Amazing Small Worlds

Thanks Kristen for all those links. Diens Silver's shots are the only ones that are relatively SOOC. The rest are some pretty heavily manipulations.....not that it makes them any less beautiful. Those shots by Peiling Lee are right up my tree. I am fascinated by specular highlights in OOF areas. (what MANY people simply call bokeh) and she uses them like props to this imaginary little snail fairytale world. If i had more time I'd try one in her style....go pick up a few snails from the pet store and have fun with lighting, gels and wide aperture lenses.

One of the others (maybe Nadav Bagim) had a few that looked like they were trying to replicate her style. I really dig the ants of Andrey Pavolv. IS he just shooting tons of ant photos so he has them in every conceivable pose and then create original compositions around those poses? I'll need to come back and look at these with fresh eyes, but there's tons of cool stuff here. I feel insignifcant mos tof the time.....thanks for ratcheting it up a few steps!
 
I don't think they are manipulations as much as they are orchestrated. Peling watches the snails for hours after she creates her little sets, Andrey does the same with the ants, watches, waits, wrangles them so to speak. Much like the food photographer you shared, these people seemed to have a wonderful gift [and a lot of patience!] for setting up scenes and then waiting for their actors to step into place.
 
Thanks a lot for these links, I am starting in macro myself and my relief is that before gong into complex stuff one must first Master the basics, and in the basics lies true beauty, and it is not because there are millions of leaf and flower shots out there that one should not do them, there many creative ways to make them more personal ;)

When looking at the works of the masters, one should not feel overwhelmed by them, remember that they also started out with the basics. The learning curve is steep and every step, although simple ones, must remain joyful.
 
In no way I'm competing with those amazing small world snails, but the other day I encountered a snail and I am bringing here, this a natural scene and no harm was made to the snail ;) see how small this thing is... He was racing up real fast and couldn't do anything to get the camera on a tripod for more DOF...

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In no way I'm competing with those amazing small world snails, but the other day I encountered a snail and I am bringing here, this a natural scene and no harm was made to the snail ;) see how small this thing is... He was racing up real fast and couldn't do anything to get the camera on a tripod for more DOF...

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Maybe no physical harm, but did you obtain a model release?
 
ahhh ... I think Kristen's point is the slow pace of snails removes any randomness from their movements. Snail's are pretty deliberate.

G

Naah this one was fast, look at the wet trails on the leafs, he was running in circles... kidding of course, I was amazed at how fast he was going, on a snail scale obviously :rolleyes: Hope they are deliberate, I like to believe in the very intelligence of small creatures, not on a human scale of intelligence, something more intimate with the environment and the forces that lie within.
 
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