Hello and welcome to Out of the Dark Room on
Adorama TV I'm Ruth Medjber and joining
me on the show today we have Macro
Photographer Chris Connolly. Chris thank
you so much for joining me today and
you're going to talk to us all about
your Macro Photography.
Maybe if you could give most of insight
into how he got started into it. When I
was young my father had a camera you
never really used it I don't want to
bother but it was a common knowledge
that extra understand camera that's
probably about 40 years or 25 years ago
from behind where we lived we had a wood
so on my days off I used
walk around the wood and I’d see
mushrooms and fungi and likens
and I'd start to photograph them and I’d
put them all together and it's like if
you are at an expedition and 1 photograph
can set the other one off, you know when
you put them all side-by-side and
likewise when you put all these
mushrooms and likens and you see there is
different shapes and the different
colours, you realise then the amount of
diversity and live we’ll say on the forest
floor. So that's what got me
into Macro Photography and around the
same stage then I got interested in music.
So you know when you're born with a
creative gene you have this need to
create and make magic and all this, so
the music then was a hobby and that was
kind o fulfilled my
creative need and that went on for about
40 years we will say.
Brilliant. And I'm back in 2010 I lost my
job, you know with the recession and that.
A lot of people did. Yeah and I would
have been in my early 50’s, so I kind of realized
it's gonna be pretty hard to get
a similar job.
Yeah. So I decided to use the opportunity
to go back to college. So we will say I
was off life's hamster wheel for a while and
I looked upon this as an
opportunity rather than and
something to be depressed about.
So I went to
study photography and I only
intended doing one year but when I was in
college you're in a room full of, you
know we are a group of say 30
people, and they are 30 like-minded people.
You have people from Russia’s, you have people
from Poland, you have young people you have
old people, it didn't really matter. To be
in a room full of creative people and
people who will be thinking or their thinking
would be like-minded we will say.
It was fantastic.
So then I decided to go back and do the second
year. What was it about
macro photography in particular that you
loved? Again in around 2010 I'd normally
take a week's holiday’s in and around
spring time just to get the garden in
order and all that. In the garden
we have a pond and in springtime then
there is lot’s of frogs.
During the mating amazing season when you walk
up and the frogs would be in the pond
they would generally scatter, so you would have to
literally crawl on your
belly and disguise the shape of your
head against the sky.
Insects when your trying to
sneak up on an insect or any animal
you have to go on a straight-line they don't
really notice that movement,
but they do notice this. Really? Yeah so
and this camera that I had at the
time it was a Fuji 600 and there
was a little screen on the back.
You could lift it up and do
all this. So I literally had to put
my hand into the water and have the
screen so that I could see it and stay
there for a while over until the frogs
just didn't notice me and that's when I
started getting into micro, you know
when you realize that you can get into
their world without being intrusive or
obstructive. So it’s patience really
then it's like out smarting insects and
frogs and things like that. Its kind of
as you know yourself, knowing your
subject.
Yeah so that got me interested in it and
then because we have a pretty extensive
garden I would start to notice all the other
insects. You know nursery web spiders and
stink bugs, shield bugs, ladybirds. All sorts of stuff
and that kind of, you kind of
realised well I have all this wild life here in this
small area. So then you go out and
think to yourself right, the woods would
probably be like the jungle. You could go out
there and god knows what you will find. So it
wasn’t just the whole
process of microphotography that
appealed to me it was the
subjects themselves are interesting.
So you started in your garden essentially
and in the woods, is that where you do
most of your work these days or do you have
to travel abroad to see different types
of insects? Well last year I was the national
winner with a Sony World Photography
and because of that, that has kind of
opened up communications with people I would
not normally have known. Like biologists
entomologist, which I think is
fantastic and entomologists and
biologists know all of these areas in
Ireland. Areas of special conservation or
preservation which I wouldn't have known.
I’m lucky enough, I mean there is one
area of special conservation
that's only about two or three miles from
where I live and it is just
inundated with dragonflies and green
tiger beetles. Like whatever about the
dragon flies, most people know about the
dragon flies but most people wouldn't
know about the green Tiger Beatle. I
wouldn't know. It’s a little small
creature but this size, it’s luminous green.
We tend to think of you know
exotic insects as being from Malaysia or
Indonesia or South America or in
around the Amazon area. We have some
really exotic insects here. Like this
green tiger beetle Peter it is probably the
fastest insect on earth.
Wow. How do you photograph something so fast?
I know you speak up on
them and you stay like super straight in their eye-line.
That’s not always the case that was just regarding the frog.
This is what amazes, I’m like they look like
they just sitting there waiting for you to
take their picture which obviously their not. They are
running around the place. really have to go to the
vehicle and it's flying around. I'd be
armed with knowledge from doing the
researcher as to what their habitat will be
like and what kind of terrain they live in
and I’d go along and I’d say yeah I’m in
the right spot here now because I can see
their larvae have a little hole in the ground
and they come up and grab whatever
but anyway I know I’d be in the
right spot because I’d see all these little
holes and I’d wait, and I'd wait, and I’d wait and see
nothing.
Then I go back and say I’m doing something
wrong here and I’d go back and do little bit more
research and you won't see them if the
temperature is not, the temperature has
the above 20 degrees
because they are so fast they need the heat. They
get their energy from the heat. A bit like
amphibians when the lizards comes
out in the morning and he sits up on the rock and
he gets, charged up, and off he goes.
So these are similar to that,
so I'd go out another day then when the
temperature would be right and I’d be on the
ground waiting for them. Not a hop.
So in that case what you have
to do is you have to catch one
and bring it home. Do you? Ok cool.
I wanted to know this, if you did that
thats cool.
Yeah and you know you get a sod of turn or
something that would be similar to their
own natural environment and you set it
up and you set up your flashes and your
lights and all that and that is how you
get the shot and now having said that
again you can put them down there and he
would be gone.
Oh he’d be in your house. He would but there is only one
room like this room here so it's
not a big job to go and catch him and put
him back again. Noe not into it but that is
fascinating that you catch them and you bring them home
and give you more time and a little bit
more control over things. Yeah
I mean good photographs
they're made. Seldom are they taken by
accident.
You have to think about it, you have
to do your research and think about it
and work it that way. To you what makes a
good macro photograph? I suppose
different aspects of macro appeal to
different people.
Some people like Levon Biss
gets in really, really, really deep.
I like when I’m
photographing a macro subject for all the
backgrounds to be different and for all the
backgrounds to be colorful.
So you know if you're having an
exhibition, when all these
photographs are on the wall, straight
away you're drawn in by just even the
colours without actually delving into
the photographs. So that's what I like I
do like plenty of color and I also like to
photograph insects from their eye level
because most of the time we see insects the are on
the ground
and we're well up above them. It’s
like you know when you're doing
photographing for a muscle car you'll
always get down low because it gives
the car more power and
strength. So I like to think that if you
get down at the same level as the
insect and at eye level, that it kind of
you know kind of earns a bit more
respect. Gets a bit more respect from the
viewers we’ll say. Obviously you
have a love for these insects, ah I do you yeah.
Do you find that people are a little
bit kind of grossed out by insects or the majority of
them aren’t? Yeah they are and especially
spiders.
Yeah so I mean if you have you know you
have all your photographs on the wall
and you know there's dragonflies
and beetles and then there is a section about
spiders and all come along and read all
about them and then they get to the
spiders and skip them.
I like to try and photograph them in a
friendly way because when
you're young and if have the respect for
nature, it stays with you. So the
exhibition last year there were children
there and were interested, and they were
where did you find this and how did you
get that. They were actually
interested in the insects and I'd like
to think that if they get respectful for them, as
I said you know that will continue
on through their lifetime.
So you want to start them at a young age
give them kind of the encouragement to
go and respect nature. It's a whole other
the world.
I need to find out more about it, I do.
But it’s educational, it’s very
educational, of course. So will you
stay with me and in part 2 we're
going to chat more about the gear that
you use. I will. Thanks.
Well that's all we have time for this
episode join me again because I'll be
chatting to Chris about his production
techniques. If you'd like to brush up on
your own photography skills check out
the Adorama Learning Center and if you'd
like to watch more videos subscribe to
the Youtube channel. Thanks and see you
again.