayfield to Madeline Island School of Arts sprawling campus.

On Sunday evening we will have a meet and greet with the four instructors in the dining hall.

A bonus of attending this workshop is an evening boat ride to the sea caves on Devils Island. 

After our Sunday evening welcome dinner everyone will retire for a good night's sleep in the campus cabins.

Monday morning everyone will meet up for breakfast in the dining hall and find out who will be their instructor and shooting location for the first morning.

Each day you will work with a different instructor in a new location.

The islands Lupine flowers is a big attraction, plus shoot in private gardens on the island or take a ferry ride back to the mainland to shoot some Bayfield gardens. 

After the morning shoot you will be back in the dining hall for lunch, and after lunch you will attend a lecture with your instructor of that day in one of the meeting rooms. 

After your instructor meeting you will have some time to relax before heading back to the dining hall for dinner.

After dinner you will have free time to go out and shoot, hang out with the instructors, or go to the island's galleries, bars, shops. 

After breakfast on Friday morning, you will head to the milkhouse barn meeting space for image critique from one of the instructors. 

Bring a laptop to load your images for the critique.

The workshop will come to an end at noon on Friday.  In the afternoon you will prepare to leave the island or stay an extra night and leave on Saturday.

Floral Photography on Madeline Island

June 15th–19th, 2025

For information about the workshop and to sign up click the link below.

CLICK HERE

I recently had an opportunity to shoot some amazing Dahila's but had no camera gear with me.

I had my Samsung cell phone so I knew I would be able to get some basic images that would give me a good starting point to work with in my Smart Photo Editor program.

None of my images whether it's with my phone or my camera gear come out of those systems with images I'm happy with but I don't worry about it because I have skills in the post processing tools to really bring the images to an artistic look.

Taking a photo no matter what equipment you use will produce a good image, but the magic really happens in the post processing. 

So, get good at post processing.

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

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

Out riding my bike yesterday at a local park and saw that the milkweed pods were bursting open, so went out this morning at daybreak to get some new images.

Perfect conditions with cloudy skies and no wind.

Here is the field I was in.

I was very happy to get lots of great images but here are my three favorites. Plus, one of a knapweed flower with a trapped milkweed seed.

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

My Shutterbug article.

Tales of the Tiny: 8 Tips for Macro/Closeup Photos with Dedicated Macro & Telephoto Zoom Lenses.

CLICK HERE

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