Macro-Pictures

Digital cameras have made macro shots possible for everyone. Being at no cost, we can try, make mistakes, choose the photos that come out right among many wrong ones, and learn to do better.

All consumer video cameras and many photo cameras allow shots one or two centimeter from the subject. Also many recent smartphones are suitable the same way, and thanks to the number of megapixels, if we cannot get too close, we can easily cut the significant zone of a picture and have a final one big enough to enjoy it.

The best photos can be selected, cut and corrected with a photo editing software (better on a computer than on a mobile phone, to see them larger) and then, without spending much, they can also be printed, hung up in class, made into a real photographic exhibition.
Children and even adults like to see printed photos, and today we can do it with decent results even at home or in the classroom, with a cheap inkjet printer.
From an educational point of view, it is interesting to involve children in the work of choosing and preparing the photos well for printing: cut them, adjust color and light, eventually play with ready filters, but using a software in which we are in control and decide.

Given that insects shouldn't be frightened and sometimes they stay in difficult positions, it's better if the device we use can be held firmly in the hand (ergonomics), if it has an optical zoom that allows us to take good photos even from afar and a swiveling display, to keep it up or down, without having to bend over in an unnatural way.
But remember, keeping our hand steady while shooting is the most important thing, not to have blurry pictures.
For focus, which does not always work automatically well and it's not easy to control in LCD displays with small subjects, they are spreading and be very useful some assisted focus systems which in several cameras color the subject when it is framed well.

During our outings hunting for images of insects, we have discovered that shooting a video is easier than taking a photo: we don't see blurry frames when watching a video!
However, the hand must be very steady, the shots short, and the camera moves only to follow closely the small animals as they move. The zoom during filming, if we are not experts, must never be touched!
If we find an anthill and we want to film the ants for a while as they come and go, with the handheld camera it's bad for us, because we can't keep it still and that movement distracts us from observing the scene well.Then we have to use a small tripod. If there is little light, today it is very easy to illuminate the scene with a portable LED lamp.

Among our videos, we have an old one in which ants are shooted in different ways, with hand camera and with a tripod.
"Le case delle Formiche" (Ant homes).