![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stacy.awegallery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Aug-wk-1-Pepper-web.jpg\" "\\"Aug")
<\/a>Subjects smack in the middle of your image like the bull\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eye of the dart board are supposed to be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no-no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for good composition.\u00c2\u00a0 But sometimes I just love it that way. Know the rules and then break them, especially if it tells a good story or portrays memorable Americana items.<\/p>\nIn the ordinary is the extra-ordinary\u00c2\u00a0 -\u00c2\u00a0 if we only take the time to look.<\/p>\n
Sometimes we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see the small things right in front of us.\u00c2\u00a0 Bugs and buds can easily be overlooked. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I love working with close-up photography.\u00c2\u00a0 Photographing outside close-up is challenging because the slightest breeze will move your subject right out of your field of focus.\u00c2\u00a0 Since the closer you get the shallower your depth-of-field becomes, so you often need a small (f\/16 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c f\/32) aperture to retain enough depth-of-field to cover the important parts of your subject.<\/p>\n The praying mantis is named for its prominent front legs, which are bent and held together at an angle that resembles a prayer position.\u00c2\u00a0 Typically green or brown they are well camouflaged on the plants among which they live.\u00c2\u00a0 With two large compound eyes and three other simple eyes located between them the Mantids can turn their heads 180 degrees to scan their surroundings.<\/p>\n Now that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a trick I would love to be able to do.\u00c2\u00a0 In the mean time I will simply slow down and smell the roses and be bitten by the insects and bugs around them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Old familiar things are often transformed when placed next to their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153upgraded\u00e2\u20ac\u009d versions.\u00c2\u00a0 This was the case with an old cafeteria-styled glass pepper shaker when I saw it shelved with wooden pepper mills at a neighborhood cafe. Subjects smack in … Continue reading <\/a>Paying attention to details can lead to some spectacular compositions.\u00c2\u00a0 But little unexpected finds can also be rewarding.\u00c2\u00a0 As a child I \u00e2\u20ac\u0153caught\u00e2\u20ac\u009d many walking sticks, grasshoppers\u00c2\u00a0 and praying mantis in the summer and kept them in a jar until my mother yelled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153let them go \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 would you like to live in a jar?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Only now do I more fully understand the underlying wisdom of what it means to be connected to all living things, even the insects (including the ones that bite).<\/p>\n<\/a>Maybe close up shots remind me of looking into the jars of yester-years remembering those eye to eye experiences with my bug friends. Insects that are doing something, even as simple as an act of feeding, produce engaging images.\u00c2\u00a0 For me the eyes are the most important part of such images and if parts of the bug go out of focus that is fine with me.\u00c2\u00a0 I also prefer this if it means a nice soft background.\u00c2\u00a0 What kind of insect am I?<\/p>\n