MINIATURE MARVELS

An amateur wildlife photographer who’s been bitten by the macro bug teams up with a pro to photograph an abundance of miniature critters up-close

THE PRO OLIVER WRIGHT

CAMERA: CANON EOS R5

Based in Leeds, UK Oliver has embraced Canon’s latest mirrorless full-frame cameras, and shoots macro imagery of wildlife, plants and flowers with his EOS R5. A climbing accident back in 2010 was the catalyst for Oliver getting serious about his passion for photography, in particular wildlife. Eleven years later, Oliver runs events with Canon and promotional videos. He’s had multiple highly commended images in the British Wildlife Photography Awards. You can see Oliver’s work at: https://bit.ly/30Kdrh9

THE APPRENTICE MATTHEW FARRUGIA

CAMERA: CANON EOS R6

Matthew is a student dispensing optician, and he loves to get out and about with his newly acquired Canon EOS R6 full-frame mirrorless camera. He’s an amateur wildlife photographer, and would love to have the confidence to shoot macro subjects, such as bugs, flowers and fungi, so we paired him with Oliver so that he could get some tips on macro techniques and choosing the right kit.

TECHNIQUE ASSESSMENT

Oliver showed Matthew how to dial in essential macro settings on his camera

MANUAL MODE

Oliver set both his and Matthew’s EOS R5 and R6 cameras to Manual mode, so that they could dial in exposure settings without these being affected by the camera’s built-in metering systems. This meant that if the light changed, their images would become brighter or darker, which meant that checking the rear LCD for a decent exposure was crucial. They also set up raw shooting to give them a little leeway in post if the exposure was off.

KEY CAMERA SETTINGS