Hi, my name's Wayne and I'm a macro photographer from Dorset in the UK. I do dabble in bird, fungi and landscape photography as well, and would like to get better at those, but my passion is with macro. I should also say that I am not a natural born wordsmith so writing this blog is not something that will come naturally.
I have a few ideas on what to cover in this blog - experiences as they happen, what I've learnt, creativity, the importance of learning from others, ecology and wildlife in general but thought I'd kick off with something simple - why have I built a website?
Over the past year or so I've been thinking about what I want to achieve with my photography. The main answer to that question is to raise an awareness and appreciation of invertebrates in general with my logic being that, if people don't know these things exist, then they won't care particularly what happens to them. I don't mean that people don't know that spiders, flies and bugs exist because of course they do, but it's more about realising the diversity, wonder and crazy lives that some of these creatures live, sometimes right under our noses.
I've thought about running macro photography courses, doing talks for local groups, engaging with young people through Scouts or other groups but I haven't actually done any of them. The furthest I've got is to chat to people who see me lying on the ground with some strange camera gear and ask what I'm doing. Some of the reason for this is time related but doing this kind of thing is certainly a little out of my comfort zone. Those conversations are invariably positive though and it's great to see people's reaction to the small creatures that are around them.
This year's plan is to dip my toe out of that comfort zone and start to engage with people more and this website is part of that process. I've also had several people ask whether I sell my prints so, at some point this year, I'll add a print sale page to the website.
Watch this space for macro courses as well - I'm considering running a small number of 1:1 or small group sessions through the year.