Jessops workshop with Exotic Animals Macro Photography

I’ve always been interested in Macro photography, sometimes the chase and attention to detail really becomes involving. Most the time the results really show the detail of the animal, insect or whatever object you choose

I decided the only way to get access to the type of creatures I wanted, was to join a Jessops workshop. So I travelled to Birmingham the last weekend in February. There was a small group of people, with a vast variety of cameras and experience. The subjects were supplied by a couple who deal with film sets and have a great background in finding and managing all manor of creatures from around the world

The following represents my favourite shots of the day, using my Canon 7D II with the 100mm Macro lens for the majority of shots. I’m now using On1 Photo Raw 2018 software to manage and tidy my images. I tweak basic settings as needed from the RAW files. The resulting images are then exported as JPG and processed using PhotoBulk, which is great for watermarking and re-sizing, then the files are upload to the website

Jumping Spider – on the day loved the attention, caused a panic when one of the ladies thought it had jumped onto her. It took some time before the spider settled enough to get a clean few shots. Hopefully the resulting shot is worth it.

Orchid Mantis – so small and delicate, when on the flower, you would walk by without noticing it, it blended in that well. With an almost pure white body, capturing a well exposed shot took a few attempts, by adding a little additional lighting helped

The following selection includes Stick insects, Praying Mantis, Dead Leaf Praying Mantis, Scorpion, Gecko, Millipedes and more. Click to view larger images, some of the best are last!

Key lesson learnt during the workshop, use plenty of light! A variable 64 LED light is more than sufficient to allow the camera to work at a lower ISO and Shutter speed, while given hand held steady shots.

The challenge is on, lets see what you can find and what level of detail you can capture!

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