Learning Photography, Digital Macro

I recently joined a couple of websites that feature photos of the members among other things. These websites also feature videos, links, documents, and blogs. The most interesting part of these websites are the photos, at least they are the most interesting for me. I have owned a camera of one sort or another pretty much throughout my adult life. But I am not fanatical about carrying my camera everywhere I go and taking pictures of everything I see. Until now. On these websites I have been looking at a ton of photographs. And they are positively awe inspiring. I have never seen pictures like what I have been seeing the past couple of months. Wonderful landscapes of places I have never been, still life shots of things in everyday life such as a bowl of apples or a pine tree covered in snow, outstanding pictures of barns, rivers, kids, lightening bolts in the sky, flowers galore,  birds of every imaginable size shape and color, species of birds I have never seen before. I feel like sometimes a whole new world has just opened up to me. But with all the wonderful images I have seen the last couple of months there is one type of photography that is the most wonderful of all. At least to me. Macro photography. Macro photography is an extreme close up of an object that is very small, making it look life size. With the advent of digital cameras, the ability to take macro pictures has become more doable for the  non professional photographer. This is exciting to me and I have started to take some macro shots and I am starting to understand the whole process a bit better. An understanding of macro photography is a good start to taking great shots, but a good camera with macro capabilities is a must.

There are many digital cameras on the market today. So which one do you choose? I would first ask how much do you have to spend. A 20 dollar digital camera probably won't take really great macro pictures.

I have heard many good things about the Panasonic Lumix series digital cameras. There are several in the series ranging in price from $350.00 to $250.00. My brother in law just got the cheapest of the Lumix cameras and I was stunned by the quality of the pictures. They were very brightly colored and sharp. He just got the camera and he hasn't tried the macro setting as of yet but assured me that he would send me some macro pictures when he had taken some worth seeing. As I said before I belong to a couple of sites where you can upload photographs and view other members photographs and have seen wonderful macro shots taken by the Lumix series cameras. Outstanding shots of insects so detailed and crystal clear you could see the hairs on the legs. Wonderful camera.

I have viewed hundreds of wonderful macro shots on the 2 websites I belong to and one picture in particular stands out. An absolutely amazing shot of snowflakes on the outside of a van parked in the snow. This macro shot in my opinion should win awards because of the subject matter and the outstanding quality of the picture itself. You can see individual perfectly formed snowflakes in great detail. Have you heard it said that no snowflake is alike. Well in this picture you can see that. I was awestruck. I sat at my computer with my mouth hanging open for a full 5 minutes or more just looking at the design of each individual snowflake. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This shot of the snowflakes was taken with a Canon Powershot A720is. The price of this camera is about $200.00 and is in about the middle of the price range for the Powershot cameras.

The Sony Cyber-Shot series digital camera is another outstanding camera of which there are a few different camera within the series. This is a very expensive camera which takes just outstanding pictures. The cameras within this series range from $450.00 to about $ 220.00.

So these are just a few of the cameras I am considering buying when I have enough money saved. I have to admit I am leaning towards the Canon Powershot Series cameras because of that snowflake shot.

So for now I will be researching cameras that take really great macro shots, because that is what I am interested in. The cameras that I mentioned also take great action shots, night shots, and a multitude of different kinds of shots. All this is important when you decide to buy a camera. Make sure that you research cameras on the internet to find the best possible camera for the money you have available to you. Getting the right price and the right camera is a plus for anyone wishing to make some money with their photography or just to have good quality photographs of the things that are important to you. Google is a wonderful tool to point you in the right direction when looking for a good camera. There are hundreds of websites selling cameras and camera equipment. So take your time when you are in the market for a new camera. That's what I'm planning to do.