Macro Major!
Welcome to the first ‘Little Buggers’ Blog.
Some youngsters have a fascination with the miniature world from a young age, and a keen eye and creativity to boot! Case in point Toby in Sydney has just completed his Year 6 major project that took three terms and many hours learning the craft of macro photography of insects and spiders.
Students choose their own ‘Enterprise Project’ theme from concept to delivery to the school. Toby’s idea was to have a photo exhibition of his best photographs.
Like most people, Toby started with a point and shoot camera, the Olympus TG6 with an additional light-ring accessory. After some time, Toby showed interest in his mum’s Canon DSLR with a Raynox diopter attached to a zoom lens allowing 1:1 macro images.
“The Olympus TG6 was a great camera to start on and the light reflector was a great way to get more light and it made a great reflection in the eyes of the jumping spiders and bugs. When I tried my mum’s Canon camera and I loved the crispness and there was a lot less grain in the images.”
Left: Toby with Olympus TG6 Right: Toby with Canon DSLR, Raynox Diopter and CygnusTech Diffuser.
As part of the project, students had to present their work to the school. Toby produced a photo exhibition of some of his best prints and was there to talk about the photographs and the animals. He was repeatedly asked about some of the species.
“I told my teachers and classmates about the Cosmophasis and the Mopsus mormon jumping spiders. They were all really impressed with my knowledge about them and they loved the photos.”
When asked what photo seemed to be the teachers and students favourite, Toby replied “The Servaea jumping spider with the cool light ring reflection in the eyes”.
“My favourite photo is the grasshopper between all the red leaves”.
“My favorite animals to photograph are jumping spiders, because they are so small, but with a macro closeup you can see what they actually look like and you can see all the details and the colours and when they look straight at the camera they look really cute and not really scary. They like to look at the camera, and jump onto the camera too”.
“The best thing about the experience was seeing and learning about all the animals. I learned about so many animals that I have never seen before, like the Peacock Jumping Spiders, which I didn’t even know existed before I started this journey. I am yet to find one, but I’m really excited to.”
“I just want to get out whenever I get the chance to take my camera and have a look for animals and maybe I’ll find one, you never know!”.
Toby is the first of our ‘Little Buggers’ and will from time to time do a blog entry.
Left: School favourite Servaea jumping spider. Right: Toby’s favourite image of Valanga irregularis grasshopper.
What a great exhibition Toby!! Your knowledge of the subject and the photography skills is very impressive.