Photographing Miniature Worlds

In the latest episode of Nature in Focus, Ian Shive proves you don't need to travel to exotic destinations to take great photographs. He garners inspiration from his own backyard, experimenting with macrophotography to explore the miniature worlds around him.

Take a look at Ian's favorite photos from the episode, and learn how you can make the most of the miniature worlds around you.

April 04, 2022

By: Ian Shive

Show: Nature in Focus

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Photo By: Ian Shive / Tandem

Grand landscapes are always wonderful, but they are only the stage for a greater story. You don't need to go far to find beautiful images, you just need to be willing to crawl around and look at the world below our feet.

Using a greater depth of field, more details of the background become obvious, but aren't overpowering to the image, either. It's a fine balance of how to control your depth of field with aperture settings.

Evening light creates dramatic contrast on grasslands.

Details are important, but so are backgrounds. Dark colors, ridgelines and skies become part of the pallette of the image design.

In a small area only a hundred feet around, these rolling oak savvanahs have a hidden, mysterious world within them. You just have to get low enough to the ground to discover them.

The story of a miniature world is about more than just flowers, but also the myriad of life that revolves below our feet.

Most people photograph flowers from above, but getting below a tiny flower also opens up a world of possibilities.

Similar to a bloom that hasn't opened, a flower past its peak can also be a great subject, with deeper ridges and its own sort of beauty.

Even the unopened flower can be beautiful, accentuating the details of the different phases of blooming. The soft background helps seperate the colors.

All around us are miniature worlds, if we are willing to get down on their level and look extremely close! This image was made with a special lens configuration that combines a 50mm macro with two extensino tubes, a 12mm and 25mm. Combined, these tiny little details of the flower become gigantic.