When it comes to getting those marvelously miniature nature details outdoors it often means getting down into the dirt. However, as you get older it's not as easy to get down low and even tougher to get back up. If you are looking to get that wonderful worm's-eye view, it means getting down on you belly. Or does it? We recently did a close-up and macro meet up at the beautiful Southford Falls State Park. The objective of the meet up was to find a location and scout out a variety of subjects to shoot up close and personal. Not only was it an exercise in shooting small, it was also to train in how to view a scene from a different perspective. One very low perspective. By looking into the macro world, it also forces you to look for subjects that would otherwise get lost or overlooked by the larger world around you. We are so used to looking at trees, buildings, people and other larger scaled subjects on a daily basis that we forget to look down. And down is where you need ...

Close-up and macro photography is fascinating because of the incredible discoveries we are able to find in our otherwise mundane surroundings. By moving in closer and closer to our subject, we get a uniquely different perspective on our world. It also allows us to find new ways of framing and composing our images since now we have to work within a tighter, more controlled working area. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, “close-up” and “macro” are not synonymous. Even though many camera manufacturers mark or call their built-in close-up feature ‘macro’ it rarely is a true macro function. The terms relate to the ratio between the subject’s actual size to the sensor size.