John Hallmen

John Hallmen’s photography has a refined and sophisticated quality reminiscent of the best of Swedish design. No surprise to find that he is an incredibly gifted Swedish photographer specializing in natural light and studio work. His images are always beautifully composed and lit usually with informative background information of the species, habitat and the technical considerations regarding camera settings, lenses and diffusion.

In 2014, John published a children’s book “Minimonster I naruren“. He made this in collaboration with his wife, son, and Swedish biologist Lars-Åke Janzon. The Swedish title simply means ‘BUGS’ and an English translation should hopefully be available soon. On the theme of childhood and bugs, John has some wonderful images of his son holding a dragonfly that beautifully conjures up the child’s feelings of awe and wonder for the natural world. John certainly brings a unique, artistic and imaginative approach to macro.

Brian Valentine (aka Lord V)

A major pioneer in the field of macro photography, Brian has had a big influence on many macro enthusiasts. He has a huge and loyal following on Flickr and on the Canon Digital Photography Forum is never too busy not to respond to posts and give helpful advice. Now retired, he specializes on taking virtually only macro shots, nearly all of them from his garden. Indeed, his garden must be a heaven for insects and it never ceases to amaze me how he manages to attract such a rich variety of insects.

Brian has been published in a number of magazines, has written many useful articles and tutorials, ranging from his use of a bean-pole – to flash diffusion – to cross-eye stereograms. His homemade pop can diffuser is particularly popular for those not able to afford an expensive ring flash.

John Kimbler (aka Dalantech)

John Kimbler is a master of the left hand brace technique and his book, ‘Extreme Macro: The Art of Patience’ gives a detailed exposition of this technique. In summary, John will slowly take hold of a flower (or whatever the insect is resting on) by pinching the stem between his left index finger and thumb. He’ll then brace the lens on that same hand and focus the scene by sliding the lens. Since the flower and the lens are on the same support (his left hand) when one of them moves they both move, so it’s easy to keep everything perfectly still, giving more precise control.

His favourite subjects tend to be highly magnified and detailed portraits of bees, dragonflies and butterflies. Using flash and apertures of around f14 he is able to capture incredible detail. Indeed, looking at his close-ups of pollen-covered bees sucking nectar it’s hard to believe that the images are single captures and not focus stacked. His blog is full of helpful technical articles all wonderfully illustrated with incredibly detailed close-ups.

Thomas Shahan

Macro-photographer, illustrator and printmaker, Thomas Shahan is best known for his macro portraits of jumping spiders (Salticidae). They are all highly detailed and saturated close-up portraits with smooth backgrounds revealing no indication of the environment. His work has been featured in a variety of magazines and publications, including The National Geographic.  The equipment he uses is well within the reach of any photography enthusiast. He uses a Pentax K-x with either a vintage 28mm or 50mm prime reversed to the end of extension tubes, a manual flash unit and a home-made flash diffuser. In the rare chance that he has a highly cooperative subject, he may bust out his macro bellows for some really high magnification shots. His work proves that ingenuity, persistence, patience and artistic vision (he was trained as an artist) are far more important than expensive equipment when it comes to taking great macro photographs.

Matt Cole

Matt Cole is a wildlife and nature photographer based in Leicestershire, UK. He enjoys photographing all forms of wildlife but has a particular passion for macro photography, predominantly of insects, but also of fungi.

Matt’s work has been published in BBC Wildlife Magazine, Outdoor Photography magazine, The Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and numerous Wildlife Trust publications, amongst others. In recent years his work has been Highly Commended in the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition and the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition. Matt is also a contributor to the ‘Meet Your Neighbours’ nature photography project created by Niall Benvie and Clay Bolt.

Matt’s blog is full of interesting and helpful articles. I particularly like his use of wide-angle lenses like the Tokina 35mm macro, Tokina 17-10mm fish eye and Laowa 15mm macro.

Paul Harcourt Davies

Paul Harcourt Davies is an outdoor photographer, author and passionate naturalist who has long been dubbed the ‘macromaestro’ both for the painstaking and the artistic qualities of his close-up and macro work and for the way he seeks to demystify techniques and make them accessible to all.

Originally from the mining valleys of South Wales, Paul gained an MA in natural sciences (physics) at Oxford University, then an MSc in Biomathematics in London, undertook PhD research before realizing he was on the wrong path. The call of Nature was too strong to ignore and so he cast caution to the winds and became a full-time freelance writer and photographer in 1986.

Paul has authored many books but it’s the first of a series of eBooks with Clay Bolt appearing in 2012 – ‘Wideangle Macro: The Essential Guide‘, that has been the biggest influence on my own attempts at environmental captures. At present, I look forward to reading his regular articles for ‘WildPlanet Photography Magazine‘.

Paul Bertner

Paul Bertner is a photographer, traveller and adventurer from British Columbia, Canada. He graduated from the University of British Columbia with honours from the Cell Biology and Genetics program. Being surrounded by nature has led him to expand his interests into rainforest ecology, tropical systematics and zoology. He finds macrophotography immensely satisfying and helpful for capturing the beauty of his surroundings.

Paul’s blog is full of helpful advice, particularly pertinent for any photographer interested in setting-off on a rainforest expedition. His travels are wonderfully narrated as he describes personal tales that take on epic-making proportions. His passion and commitment for travelling and photography really shines through, even after all the dreadful illnesses and incredible hardships he has had to endure. The sort of experiences that would detract and stop most (including myself) only seem to urge him onto embarking and exploring new adventures while always retaining his childlike enthusiasm and wonder for the natural world.

Gil Wizen

Gil Wizen is a naturalist with a great affection for small creatures. This naturally led him to study Biology and later to focus on Entomology (the study of insects) as his main field of research. In his website, Gill explains how since an early age he has always been fascinated by the natural world, and spent many days in the field, observing and collecting insects and small invertebrates. He started taking photographs of animals and plants when he was 14 years old, after he bought his first SLR camera – Olympus OM-2SP with a Tamron 90mm macro lens. Following 10 years of enjoying film photography, he then decided to move into digital photography and today uses mostly Canon gear.

Alex Wild

Alex Wild is a photographer and research scientist specializing in insects, especially ants, but also beetles, bees, wasps, and various other arthropods. His scientific background is in systematics, a broad field that includes the discovery, description, and classification of life and the inference of evolutionary relationships. Alex is currently Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he manages a research collection of around 2 million preserved insect specimens.

Anybody who is seriously interested in ants will love his blog, Myrmecos. The word Myrmecos derives from ancient Greek for “ant” and reflects his fascination with the earth’s most abundant social organisms. Myrmecos blog, online since 2007, is an exploration of these and other small animals.