‘Once I started zooming in, I never stopped’: the mesmerising art of macro photography

Converts describe a demanding form of capturing nature very close up that has grown in popularity in last few years Vote here for your favourite invertebrate of the year “I always just pray ‘please don’t fly away’,” says Dara Ojo. As a wildlife photographer, he can handle spending minutes, hours and sometimes days waiting for the shot, but insects are not always very cooperative. Ojo is one of an increasing number of photographers turning their lenses towards something smaller: macro photography. This refers to photographing the natural world at an extremely close range, close enough to see the facets of a fly’s eye, or the geometry of a spider’s face. This discipline has quietly evolved in popularity over the past few years, driven by a wave of macro influencers, more affordable lenses and the coronavirus pandemic, which left a lot of photographers with nowhere to go but their own back gardens. It is a demanding form. Photographers rely on “focus stacking”, a technique that combines multiple images taken at slightly different focus distances to create one final frame. That is difficult enough with a still subject. However, insects, by nature, are not often static