Mark Johnston Photography

12 Jan 2009: small is . . . incredible

I had been doing photography seriously for several years before I really started to develop an interest in capturing images of small things. Not small things the way a Physicist like my Dad would think about them - quarks and charms and other sub-atomic things, or even how my coworkers in my previous career in the analytical instruments business would think about them - atoms and molecules.

I am talking about things that you can see with the naked eye, yet are so small that you can't see them well enough to really appreciate their complexity and beauty. Or, to put it another way - looking at a flower, you might be impressed by its color and shape, but if you could zoom in a little further, you would discover levels of structural complexity and grace, and details of form and color that you simply cannot observe or appreciate with your unassisted human vision.

You can get in a bit closer with some even relatively unspecialized cameras and lenses. But if you want to really get down to what photographers would call "macro" - where the image size on the film or the camera sensor is the same size or bigger than the actual object you are photographing - then you need some weird and cumbersome gear, lots of good light, and a bunch of patience.

But the results can be rewarding. It is really fun to go out and shoot this kind of stuff, and then back at home, pull up the images on a nice big monitor. And just stare at the amazing creations with which we share this planet.