Fauna (Animals):
Wow! It is simply amazing the diversity of life that has evolved on the earth, so many different forms inhabiting every biosphere. From the darkest depths of the oceans, the ice capped Himalayas, the burning North African sands, life has found a way to not only survive but thrive, even where we think would be impossible.
I take such pleasure in photographing all types of animals, but have a particular joy in macro photography. Macro photography reveals everything from the fine detail of a butterfly's delicate wings, the plastic looking mouth of a damselfly, or a spider feeding on an unlucky insect. It is an exploration of a world full of true aliens, a world all around us, but one that we cannot see without the help of specialized equipment.
Macro photography brings us closer to this hidden world, a world full of beauty and surprises. Many times I have been utterly surprised by what has appeared as I viewed my shots. One such occurrence was of a photo I took of a banana slugs skin, I was trying to capture its texture. As I put the image up full screen on my 27" iMac my wife Shiloh pointed out a little mite on the back of the banana slug. It was wonderful just to get a little glimmer of the life of this little insect.
Many of my photographs are macro, taken with my faithful D300 (I love my D300) usually with the Nikkor 55mm 2.8 manual focus macro lens (love that lens) and then often with a series of extender tubes.
All of my shots are handheld (it's near impossible to shoot live wild subjects with a tripod), and I will often, very happily, get down in the mud to get the shot. There is also something very satisfying about handheld macro photography as it takes lots of patience, lots and lots of photos, and often the results are not clear until I load the photos up on my iMac and have the experience of seeing the secrets of the image revealed before me.
I hope you enjoy viewing my photos as much as I have enjoyed taking them.
Arnie :-)
