Living in the northern region (Michigan) of the US, I have a lot of amazing plant life to create art.  One thing I don't have in nature in my area are desert type plants.  So, I really love going the southwest to photograph the desert plants. 

My favorites are the many varieties of Agave plants. I search them out in the botanical gardens and have been able to get some great images. 

So many amazing lines in these plants.

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MACRO PHOTO CLUB - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer

When ever I teach a workshop, or speak at a photo conference, I always start my program off with the benefits of macro photography.

One of the five benefits is shooting close to home, and I have four parks within twenty minutes of my home, and most of my best images were shot at those four parks.

Holland Ponds was one of those parks where I have gotten many of my favorite images.

Back in 2004 when I started shooting at Holland Ponds, the ponds were easy to access, and I got so many great images of floating leaves, and frogs in those ponds.

Over the years the plant growth at the edges of all the ponds have made it impossible to see the ponds, let alone shoot anything there.  

Here is an image of a pathway where years ago, you would see ponds on both sides of the trail.  Now you can see how bad the bushes are, totally blocking access to the ponds.  

Here are a few of my favorite images from these ponds, If you've followed me over the years, you have seen these images.

Here's one that looks like a Monet painting.

There was also a path that I would find lots of teasel to shoot, and here is what the path looks like now, overgrown, and the bushes are crowding out the Teasels, so not many left to shoot.  

Here is my favorite of all my Teasel images from the past.

I did find a few Teasels left to shoot, so I did get this one image with the sun backlighting the edges of the Teasel and stem.  It will be my last image shot there.

I have many other images I've shot there, and always looked forward to going there to shoot.  Over the years I have watched the bushes at the edges of the ponds and trails slowly take over.  I have not been there for a few years due to this problem, but the other day I thought I would go check it out, and decided that it was my last trip I would make to Holland Ponds. So sad that I've lost such a great place to shoot.

Join my Macro Photo Club online. Over 280 instructional videos. Over 2900 members from 29 countries. 
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MACRO PHOTO CLUB - Mike Moats - Award Winning Macro Photographer

As I explore different areas of my local parks, I sometimes come across subjects that I have never seen before.  Many times, I find these subjects one year and come back the next year and they are not there.

Must have something to do with the environment of that particular year.

I found this decaying tree trunk that had some dewy fungi growing on it, and I found it very fascinating as I looked in closely. 

Looked like little trumpets growing out of the trunk.

The more we explore the more cool subjects we find.

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 cameras (Fuji X-T30MKll and Nikon D7500) have so many features.  They have menus that have tons of different options, and I couldn't tell you what most of them do.  Nor, do I care about all those functions. 

I just need to know how to point my camera into the proper composition of a subject, focus, set my f/stop for depth of field, and set my shutter speed for the proper exposure.  I also need to know about setting my ISO and white balance, as I shoot jpegs, that's it.  

So, that's all I really need to know, so I have never explored all the other options in my camera's menu.  

I'm not any better with my camera than anyone reading this post.  You are all as experienced as me at these simple functions.

What I excel at is not my camera tech skills, but my ability to find good subjects to shoot, compose them well, and to apply good post processing skills to each image.

To many photographers spend too much time on the camera skills, and less on knowing what is a good subject to photograph, understanding composition, and practicing post processing.

I've always said that once I find a great subject to shoot, the easy part is photographing it with the camera.

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

When I ask macro photographers what they are struggling with, the answer is always depth of field and not understanding the f/stops and how they affect the focus. You will hear photographers say that you have to focus stack in order to get more depth of field, but not true and in this program, you will learn the easy methods to getting all the depth of you want without focus stacking.

Attend online through Zoom.

November 22nd, 2025

12pm eastern standard time

$19.95

This program is not being recorded, and there are no refunds if you can't make it. 

To sign up, CLICK HERE