The term ‘Photography’ came out of two Greek words – ‘Phos’ which means light and ‘Graphê’ which means drawing. So, photography means ‘drawing with the light’. And we owe our thanks to Sir John Herschel for coming up with this term. From 1790, when camera first came into existence, we and our technologies have travelled a long, long way. Photography helped us to immortalise our memories, our moments spend with loved ones; even photography has helped us to keep a tab on criminal too. Well, that’s a different segment altogether. Photography, worldwide, is seen as a form of art. Obviously, to draw with light one needs to have an eye for beauty.
Technology has played a big part in popularising photography even more. Up to the end of 90’s our photographs were confined in our albums; but the emergence of social sites and progress of communication technologies have given people the chance to show case their latent talent. Amateur or professional, everyone is freeing their artistic self to capture the moments which exists only for moments. One of the newest terms – it is hard to call it newest because technology is evolving every moment – in photography is ‘macro photography’.
There are very tiny little things whose beauty is almost impossible to see through our normal eyes. Macro photography has given us the chance to explore the world of ‘Lilliputians’. Macro photography allows us extreme close-up of a subject and the size of the subject becomes larger than the actual size. It is the enlarged reproduction of a tiny subject. Now this makes us think that why do we need macro photography. Let’s find out the answer.
Nature has lots of wonders to amaze us and the wonders come in different sizes. From a tiny insect to a sky-high mountain, nature never fails to astonish. Avid photographers will always find a reason to do macro photography. The reasons perhaps are:
1. Closer home we have many things that catch our fancy but are so small that we cannot relish the beauty of it. Macro photography can solve the issue.
2. One can make macro photography his/her niche. Using different angles, modes one can represent the subject with highly artistic way. So, this kind of photography gives one a chance to bring their artistic self out.
3. Macro photography can be done with a single lens. There is no need to buy multiple lenses for different subjects.
4. The use of reflectors and diffusers one can do this kind of photography in any kind of light. Nature photographers face quite a challenge while dealing with this light problem. Macro photography is able to fix this.
Not only nature, there are various other inanimate subjects that can be portrayed artistically using the macro photography technique. But to use this technique successfully one needs to understand how to represent the subject. If done properly, macro photography can do wonders. It clearly shows the pattern, the detailed colours, texture of the subject and takes to a different plane all together; we feel that it is something that we have never experienced! Adjusting the focus and depth of the area or field one can produce mesmerizing photography.
Fire photography is another wonderful example of macro photography. Fire photography can be explained in various different ways; but actually treating the flames of fire as a subject comes under fire photography. Capturing the flames of a tiny match stick or a moving fire can really evoke a great art. In fact, this trend of fire photography has given way to a new concept of fire sculpting. Here photography, editing technology and the creative art of sculpting amalgamates to create a new kind of photographic genre.
Smoke art photography is a new form of digital art where using smoke as the subject. Some photographers use the texture of the smoke to create something totally different; that means a coiling strip of smoke can be represented as an animal or a human being or any other object. On the other hand, the smoke is photographed only for the sense of purity it evokes. The unblemished strip of white smoke can be transformed into something ethereal by the creative mind of the photographer.
Photo and photography both are an integral part of our lives. It not only lets us go down our memory lanes but also opens up the creative doors in our minds. Great photographers like Alfried Stieglitz, Elliot Erwitt took to photography to express their inner most thoughts and to give us some masterpieces to amaze us. But today we have more advanced technologies to pursue our hobby and maybe one day our passion can change our lives.
