Picking up a DSLR camera in 2012 enabled me to look closer at the world around me. Macro photography is fascinating. It brings into focus so many details that remain unnoticed by most people, including myself.

The example I am choosing today is Beard-Heath. From standing height, it’s a small shrubby plant approximately 30 cm high covered by tiny white flowers. It’s pretty, but not stunning. There doesn’t appear to be anything that distinguishes the flowers from many other small white flowers. Only when I load the photographs I took with the macro lens do I see why it is called Beard-Heath. The petals are fluffy. They are covered with white ‘hairs’.

Zoom in and Look Closer

The revelation of detail when I zoom in or look closer at a subject is like opening the door to a new world. It fascinates me, both in photography and in art. Some people crop images to frame the subject better. I tend to crop things to examine a texture or a blending of colours. By excluding extraneous forms and details, the cropped section takes on new life. Sometimes they really sing. I’ve created completely new images from tiny sections of a large painting. This is something digital art enables me to do. An example of this is ‘Ocean Blue’ a design that originated from a tiny section of the painting ‘Coastal Break’.

The collage below shows some of my favourite cropped details from my paintings.