The Best Macro Camera Body

Not All Macro Cameras Are Created Equal: A New Way to Score the Gear That Matters

If you've been around macro photography circles for any length of time, you've probably heard the eternal question: "What’s the best camera for macro?" It’s a question that inspires a lot of heated debate, some questionable recommendations, and far too many conversations about megapixels.

The awesome X2D 100C

But here’s the problem: most of those answers are either hopelessly vague ("just get a full-frame") or obsessively specific in a way that doesn’t help beginners. Even worse, they almost never distinguish between studio macro and field macro, which are as different as pipettes and pitchforks.

Another stunner - the sony a9

So I decided to do something about it.

One of the things I love about macro photography is the bright line separating field macro from studio macro. They really are very different pursuits that require very different skills. So is it remotely surprising that there are different equipment requirements? Of course not! In the past I have reviewed equipment for the field and studio gear separately, but that was a problem because there is quite a bit of overlap. So this is what I decided to do…
Evaluate all the popular cameras using a standard set of strictly objective criteria, with no review results or other subjective input. Then I would weight the criteria based on the relevance of that criteria to either field or studio macro.

Studio and Field: Two Different Worlds

In the studio, you control everything: light, temperature, background, and above all — motion. A typical setup might involve a camera mounted to a precision rail, connected to a computer, shooting dozens (or hundreds) of images for a stacked composite.

Out in the field, it’s you against the elements. You’re often working handheld, chasing skittish insects in variable light, sweating through weather-sealed gloves while trying to find a frog that doesn’t mind posing.

And yet, camera reviews keep treating these as the same use case.

The very capable X-T5 from fujifil

So I Built a Weighted Scoring Matrix

This week, I started assembling a completely transparent, objective scoring system for macro camera bodies. It evaluates cameras based on manufacturer specs only (no personal impressions or brand hype), and it treats studio and field macro as separate use cases.

The OM-!

The system uses a 0–10 score for each feature, then applies a weight, as noted above, depending on how important that feature is in a given context.

And here is the scoring matrix I came up with:

The weighted camera soring matrix

You can see how some features matter intensely in one environment and almost not at all in the other. And others are important in both. In this table I have listed the actual weights that I assigned for each:

This is an early iteration of the matrix

Canon’s amazin R5 mkII

The Cameras

You have already seen some of the cameras, but here is a list of all the models I included, along with base price and and links to both B&H and Amazon:

Every model gets two scores: one for studio macro, one for field macro.

The individual scores were computed based on the presence and quality of each of the features mentioned earlier. The scores were then modified based on the weighted values of those features, in the specific use case being evaluated. The scores were then tallied and placed in oder of the final tally

The K-1 mk II from Pentax

What’s Next

In today’s livestream I am going to share with you all the results from this fascinating experiment, some of which will surprise you, some of which won’t. But you won’t know unless you show up - here is your link - https://youtube.com/live/mOODxDG_IQ8?feature=share

In Thursday’s livestream (https://youtube.com/live/qyGxP1tvMYc?feature=share) , I’ll be revealing:

1. The full ranking of cameras based on this scoring system

2. Lens recommendations (including some non-camera lenses you may not expect!)

3. My ultimate rig buildouts for the top 3 studio and field systems

Each system will be complete — camera, lens, rail, lighting, accessories. I’ll share images of the rigs and shopping links for those who want to follow along.

Why This Matters

This isn’t about proving which brand is best. It’s about choosing the right tool for your kind of macro work. Field photographers need weather sealing and stabilization. Studio shooters need resolution and control. No one needs marketing nonsense.

I hope this model helps you think more clearly about your own gear choices — and maybe challenges a few assumptions along the way.

Other Stuff you need to know about

Saturday is AfterStack 25 and I do hope you will be able to make it. We are going to have a little fun this weekend.

I am asking everyone who wants to come to  be prepared to tell us all about your favorite tool or niftiest trick in Photoshop. Surprise us! What do you do that nobody else has been smart enough to figure out? This is your chance to flash your chops and amaze the room with your deft handing of the pen tool (you get the idea). And bring a photo to  demonstrate your nifty moves on. The most interesting and unusual tip/tool/technique will win something. Probably not a car or a Hasselblad, but something cool anyway. Your invitation to the party is here -

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: AfterStack 25

Time: Jun 14, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=84313183886

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

OK gang - that’s it for this week! Congratulations to the winners of last month’s stereo contest! The video is out whenever you want to watch it!

See you Thursday.

-- Allan

Screw-ups & Gadgets

Another weekend has been vacuumed up by the past and we are officially in what Middle Earthers quaintly refer to as “summer”. As I look out the little slit windows of the bunker, it doesn’t look like summer to me, but it might be warmer than it looks. I would have to go outside to be sure, and who has time for that!?

We had a fun AfterStack this weekend and I will have the recording up on YouTube later today. We talked about making graphics from photographs and it was a lot of fun. The rest of Saturday was spent in the workshop, making and testing various ides for a vertical mounting system for converted microscope focus blocks. I came up with one that works and spent a few hours adding this feature to the focus blocks that I will be shipping out this week.

The new vertical mount for my BH2 conversion

This is competition week, and Rik Littlefield and I have come up with a plan for judging the entries. We both have the images and will be spending a couple of days looking through them before we meet for the grand judging on Wednesday. That will leave me a couple of days to get any editing done and post the results to YouTube. I won’t be discussing the actual results in either livestream as I don’t want to steal any of Rik’s thunder. I’ll let you know when it drops.

stereo seeds

This month the competition is a macro wildcard - any macro subject and everyone is welcome to submit up to two entries, which will be independently judged by me and my AI sidekick, Cindi. I can’t wait to see how this turns out!

Jumping ahead to Saturday’s Pzoom - I am hoping to get my guest Lightroom expert, Lester Lefkowitz, to drop in for a chat about his system for organizing his Lightroom Catalog. If we can get this all worked out by then you can expect a recording of this discussion to be posted to YouTube shortly after that. If we can’t get that arranged for this week, I have a backup plan. Part of that plan is to give a report on several new features I am adding to the channel - some exciting stuff that I think everyone is going to enjoy. It’s all top secret until I have had a chance to run it by my Patreon gang - I don’t do anything until I’ve run it by them. By the way, if you have ever considered doing something super cool, like supporting a YouTube content creator and, in exchange, becoming part of the macro-cognoscenti (we are working on a secret handshake), then now is as good a time as any to truck on over to www.patreon.com/allanwallsphotography and become a legitimate hero.

Turning back to the present, I have a couple of unique and, I hope, fun livestreams to tell you about for this week. On Tuesday, in Macro Talk (8PM central time) I am going to talk about some of the idiotic mistakes I still make in macro photography. I have a lot to choose from!

We all make mistakes — but sometimes those “oops” moments lead to unexpectedly decent images.

In today’s livestream, I’ll share some of my biggest and most consistent macro misfires: focus stacks gone wrong, studio stupidity, field follies, and other misadventures. Along the way, I’ll show you a few of my really “bad” pictures that I still love — and try to explain why they still work (at least for me).

A terrible picture that I love anyway

Honest talk, practical tips, and a gallery of goof-ups. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned macro nerd, you’ll laugh, cringe, and (hopefully) learn.

Your link is right here … https://youtube.com/live/cmMZw2Pq-Zw?feature=share

In MacroTalk Too, on Thursday at 2PM, we turn our attention to those dirt cheap, must-have gadgets and gizmos that are always close at hand!

You don’t need to spend a fortune to make unforgettable macro photographs. In this livestream, I’ll show you a selection of the best cheap gear and accessories I’ve ever used — all under $20 — along with the actual images they helped me create.

From homemade backgrounds and lighting hacks to clamps, brushes, and tiny tools, each item tells a story — and every one of them earned its place in my kit.

If you’re a beginner building your macro toolbox, or a seasoned pro who loves a good budget hack, join me for this fun and practical tour of the little things that make a big difference.

Here is your link to MTT … https://youtube.com/live/ZpvVY5QefVU?feature=share

And PS - bring a few of your own gadget hacks to share with the world

I am going to keep it short and sweet today - I have a mountain of Monday work still waiting on me. Please try to make it on Tuesday or Thursday - I hope to have an announcement or two to share with you!

Oh, and PPS - I have looked at the stereo submissions for last month’s contest, and they are AMAZING! Way to go, guys!!!

This Week in Macro: Purpose, Precision, and Post-Production

Before we begin this week’s update, I’d like to take a quiet moment to acknowledge the significance of today.

Memorial Day, for many, marks the turning of the season — the start of summer plans and outdoor gatherings. But its deeper purpose is a solemn one: to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and lost their lives in the course of military service. I don’t say this in celebration of war or valor, but in recognition of absence — of brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, of friends, teammates, and coworkers, of neighbors, of lovers, and of complete strangers.

Regardless of one’s views on conflict or country, the human cost of war is something we ignore at our peril. Today is a day to hold that truth gently, to remember those who left too soon, and to honor them with quiet thoughtfulness and gratitude.

Let me tell you what is coming up this week…

Tuesday @ 8PM CT — Macro Talk: Purpose, Planning, and Presence

This Tuesday, I’ll be diving into a topic that sits quietly beneath almost every good photograph: the balance between purpose, planning, and presence.

Whether you set out with a clear intention or find yourself stumbling into beauty unannounced, most meaningful images arise from some fusion of intent and openness. We’ll unpack the role of:

– Purpose — knowing why you’re shooting

– Planning — structuring how you’ll shoot

– Presence — staying receptive to what the moment actually gives you

Along the way, I’ll offer practical exercises and practical challenges you can incorporate into your next shoot, no matter your subject or gear. This is one for both the thinkers and the wanderers.

Here is your link to the Livestream… https://youtube.com/live/zLZCjbbLTio?feature=share

Thursday @ 2PM CT — Macro Talk Too: The Illusion of Precision

On Thursday, we’ll turn our attention to something a little more technical — and something I don’t think I have talked about in this setting before.

As some of you know that I’ve spent the past couple of years converting old Olympus and Nikon microscopes into ultra-precise, motorized focus stacking platforms. These rigs can theoretically step in increments as small as 0.0625 microns for the Olympus and down to a crazy 0.0312 microns for the Nikon. But here’s the hard truth: there’s no affordable way to confirm that’s actually happening.

I spent most of the last weekend testing each of the four focus rigs I am currently working with. I am not going to send one of these devices out to its new owner without making sure that my claims regarding the precision and accuracy of the conversion are demonstrated. But how? So this livestream is about the limitations of measuring precision in a setting other than a metrology office or laboratory, with the goal of answering these questions …

– Why micro-stepping values don’t always mean real movement

– Why dial indicators, even good ones, fall short in the sub-micron range

– Why visual tests are often more reliable than mechanical ones

– And how to earn trust through transparency, even when the numbers can’t be unequivocally proven

If you’re building or modifying your own focus system, or are just curious about how deep this rabbit hole goes, you won’t want to miss it.

And, as always, your link to the livestream is here - https://youtube.com/live/0E3okQi8lIU?feature=share

Saturday @ 10AM CT — AfterStack 24

We’ll wrap the week with AfterStack 24, this week’s episode our twice-monthly post-processing conversation on Zoom. This is a casual but highly engaged session where Bud Perrott and I lead a discussion in which we explore all things post-production in macro photography. Bring your latest stack, your thorniest artifact, or just a question that’s been bugging you and let’s see what this awesome group of macro minds can do to help. Here is your invitation - the meeting is free and everyone is welcome!

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: AfterStack 24 with Bud Perrott

Time: May 31, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=86040185988

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

As always, everyone at any skill level is welcome. It’s not about perfection — it’s about curiosity and craft.

I hope to see at one or more of these events, but if not, have a fantastic first week of summer anyway!

Allan

The Ethics of Macro

Before we get into the topic of today’s post, let me give you a quick rundown of what you can expect this week…

We kick things off tomorrow with Macro Talk at 8PM when I will be talking about the practical considerations of insect collection for macro photography. This will include the target insects, finding habitat, tools for collection, storage and transportation, and the application of AI to improve our success rate. The link for the stream is here - https://youtube.com/live/ZVxpZGJQw8U?feature=share

On Thursday, in Macro Talk Too, we change gears completely and take a hard look at the ethical issues involved the catching and killing of insects for photography. This will include a discussion of how my own thought on the matter have evolved in the year since we last had this discussion. The link to this Livestream is right here - https://youtube.com/live/gUawWEGQxMI?feature=share

A big day is coming on Saturday the 24th of May when I kick things off with Pzoom, starting at 10am and running until 2PM. In this edition of the twice-monthly Patreon-only get-together we will open the meeting for any updates, questions, and introductions and in the second half of the gathering I will talk about the purpose and application of planning in macro photography. If you are a member of my Patreon group, your invitation to this meeting will be posted over on Patreon, tomorrow. If you are not yet a member of Patreon, please consider coming aboard! It is a great group of people with a wealth of experience and knowledge to share and your participation helps the channel to stay afloat in these challenging times. Please visit https://www.patreon.com/allanwallsphotography to learn more.

Right after Pzoom we have another edition of Tangent, an exciting 3D modeling and printing discussion led by Larry Strunk. The meeting is free and the invitation that you will need to get in is right here - Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Tangent with Larry Strunk

Time: May 24, 2025 12:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=86781500269

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

Which is everything coming up this week!

Getting back to this post, I wanted to give you some background concerning the ethical issues around macro photography. My hope is that this will help you get the most out of this week’s livestreams by introducing you to some of the key issues that relate to our conduct as macro photographers.

The ethical issues surrounding macro photography, particularly involving live subjects, have always existed — but in recent years, they’ve come into sharper focus as public awareness of environmental and animal welfare concerns has grown. As macro photographers, we often walk a fine line between observation and intervention. The intention is usually to educate, to celebrate the hidden beauty of the natural world. But that doesn’t exempt us from scrutiny — nor should it.

There are three primary areas where ethical questions tend to arise in our field:

1. Collection and Handling of Live Subjects

One of the most emotionally charged questions in macro photography is whether it’s acceptable to collect, restrain, or euthanize insects and other small creatures for the sake of a photograph.

This concern grows from both the conservation movement and the broader moral stance against causing harm to sentient life. While insects are not protected in the same way as vertebrates in most countries, our evolving understanding of invertebrate perception, cognition, and response to harm makes this a growing area of debate.

Even if the subject is common and abundant, does killing it for artistic or educational purposes cross a line?

2. Staging and Manipulation of Behavior

Many macro photographers employ cooling, restraint, or staged habitats to slow their subjects for better control — particularly in focus stacking or motion-sensitive scenes.

Techniques that are common in studio macro photography (refrigeration, confining the insect in a transparent cube or vial, placing subjects on inauthentic surfaces) have begun to draw criticism as AI-generated images challenge what’s possible without using real animals at all.

Is temporary suffering, disorientation, or manipulation of natural behavior justified by the final image?

3. The Image as a Statement — and the Photographer’s Responsibility

Every photo implies a point of view. Even when we think we are simply documenting, we are choosing what to show and what to hide — which can have real-world consequences.

As images circulate online without context, especially through social media and contests, there is a tendency to forget that photographs can reinforce false ideas about nature — such as pristine, untouched beauty or the docility of wild insects.

Are we unintentionally misleading our audience? Or worse, encouraging irresponsible behaviors in other photographers?

These are not abstract questions. They touch the very heart of what we do as macro photographers. And while many of us entered this field with an ethos of wonder and reverence, we may find ourselves using methods or adopting habits that deserve a second look.

We’ll be digging deeply into this topic on Thursday’s livestream, and I’ll be sharing how my own thinking has changed over the past year — especially in light of some difficult conversations with friends and colleagues who see things differently.

I won’t offer any definitive answers here — not yet. For now, I invite you to come to Thursday’s Macro Talk Too, prepared not just to listen, but to reflect. Bring your questions. Bring your discomfort. This is an issue that deserves our honesty and our attention.

---

P.S. … What did you do this past weekend? Here is what I did!

Tonight I will be wrapping and packing, addressing labels, and printing invoices. The testing is all done and the first batch of XP3BIOs will be shipping out whenever I can get to the Post Office. An update on the Focus Blocks will be given during tomorrow Livestream!

See you then!

The XP3BIO - Instructions for Assembly and Use

Thank you and congratulations on becoming the owner of my Cross Polarizing Photography Platform for Birefringence Imaging and Observation (XP3BIO). Your model is the new and improved version and your device is number 1 of 10 in this very limited model. You cannot, to the best of my knowledge, purchase one of these viewers anywhere else on the planet!

The viewer fully assembled and ready to use

This version of the platform represents a significant improvement over the first model in several ways. The viewer is smaller and lighter, but with a larger viewing area. It is designed to be used both in the horizontal position. With a new 1/4” 20 TPI mounting point, it can be secured to an articulating arm and positioned in almost any orientation. It is intended for viewing and/or photographing birefringent crystals grown on microscope slides and such slides can be locked into position on the specimen cassette to ensure they do not move or fall from the cassette during use. It contains a powerful light source and two layers of high quality linear polarizing material, along with a built-in diffusion layer and an empty filter cassette for addition of an optional retarder (wave plate), useful for viewing weakly birefringent material. I have included a brand new power supply, matched to the current requirements of the viewer. As an added bonus, I have prepared a sample slide (Acetanilide and ascorbic acid in methyl ethyl ketone) and installed it in the viewing position on the yellow specimen cassette. In the next section I will explain the purpose of each level and provide detailed instructions on how to use the device.

The colors are all wrong but fusion is not letting me change them

The viewer is made up of 4 separate levels, held in place by a cap ring secured with a pair of thumbscrews. The cap ring and levels 2-4 can be removed from the base (level 1) by removing the thumbscrews. Each level can only be mounted in one rotational orientation - do not try to force a level into the assembly without aligning the side pins with the receiving grooves on the  upright extensions from the base.

The cassettes, in levels 2, 3 and 4 are freely rotatable through 360º by inserting the point of  pen or pencil through the groove on the side of each level to engage with the  circular depressions around the cassette perimeter. Each level and the cassette corresponding to that level are color coded and numbered. They should always be mounted onto the base (level 1) in the same order (2-3-4-Cap Ring).

Level 1 - the base layer - really black, not green

Level 1 - the base layer - color black - this layer contains the light source, wiring, 12V power socket and switch. When plugged in to the 12 volt power supply, the device is activated by showing the red switch. The Base Level also contains a cassette that holds a layer of diffusion filter material below and a layer of linear polarizing filter material above. The black cassette in the base is not accessible during use and it is not necessary to rotate this cassette during use. Avoid handling the level 1 cassette to prevent smudging, which could impact the quality of images photographed using this platform. This cassette may be removed to access the light source and wiring within the base layer. Not that the base layer has two vertical posts, with a brass insert at the top of each post. One post has a single square groove on its inward oriented face, while the other has a pair of round grooves on its inward facing surface. These grooves correspond to the vertical ridges visible on the perimeter of levels 2, 3, and 4. These insure proper orientation of the upper levels and prevent rotation off the level housings during rotation of the cassettes. The base level has a cubic prominence into which a brass thread insert has been installed. This allows for mounting of the assembled device on an articulating arm, which may be used to aid in positioning of the device during use. The insert accepts a standard 1/4”, 20TPI screw.

Actually pale blue, this is the 2nd layer, for a wave plate (optional)

Level 2 - the Retarder Level - Color Blue - this level is included for mounting an optional retarding filter or wave plate. The device is shipped without a retarding filter installed in the Level 2 cassette. A circular  retarding filter with a diameter of 100 - 102 mm, may be installed in the cassette and held in place by 2-3 drops of hot glue, or other adhesive. Make sure the glue has dried completely before installing the cassette in the level 2 housing - failure to do so may prevent rotation of the retarder plate during use. During normal use, this level and its cassette may be left empty. The addition of a wave retarder is not required for viewing the majority of common birefringent crystals.

Actually yellow - both the housing and the cassette

Level 3 - the  Specimen Level - Color Yellow - This level is designed to securely hold a glass microscope slide in one of two common sizes - 25mm x 75mm or 50mm x 75mm. The detents for each size slide are oriented perpendicular to each other, so that only a single slide may be mounted at a time.

Note the tiny retaining tabbe for each slide

At each end of the detents are either one or two tiny retaining tabs. To mount a specimen slide, the slide should be inserted beneath the paired tabs and lowered into the detent while gently squeezing the cassette on an axis perpendicular to the long axis of the slide. This will provide just enough clearance for the opposite end of the slide to fall into the detent, after which the lateral pressure is relaxed causing the single tab to engage with the slide, holding it firmly in position and preventing any movement of the slide during positioning or viewing. The slide is removed by gently squeezing the yellow cassette while raising one end of the slide (the end with a single tab) and pulling it forward, out of the slide holder. ***Care is required to avoid slide breakage. This cassette can also be rotated to adjust subject framing and composition.

Meant to be light gray - the second polarizer

Level 4 -  The Analyzer Level - Color Grey - This level is used to house the second polarizer in the system. It is this filter that is rotated to achieve the desired level of cross polarization (the first polarizer is fixed). This cassette is also rotated using the tip of a pen or pencil, inserted into one of the round depressions on the circumference of the  cassette. When the second polarizer is perfectly positioned, perpendicular to the polarizing axis of the first polarizer, all light will be extinguished except for that being refracted by the birefringent material. Note that this is the last layer at the top of the device and that it is prone to damage or the accumulation of dust and other debris. When not in use the device should be stored in a closed box to prevent damage to the polarizing film.

The top ring holds everything together

Level 5 - The Cap Ring - Color Black - this is not a functional level and serves only to secure all the lower  levels within the device, allowing it to be positioned in any orientation without movement of the component parts. The thumb screws must be used to secure the device when in use. I have recently replaced the original screws with much shorter fasteners that allow rapid entry to the stack and access to the slide cassette. There should be no reason to dismantle the levels except to change the subject slide. The slide cassette is easily accessible and can be removed simply by removing the Cap Ring and the Level 4 housing. It is not necessary to remove the Level 3 housing to  change the slide. Removal of the cassette will suffice.

A complex crystal photographed on the XP3BIO

Suggestions for use of the XP3BIO

• Until you have some experience with the equipment, avoid using slides that still have unevaporated solvent present. Some of the solvents used could damage filters or the device itself.

• Use only the provided 12 V power supply to avoid damage to the LED panel.

• Do not over-tighten components attached to the brass insert on the front of the unit.

• Never touch the filters - dirt and debris may lower image quality.

• In some circumstances you may wish to further diffuse the light from the powerful COB light source. To do this cut a circle of 200mm diameter and place it on the shelf holding the Level 1 (base) filter cassette. Remember to remove when no longer needed.

• Do not place anything other than a wave plate/retarding filter into the Level 2 (blue) cassette. A diffuser will lessen the effectiveness of the polarizing layer.

• You may wish to add small rubber bumpers to the base and/or edge facings to prevent slipping.

• Never leave the device turned on  when it is left unattended. I have tested each unit and the COB LED does not produce enough heat to effect the housing or filters. But it is prudent to err on the side of caution.

• The device works better when the cap ring is in place and thumbscrews are secured - without this locking layer it is possible to encounter difficulties when trying to rotate cassettes. Rotating the housing with the cassette may make it more difficult to maintain a particular level of cross polarization.

• To view a specimen, remove both thumbscrews and lif off the cap ring. Carefully pull up on the second polarizer level (Level 4) and remove the housing and the cassette with polarizing filter. Then carefully remove only the slide holder cassette, leaving the housing in place. Gently squeeze the sides of the cassette to release the slide from the retaining tabs. Position one end of the new slide under the double tabs, then squeeze the slide holder on each side of the slide to raise the tab slightly and allow the slide to drop under the single sealing tab. Return the cassette to the yellow Level 3 housing. Replace the Level 4 housing taking care not to touch the polarizing filter and making sure that the ridges on the perimeter of the housing engage with the slots in the upright Level 1 alignment posts. Replace cap ring and tighten the thunbscrews before placing the viewer under your microscope or on your photography platform. Use an articulating arm secured to the viewer at the square mounting post if you wish to use the viewer at an unusual angle. Turn on the viewer’s light with the small toggle switch. Carefully rotate the yellow subject level cassette to the desired orientation for your composition. Then rotate the Level 4 cassette to maximize the polarizing effect. If no wave plate is being used it should be possible to completely extinguish all light except that which is being redirected by the birefringent material on the specimen slide

total extinction of ambient light when polarizing layers are 90º out of phase

In closing, thank you for purchasing this device! I am thrilled that you have sufficient faith in my “maker” skills to part with some of your hard-earned monies to acquire an XP3BIO. If you are happy with the device, please tell your friends, but if you are not, please tell me. I have made many improvements to the original design, but I am perfectly willing to believe that there are many more still to be made. If you think of one, please let me know!

I hope you enjoy using this invention as much as I have and I hope to see many of your crystal images in the future.

Allan

DIY + AI = 0.0 x ZZZs

Greetings from the Bunker!

3 BH2 microscopes

It has been another busy Monday, getting ready for another busy week. But it has already been a very productive one. I am delighted to say that I am very close to finishing up the printing and ready to begin the final assembly of TEN cross polarization platforms. This feels like a very important step as it seems to have taken an age to get through all this printing. Everything has gone quite smoothly and I managed to find the time to write a detailed instruction manual for the crystal viewer. I would expect to have this batch mailed out by the end of the week, after which both my printer and I will be taking a short break before getting started on the next batch. I thought you might be interested in looking over the instruction sheet so I am posting that separately. This sheet would be very helpful to anyone who is planning to print their own viewer.

10 cross polarizers, in the making

To say I underestimated the time and cost of making these things would be a massive understatement - my printer has gone through three spools of filament in a solid week of round the clock printing. The sudden addition of huge import fees (tariff penalties charged directly back to the customer) caused a tripling of my costs for all the parts I order from China - I can’t afford to buy the same parts from a US supplier because they cost over five times as much here. Anyway, it got real expensive, real quick. But I am a man of my word and the folks that ordered this first batch of viewers will have their orders fulfilled  for the price promised.

the end product

You would think that, as the only supplier of self contained cross polarizing birefringence viewing and photography platforms on the planet (that I am aware of), I should be able to make and sell the things to make a little profit. It is testament to my limited business acumen (very limited) that the completion of my first round of sales will leave me squarely in the red - it normally takes me months to get into debt with a business venture! The viewers have turned out very nice, with all the upgrades. If you are on the list to get one, you will not be disappointed.

Former BH2 microscopes - ready to paint

The news for those awaiting completion of their Olympus microscope conversions is even better! There were two major problems hindering the completion of the four machines sitting on my desk. The first was that 3/4 of the focus blocks had badly damaged fine focus drive systems, with bent focus shafts and stripped gears. I had thought this problem was fixed when I ordered some replacement steel tubing (from China) and started printing the tiny gears that needed to be replaced. But the tubes turned out to be  4.0mm in diameter, not the 3.97mm (5/32”) that I needed - I would not have thought that an extra 0.03mm (30 microns) would have been enough to prevent a steel shaft from passing through a 40 year old bushing - but it is.

from China - $7 for 6

I found some tubing of the correct size but its walls were either too thin or two thick to properly tap them for the 3mm screw that secures them into the focus knobs. I broke all my 3mm taps trying. I could not drill out the thicker walled tubes either. None of my small bits could handle the hardened steel of the tubes. Just as I was getting desperate, the last order of Chinese tubes arrived and they were the perfect size. They fit in the bushings and had walls just the right thickness to handle the 3mm taps that arrived from China in the same shipment. So at the last moment I was able to put together 3 fully functional and perfectly straight shaft assemblies.

the culprit

But that was not the biggest issue - the real problem was that I had somehow messed up my measurements when making a drilling template for transferring the hole positions from the motor bracket to the wall of the focus block - the holes were all about 2mm away from where they needed to be for the motor bracket to clear the course focus knobs of the focus block. This was a big deal because the only solution that I could see was to reprint all four motor housings - a huge task that took 23 hours and a spool of filament. And I wasn’t even sure I could redesign the mount with sufficient accuracy to get the mounts aligned perfectly with the holes. Then this morning I had an idea. I don’t know what this is called, if it even has a name, but this printed piece was what I had come up with.

The part on the left saved my bacon!

It fits perfectly over the base of the unmodified cage and holds it in exactly the right position to clear the focus knobs while allowing me to reposition the mounting holes to a new part of the microscope body. And they work perfectly! Of all the cool gadgets I have made with this printer, this mount adapter is by far the most satisfying.

The adapter plate in position

So, with the microscopes dismantled, deep cleaned and fully reconditioned, I can finish the final assembly and get them all tested and ready for shipping in the next few days - I hope. I have learned more from these two projects than I could ever have thought possible. This kind of problem solving is why I love this part of my work so much. You should give it a try! Time to change gears and tell you about this week’s programming…

The coming week is going to be very interesting. I have been thinking a lot about how the exploding field of artificial intelligence is starting to change everything, and I mean everything. Of course, I am most interested in getting myself up to speed on how it might impact me as a photographer. I have found some new applications for this technology that have shocked even me. So I decided it was time to do an AI update for macro photographers - and before you remind me that I did this only a few months ago, I think an update is long overdue. So on Tuesday’s Macro Talk, at 8PM, I am going to let you know about a few developments that could have a hugely positive impact on us as both amateur and professional photographers. I will be introducing you to five new applications for large Language Model-based AIs and showing you how close they are to upsetting “business as usual” in the world of macro. I don’t want to spoil the fun by telling you about these things ahead of time, but make it on Tuesday, if you can. Here is a link to the stream. https://youtube.com/live/i9fl4bbIMxI?feature=share

Following on from that we are going to look a little closer into how a relatively new kind of application that uses existing technologies to create AI Assistants, could make us better photographers. It is going to be a contentious discussion, I suspect, but there is a lot to talk about and getting the questions asked is a good start. Here is your link to Macro Talk Too, Thursday at 2PM. https://youtube.com/live/o6Vur5r1zZM?feature=share

Holding to our theme for the week, I will be bringing another controversial topic to the AfterStack conversation on Saturday morning at 10AM. I will propose an entirely new approach to photographic post-production and, by extension, photographic training, This is going to be charged discussion but one that we are going to have to have sooner or later - what comes next. We already rely quite heavily on AI to help us edit our images. So what else is right around the corner, or in some cases, right here, right now? Sure to ruffle a few feathers, this discussion needs to be had and on Saturday we do just that! Here is your invitation…

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: AfterStack with Bud Perrott and Allan Walls - Episode 23

Time: May 17, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=85292399173

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

So with a lot of controversy on the horizon, let’s get into it tonight and see what has changed with machine intelligence since we last talked.

I hope you enjoyed last week’s Stereo conversation and learned enough to try your hand, wowing our celebrity judge with your stereo images! I can’t wait to see what you all come up with!

Please try to make it tonight and let’s get this week of AI off to a good start!

And don’t forget to check out the instruction piece for the new crystal viewer - it is the next post after this.

One of my favorite crystals - top secret recipe

All the best,

Allan

Celebrating Stereo

You will need stereo viewing glasses for this one

There is much that makes the practice of macro photography unique. The very existence of this channel is testament to that fact. Specialized equipment, fascinating subjects, and technical challenges notwithstanding there is nothing that speaks to the magic of macro more eloquently than the sub-genre of stereo imaging.

Glasses here too - a synthetic stereo pair - portulaca seeds

Of course, stereo photography is not the exclusive domain of the macro enthusiast - many other clever applications for stereo imaging can be found in most photographic disciplines - but it has reached a level of sophistication in the photography of small subjects that you might be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. Why is this?

Much of what we photograph is, to photographers as well as to the consumers of their art, unusual and often only poorly understood. I encounter new structural and functional features in the insect species that I photograph on an almost daily basis, and it is often difficult, or even impossible, to  decipher the three-dimensional anatomical relationships of these parts on the basis of two dimensional images alone. This is undoubtably the most immediate and powerful benefit of stereo imaging, offering a plausible explanation for the value and utility of the observed macro/stereo relationship. But it is not the only one.

even some crystals look amazing in stereo

As many macro subjects are too small to fully appreciate with the unaided eye alone, the complex majesty of these creatures tends to be relatively inaccessible to the majority of potential admirers. The beauty in the wing of a Madagascan day-flying moth, for example, can only be suggested by an examination of the entire structure. It requires a moderately high magnification, focus-stacked image to really grasp the stunning beauty of the individual scales or the mesmerizing patterns of tiled scales spreading out across the wings. But even this imagery, produced with care and patience by a talented and experienced macro photographer, could do little to shed much light on the true shape of a wasp’s hamuli, the nature of the cleft splitting a soldier fly larva’s head segment, or the attachment mechanism of a fruit fly’s foot. To fully grasp the breathtaking beauty of an insect, it must be examined where form and function intersect, a place that is often inaccessible without the tools of stereo photography and the skill to use them.

Yikes!

Stereo photography at the macro level is a tool that is therefore as relevant and necessary for the macro photographer who’s images are used to delight and inspire, as they are to the macro photographer who is motivated to put his images to work in the service of curiosity and scientific inquiry. however you may be attracted to the fascinating work of macro photography, you owe it to yourself to develop a level of competence  in the capture and processing of stereo images. You will be glad you did!

my pet dragonfly

It is partly because of my confidence in the value of stereo photography that I arrange for our macro photography contest to test your skill and knowledge in this discipline every year or two. It is because of his tireless commitment to improving your understanding of stereo photography that I invite Mr. Rik Littlefield to judge the resulting images and share his wisdom by discussing the entries following the contest. And, I am delighted to say, he has once again agreed to do so for our May 2025 competition!

Get it?

As the channel has done in the past, I will use this first week of the competition month to turn attention to the theory and practice of stereo photography at the macro level, in the hopes that this will encourage you to enter the contest and share your stereo images with your fellow macro enthusiasts. To this end I am planning to use both of this week’s live events to promote the contest while also providing you will interesting and practical information on this topic, starting with Tuesday’s Macro Talk.

Your link to the stream - https://youtube.com/live/zkUDa8NbjjA?feature=share

Macro Talk, starting at 8PM on Tuesday evening, will be dedicated to a discussion of the origins and history of stereo imaging, as seen through the lens of macro photography. I will introduce you to the people and events that shaped the emergence of stereo imaging as we see it today, while also providing some useful background on the neuroscience governing the human perception of depth information. This promises to be an informative and entertaining hour and I hope you can make plans to join me on Tuesday evening as we lay the groundwork for the second live event of the week.

Your link - https://youtube.com/live/-tXTOdjvWwk?feature=share

On Thursday at 2PM, Macro Talk Too will focus entirely on the process of capturing and processing stereo images of macro and closeup subjects. Unlike similar content produced in the past, this session will offer some very practical pointers on how to create competitive stereo images using one of a number of different techniques. With the information presented in this stream I would expect to leave each of you with everything you should need to submit a competition entry (or two) good enough to secure stereo bragging rights for the year to come!

But if that is not enough of an advantage to satisfy your need to prevail in the May competition, please make plans to join me for a special edition of Pzoom on Saturday May 10th at 10AM and running until noon, during which I will be conducting a stereo workshop, exclusively for my Patreon supporters. This workshop will provide attendees with the opportunity to ask as many questions as they wish, get feedback on the photographic platform and equipment they intend to use, and share ideas with the other Patreon attendees. If this sounds like something you would like to attend but cannot because you are not a member of my Patreon group, there is an easy remedy - simply drop by Patreon  (https://www.patreon.com/allanwallsphotography) and sign up as a supporter before Saturday. I will be forever in your debt!

AfterStack #22 happened this last Saturday and the resulting recording will be posted in the next day!

It was a lot of fun and there was much to take home!

I have been working non-stop to complete all the orders that have come in for microscope conversion focus steppers - the hold-up is getting the stepper motors from China - I have been waiting for weeks. I am also waiting on a shipment of steel tubes from China to finish the repairs on three of the focus blocks that arrived damaged.

I finally got the massive print job for the crystal cross polarizing viewers started - I have 124 individual pieces to be printed for the first batch, have completed 12 pieces and have no filament remaining - more is on the way. If you are waiting on a crystal viewer, thank you for your patience and understanding - I am the only person working in this factory and I already have a full time job. The good news is that I have all the parts I need and the assembly should not take too long after the printing is done.

I hope you can make it to Tuesday’s stream and I look forward to seeing you  there!

All the best!

Allan

The Macro Book Club

Happy Monday everyone!

Hydroxyquinone, Vitamin C and acetanalide in Alcohol

It really feels like Monday today. It has been a very busy weekend, but I have quite a lot to show for it. Most of my time, since Thursday’s stream have been taken up by microscope cleaning and book reading. The microscopes needed to be taken apart and cleaned because they are bing morphed into precision focus rails and dirt or old grease will not help with the precision. These builds are already past due and have been held up waiting on parts to arrive. I think I have everything now, but it might be the last time that I do. My Chinese parts supplier has raised the price of parts by 250% or more, on almost everything. Unfortunately, US based outlets have followed suit and components that I was getting for less than $2 each a week ago are now $16-18 a piece. I am unsure how this is going to  sort itself out in the long term, but for right now I will have to make some tough decisions about whether or not I can afford to do too much more of this work.

The guts of three Olympus BH2 Scopes - clean for the first time in 30 years

The book reading was to prepare for this week’s first Livestream, Macro Talk, at 8PM on Tuesday - this week I am going to review a few of my favorite macro books in our first episode of the Macro Book Club - most of these are relatively new, but not all.

During the livestream I will give you an overview of the book’s contents, discuss its strengths and weaknesses, tell you why I like it (or chose it), and either recommend it, or not. It is my hope that this will become more like a real book club in the not too distant future - where you will be able to upload your own review of a book to  my app, and have it presented at an upcoming Book Club episode - stay tuned for more! Here is your link to the show - https://youtube.com/live/Z-m15fuF_JU?feature=share

The books I will be reviewing this week are as follows:

1. Dragonflies of North America by Ed Lam - https://amzn.to/4jMXZn6

2. Tiger Beetles of the Southeastern United States, by Giff Beaton, R. Stephen Krotzer, and Brian D. Holt - https://amzn.to/4lPw8o8

3. Beyond Extreme Closeup Photography - by Julian Cremona - https://amzn.to/4iAXQly

4. Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa, by D. J. Patterson and Stuart Hedley - https://amzn.to/4jY5vvI

There may another one or two, depending on how long the first four take - we shall see.

Next up, on Thursday, May 1, at 2PM, we will be going over the submissions to the April Competition, and announcing the winners. The topic this month was Food/Drink, a category that has always generated some really lovely images. This one will be no exception! I hope to have tricked someone into being a guest judge by then, but as usual I may have left it a little too late. It will be fun, regardless! Here is your link -  https://youtube.com/live/I39IuV8gZqU?feature=share

On Saturday we have AfterStack 23 - and I am embarrassed to say I don’t actually know what Bud is bringing this week - and we just talked on the phone earlier today - I had forgotten how bad my memory is ((pun intended). You will an invitation to get into the event but it is free and it is fun -

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: AfterStack22

Time: May 3, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=85116207322

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

This morning’s gadget - hats off to TXCromer for the inspiration

This morning I was inspired to design and print a couple of double layer diffusion platforms for small insects. The inspiration came from TXCromer, who had come up with a similar design some months ago.

The Cromer/Walls diffuser

A friend had asked me to print one of Mr. Comer’s diffusers, and after examining the drawings I  thought of a few changes that would make the device a little more applicable to my style of studio macro.

The concept was largely the same, but a few changes were going to be required to move some of the supports down and out of the way of the incoming photons, especially when the light was coming from below. Mr. Cromer’s Intractable article is really excellent and well worth a look - it can be found here - https://www.instructables.com/Starship-Light-Tunnel-Diffuser/

Cool supports holding up the diffuser frame

Here is an early prototype (early this morning, that is) - though I have made three other versions over the course of the day - I am pretty happy with the final piece and will post the G-Code over on my app, in case you want to make one - just be aware they take forever to print and must include a lot of supports.

slowly getting there

A little housekeeping - I was hoping to have got a head start on the video projects I am planning, but my manufacturing side-hustle has kept me a little on the busy side this last couple of week. I will get to them eventually! By the way, I will be closing the sign-up period for cross-polarizer platforms and microscope focus blocks - so if you want to get on the waiting list for either, now is the time to do so. Sign up by sending me a message over on the Walls App!

In closing, this is how I remain partially sane when locked in the bunker - anyone fancy a game?

Weevil time!

Macro Jeopardy is HERE!

An exciting week of photography and foolishness starts today.

one reason i don’t live in the mekong delta

Some real treats to look forward to in the coming 6 day! Starting with Macro Talk on Tuesday at 8PM where the discussion is going to be all about enlarger lenses.

These seem to be among the least well understood lenses in our regular arsenal so I think spending a little time talking about the many misunderstandings surrounding these little treasures might be time well spent. The things I want to clear up include:

• What is an enlarger lens

• Why do we use them in Macro,

• Reverse, Extend, or both?

• The limits

• Aperture, focal length & diffraction

• Stacking enlarger lenses - Whaaat!?

• Setups that work & setups that don’t

• When to reach for an objective

This isn’t everything, but these are the high points. I may be able to include a little demo using some of the enlarger lenses I have been evaluating lately. Come to this livestream and I promise you will leave with a solid working understanding of how to get the very most out of these treasured lenses. Here is a link to the livestream, at 8PM Tuesday!

https://youtube.com/live/RJJsWfgXW4E?feature=share

Four stripped focus blocks ready for stripping, PaiNting and reassembly

I spent the entire weekend cleaning microscope parts, dismantling focus blocks, 3D printing parts, and inventing new tools for the workshop. It was a lot of fun but I woke up exhausted and ready for a break on Monday (today) If I have time I want to show you around the workshop, so that you can see what all goes on in the studio when I am in full-conveyor belt mode. Though it might need to wait for the Pzoom, as I have a special treat for you on Thursday! Macro Talk Too this week features the very first installment of the new MACRO JEOPARDY - the world’s most exciting internet macro photography game show (strictly my own, heavily biased opinion)!

As a teaser, here is a screen shot of the game board for this real time contest of wits! I have spent several hours putting together what I think are an excellent selection of macro-related questions.

If it is a success I will see if there is a way for us to do this with real contestants, using zoom - I am thinking about finding a sponsor or two and putting up some nice prizes. I might even draw the names of contestants from the competition entries. This week is just a trial balloon to see if folks are interested in having a little cerebral fun at the end of a long week. If you want to join in the fun, your link too the stream is right here -

https://youtube.com/live/A55-hCkZhrw?feature=share

Of course, it is not the end of my week as there are a couple of interesting events lined up for Saturday - starting air 10AM with a 2-hour Pzoom - a face to face Zoom meeting with  my Patreon Supporters. As always we will have a lot to talk about, including a special segment on how to dismantle, inspect, clean and rebuild a modern microscope. The rest of our time will focus on viewer updates, Q&A, introductions, and a lot of macro-equipment chit chat. Always great fun and an awesome opportunity for us to learn a bit more from one another.

Right after the Pzoom we have this month’s Tangent Show with Larry and me - talking about Fusion 360, modeling, and 3D printing. I am hoping to get some help with a really complicated job that is making me think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I am making a camera, a real digital camera, and it is proving a lot more difficult that I thought it would be. So, depending on what Larry has lined up for us, I may be trying to get a little nudge in the right direction on this project. This is all happening at 12:30pm this Saturday, April 26th, with the recording released on YouTube early next week.

My sweatshop - only without the sweating

I did come up with a very handy gadget for making sure my motor drive assemblies will fit on a microscope focus block after all the holes are drilled - a ver irritating problem when they do not.

It looks deceptively simple, but these things are designed to clip onto a stripped focus block and stay there until all four holes have been marked. This works extremely well and saves a tremendous amount of time.

Here is a drawing of the gadget, as yet unnamed, and a picture of it doing its thing on a BH2 Olympus focus block being readied for a coat of paint.

A couple of you have asked to see my new bandsaw - well here it is!

It is not nearly as easy to use as it looks. In fact, by the time I have cleaned up all the cut lines, I don’t think it will have saved me much time, if any. The saw was not too expensive and it will definitely be put to good use in the future.

A Happy looking weevil

I have not been taking nearly enough pictures of late, but hope to turn that around soon, as the weather continues to improve - stay tuned!

another partially braided acetanilide and ascorbic acid crystal complex

Hope you can make it to the Jeopardy on Thursday! It is going to be a hoot!

Later, Allan

Spring? What Spring?

Spring sprung and then sprang back in - it’s a Middle Earth thing - and yes - I am pretty sure that is the correct use of sprung and sprang (perfect tense past participle vs. sample past tense), but even if it isn’t it is still cold again in the bunker. Which would be less of a deal had my little electric heater hung on to life for a few days longer. No worries - the cold builds character, I’m sure.

Spring in Alabama

Even if the weather had been perfect, I don’t think I would have had time to get out for a little photography. The bunker is busy right now now, with lenses to evaluate, a printer to learn how to use, several hundred cross polarizers to print and assemble … and so much more. So with that in mind I hope you will forgive my departure from our usual livestream format on Tuesday. I have decided to take a day off from writing and researching photography content to instead write and research some no-photographic material for Macro Talk on Tuesday. Here is what I am planning to do - Since getting rid of my television some three years ago (or is it longer?) the only type of content that I consume is that found on one of mankind’s greatest inventions - YouTube. This doesn’t count written material - I am always reading something or other. But when it comes to video content, it is straight YouTube. I will occasionally mention a channel that I particularly value or enjoy, but I don’t think I have ever just gone down my list of subscriptions and told you what they are about, why I like them, and why you might want to check a few of them out.

I will start Macro Talk by talking a little bit about YouTube in general - like what factors are important in assessing the quality of a channel, and what are the characteristics of a great presenter. I will share my thoughts on click-bait and give you my opinion on video length, before launching into a rapid fire rundown of the channels that I subscribe to and watch regularly - there are a lot of them, and some you will know, but many you will most likely not. But whether you are attracted to the same content as I am, or not, I think you will probably learn a little bit about what makes me tick. Of course, I do recognize that it is the height of conceit to think for one minute that you will care about the content I like, but I am going to do it anyway because I think you might really enjoy some of these channels.

Here is your link to this first livestream of the week - https://youtube.com/live/hw10BIuFIx8?feature=share

Oh and before I forget, I will list all of the channels to which I subscribe, and all the ones I talk about on Tuesday at the bottom of this post.

Two days after that and the party is over - time to get back into macro. In Macro Talk Too I am going to share with you the decision process that I use when selecting a lens for a particular photograph. I use a fairly simple decision tree to narrow down the list of options for a given set of circumstances and I want to go over that process with you on Thursday at 2PM. This should be a very useful discussion for many of you and I expect it might even stir up a little heated back and forth in the cheap seats (you know who you are!).

Macro Talk Too on Thursday at 2PM - don’t miss it - and here is your invitation to that event - https://youtube.com/live/98XO7IeK5rk?feature=share

We had a spectacular Pzoom last weekend, so that means we do not have one on Saturday - but instead we have what promises to be a very interesting discussion on Topaz Photo AI. In this session we will demonstrate what the program can do, and what it cannot, before opening the discussion to the audience for them to share how they use this powerful tool. As always, you are encouraged to bring images you may be struggling with as well as pictures that demonstrate how use this smart editing tool. Just pop over to my Google Drive and drop your picture(s) in the appropriate folder. We will retrieve the images in time for Afterstack. You are invited but will need this information to join the meeting, which is free for anyone who wishes to attend!

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: AfterStack 21 - Topaz - Photo AI

Time: Apr 19, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=88644952456

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

That is about it for this week. All I have still to do is give you the list of my favorite YouTube channels.

SPOILER ALERT - if you do not want to know what I will be going over on Tuesday, read no further!

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Veritasium

Cutting Edge Engineering,

Inheritance Machining,

DroneBot Workshop,

The Engineering Mind

Not An Engineer,

Tom Stanton,

Product Design Online,

Three Blue One Brown,

Daniele Tartaglia,

Steve Mould,

Linus Tech Tips,

Paul's Hardware,

Sabine Hossenfelder,

GreatScott,

HomoFaciens,

MicrobeHunter,

Jeremy Fielding,

Uri Tuchman,

The B1M, and

Journey to the Microcosmos

PHOTOGRAPHY

Thomas Heaton,

Stewart Wood,

fototripper,

Jan Wegener,

Phlearn,

Mark Denney,

Peter McKinnon,

Sean Tucker,

Steve Perry,

BrainRight,

Planet Fungi,

Micael Widell, and

Grzegorz Baran

PILOT/FLYING

Pilot Debrief,

Mentour Pilot,

74 Gear

MUSIC

Billy Strings

Jacob Collier,

Rick Beato,

Paul Davids,

PomplamooseMusic,

Davie504,

El Estaprio Siberiano,

Make Weird Music,

Emmet Cohen,

Andrew Rooney Drums,

David Bruce Composer, and

Justin Hawkins Rides Again

OTHER

Gido's Fishing Adventures,

NKFHerping,

LockPickingLawyer,

SoftWhiteUnderbelly,

Mark Wiens,

Today I Found Out, and

Stated Clearly

The Bugs are Back!

Greetings everyone! It is Monday, April 7th and the beginning of another busy week. But before I let you know all we have coming up in the next few day I would like to clean up a few details from last week. There were several links that I mentioned but did get to add to the program notes for last Thursday’s livestream and I am going to give you these now.

The first is the link for Steve Young’s “Mixes and Musings”  - a beautiful book  with some of Steves slime mold photography accompanied by his original poetry. It is a very unique and lovely book that any macro photographer would love tp have in their library! The link is - https://www.youngphotography.com.au

Next up is the link to the Stackshot 3X controller - if ypu are looking to upgrade to a multi-axis controller, here is the link - https://cognisys-inc.com/focus-stacking/stackshot-pkgs/stackshot3x-rail-pkg.html

I talked about doing a limited number of microscope focus block conversions for high precision, high magnification focus stacking. The cost for one of these conversions is $350 ($200 for Patreon Supporters) and does not include the price of the microscope. You will have to source the microscope and send it to me. The best place to find”Parts Only” Olympus BH2 microscopes in eBay and here is a link to show you an example of what you should be looking for - https://www.ebay.com/itm/167374050963?_skw=BH2+microscope+for+parts&itmmeta=01JR8FVJDWC1WZ5WTY5QA8F3X8&hash=item26f8455693:g:lnwAAOSwVqBn0sDX&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1f4QFuDz4Wt5%2B5JxClPBsSS1NH7vbazNPqmPTU6ovVQ5YpdOP3oAotf8FG1DiJS%2BNHG8a8y8HseQPw83Pfe1hBxNFggmGDJT09R2fZ%2BeALecAqyvURUzIC2pnSYvV%2Fj1z1TA2mF9vhup%2BAirlCB3%2BBPmCM5tWTkwNIa%2FYFB9k8Bgc0m6iO2e0lSvDC28uavHWpB20MESesvrCnef%2B7rn9VfEidinKyDHeBRgHmp%2FCEjIMAnm4pbdmxm45IojPI9TW0szv1Y1PHYgFgtRHX5M7SVxyoAGWSUPUTVK3imNayStA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMpKfuj8Jl

It is very important that you confirm that the fine focus on the focus block is working. If it is NOT working when I receive the microscope, I will evaluate for possible repair, which may increase the total cost of the conversion but will let you know before starting the conversion. If it is broken and cannot be repaired I will return the scope to you and you will need to cover the shipping cost. If you would like to get on the list for this service, please message me through the Walls-app (www.walls-app.com). This is the only way in which I will be taking orders.

I am also going to make a limited series of the new Crystal Cross Polarizing Photography Platform. To get on this list you also must message me through the walls-app. The cost for each unit is $220 ($110 for Patreon Supporters). These devices are made on a first-come-first-served basis and will only be available through the rest of this month (April 2025). The link to the app is https://www.walls-app.com.

Next up is the Platypod device - this can be purchased by following this link too the Platypod site - https://www.platypod.com/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADFaxwjPJTkBedgUEpxhRZFkT9xvI&gclid=Cj0KCQjw782_BhDjARIsABTv_JCY90l_UL6jhUgNbZ1QnGxtm0bNr9O8sufu6jOJyyNkz8-MHxzesOoaAg7IEALw_wcB

I talked bout several books that I am currently reading - here are the links -

Kirsten Hines - Wild Florida - a wonderful book and available through Amazon - https://amzn.to/3GbRLP1

Matt Doogue - Close-up Photography - a very thorough and easy to read text - https://amzn.to/4j0tqKR

The Wildlife Photography Workshop by Ben Hall and Ross Hoddinott - https://amzn.to/3EmJMOB

OK - so what is coming up this week? On Tuesday’s Macro Talk I will be announcing the results of last month’s competition and showing the images. Always a lot of fun and this should be no exception, given the theme for March, which was “What Is It?”. The link is right here - https://youtube.com/live/T1lgG2LjCUY?feature=share

By the way, our competition theme for April is an old favorite - “Food & Drink”, though “Food and/or Drink” might be a little more accurate. Your image(s) should be close-up but I will relax the magnification requirement to only 4:1 - one quarter life-size. Former winners only get to submit one entry but everyone else can submit two images. I am current starting negotiations with Rik Littlefield and hope to have everything set up for a second annual stereo photography competition for the month of June, 2025 - stay tuned!

On Thursday, Macro Talk Too will focus on my strategy for springtime insect photography and your link is right here - https://youtube.com/live/RjBtMhzrT2I?feature=share

Saturday we get back to our regular schedule for Pzoom get-togethers. The link is over on the Patreon site - https://www.patreon.com/allanwallsphotography

As this is not technically our second regular Pzoom of the month, we DO NOT have a Tangent scheduled for this Saturday - the next Tangent episode is scheduled for 4/26/25.

That is all I have for you this week but I also wanted to mention some of the video projects I am currently working on. Some of the video content you will be seeing in the coming weeks include:

How to Convert an Olympus Microscope for High Precision Focus Stacking

Build Your Own Cross Polarization Platform

Unusual Enlarger Lenses - Reviews

Using Eli-Illumination with High-NA Microscope Objectives

Making Your Own Camera

There are more ideas in development but this list will probably be the next video content released on the channel.

Finally, a picture…

Diopters and Photogrammetry

LATE ENTRY!

I forgot to include the AfterStack19 invitation in my original posting of this blog - please join us on Saturday at 10AM for one of the most helpful and informative post-production round tables you are likely to find! Here is the invitation (and it is FREE)…

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Afterstack19

Time: Mar 22, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=81124304990

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

And here is your link to the Google Drive folder where you may deposit any images you would like to share with the group - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XA7tv9O2SW0TGRjiIIRBzMRMAu-ZAkKe?usp=share_link

And now, back to the post -

Greetings All,

incoming!

I am so glad Monday is here and I can take a breather after a marathon weekend of getting caught up on all the projects that have been piling up since the beginning of the year. This is my desk this morning…

If you are waiting on me to send you something, there is a good chance it will be on its way to you before the end of the day. If you are with the IRS and are waiting for me to pay my tax bill for last year, please be patient.

Before telling you about this week’s activities, I need to remind you that I will be out of the studio next week and so there will be no Macro Talk Too on Thursday 3/27 and no Pzoom on Saturday 3//29/25. I hope to be back streaming on April Fools Day, when I will give you a rundown of what I learned at the Florida Convention of Camera Clubs during my visit.

This week I will be kicking things off with a discussion, mostly for newcomers, on the subject of close-up filters in macro photography. I will be giving an overview of close-up filters and how they can be used in macro photography, along with useful information on the best filters available today. To join the conversation, follow this link at 8PM on Tuesday - https://youtube.com/live/3vj2mCfX4pY?feature=share

On Thursday’s Macro Talk Too I will be talking about my experience with photogrammetry in macro photography. I was asked to do this a little while ago, so here it is! The link to join the discussion is right here -  https://youtube.com/live/pPmy3Uh3kDE?feature=share

On Saturday I will be hosting AfterStack 19 and in this episode it will be all about your pictures. You are invited to drop any images that you are having g trouble with into our shared Google drive folder and we will do our best to help you figure out how to get the best of each of them. Be sure to put them in the sub-folder for 3/22/25 so that Bud and I can get them in time for Saturday.

Does anyone actually own one of these mythical lenses? Photo Courtesy of Robert O’Toole

I will leave it at that today as I have a ton of preparation for the week ahead! See you soon!

Short Focus - A Primer

All my clocks are broken. Or so I thought on Sunday morning, for maybe the 120th time in my life. Of course they are not broken and the sun is still above the horizon at 5:30 PM on this first Sunday evening of “normal” time. Another weekend has flashed past during which I developed a revolting sinus infection (my first) and built a bunch of photography gadgets. I also spent a little time thinking hard about whether or not I should wade into the murky waters of small-scale manufacture and actually try to make a little money selling some of this stuff.

A focus block conversion

There are pros and cons, of course. On the plus side, I really enjoy the process of designing, drawing, prototyping, and finishing all these projects. I love testing them and using them, too. I like getting feedback from my friends and working to improve on designs and building approaches. I even enjoy sourcing the best low-cost parts for the projects. Now, a big part of this is that I work on these projects to relax and test myself - the only schedule is the one in my head and I seldom allow my “hobby” to get in the way of my work. But what happens when someone is paying real money for one of these things - how relaxing will the work be then? And then there is the whole money thing. I am not very good about asking people for money because it makes me feel uncomfortable, as does receiving it when I do work up the courage to ask. Becoming a maker and seller of these gadgets would mean I would have to do this a lot (hopefully), and that sounds a little scary.

The conversion motorized

Neither the focus block stacking device nor the cross polarizer platform were cheap to make. That is because neither was close to finished until I had drawn, printed and assembled at least half a dozen prototypes - a process taking several weeks and a bunch of parts. But even accounting for my time, they also weren’t that terribly expensive to make either. So, at the end of the day, I am not exactly sure what they are worth, and I absolutely need to know that before I will sell one. I try not to talk about this channel’s finances - it is too embarrassing - but an infusion of profit from something like this would  be most useful and very welcome. Then there is the question of what I should actually try to sell - a complete, ready to use gadget, fully assembled and ready to use? Or a kit, complete with plans and instructions? Or some other hybrid arrangement? I just don’t know.

One simple eye of a velvet ant at 20X - no reason, just like it

So I am going to ask you what you think and I would be most grateful for any feedback you can offer. It should go without saying, but this is just me asking you what you think. It is not a solicitation and I will record your feedback without identifying information. If you feel so inclined, please answer a couple of simple questions for me - you can do so in the comment section below this post, or you can contact me in any other way that is convenient. You are also welcome to answer only the parts you want to. Here we go:

1. Would you be interested in buying a fully ready to use cross polarizing birefringent crystal viewer and imaging platform?

2. How much would you consider a fair price to get one?

3. Would you be interested in scoring a microscope focusing attachment to use with your stackShot or WeMacro controller?

4. How much would the whole assembly, not counting a microscope, be worth to you (frame, fine focus interface, Motor, cables)?

5. Would you be interested in getting a free standing, ready to use fine focus device including a microscope focus block and the drive assembly (for use with whatever controller you already have)?

6. How much would that be worth to you?

7. Is there anything else that I have invented/built in the last few years that you would like to have a chance to buy?

8. Any other words of wisdom or encouragement?

the testing platform

Thanks for doing this - I will let you know what the bottom line is in a few days. Now here is a picture of a bridge. No reason.

So what are we up to this week?

On Tuesday, in Macro Talk, I am going to tell you everything you need to know about the technique of short focusing in high magnification macro photography. It is surprisingly straight forward, but can add a very exciting dimension to your use of objectives as camera lenses. I will cover what it is for, how to set up the equipment, the potential problems, and the gear you will need. Then I will tell you exactly how to evaluate and relay lenses that you think may work for short focus and actually walk through the process using one of Susan Seaford’s telephoto Nikon lenses. Fun! The link is here… https://youtube.com/live/GAsu-jhdp-s?feature=share

On Thursday we are going to take one more look at the two macro-gadgets I have been working on for the last month and I will complete the circle by giving you step-by-step instructions on how to take full advantage of the two 3D print files that I released earlier today. Literally everything you need to know to build and use both devices for your own rig. Even if you have no interest in building either of them, there will still be a ton of interesting stuff to talk about. Don’t miss this one! The link… https://youtube.com/live/7WhjIWPh8fE?feature=share

Saturday is Pzoom - a private face to face meeting with my awesome Patreon supporters, where they get to ask questions, lodge complaints, hurl obscenities, and just have a good old time with their host - me! I will have a few surprises for the group and we are going to have a very good time - promise! The invitation is posted over on my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/allanwallsphotography

If you missed the last AfterStack, fear not, as it is now available by following this YouTube link to the recording!

A busy week and a lot to prepare for, so I had better get my skates on! Hope to see you soon! All the best!

Allan

What Is This?

March is upon us and it is off to a hectic start. I have spent much of the weekend going through the excellent entries for the February competition. It is such an interesting batch of entries that I have decided to use Tuesday evening’s Macro Talk for announcing the results and discussing the entries. I always enjoy these livestreams and I think there is a lot to learn from the process. That will be at 8PM on Tuesday and the link too the stream is right here - https://youtube.com/live/huzYrBtOcqg?feature=share

On Thursday we are going to be getting back to the channel’s macro roots - insect photography! As the winter is slowly winding down in Middle Earth, it will not be long before the bugs return, and to celebrate that fact I would like to spend this week’s Macro Talk Too talking about the easiest and hardest insects to photograph. I will cover both field and studio macro so that after Thursday’s stream you may have a feel for the challenges you want to set for yourself this year. It should be a lot of fun and you can access the stream using this link - https://youtube.com/live/zla07Wz0G4E?feature=share

Talking about the competition, the theme for March 2025 is…

What is this?

We are going to try something altogether different in our March Macro Photography Competition. I was thinking back to a feature that was published every week in our local newspaper when I was a lad. A photograph would be presented and the reader would be asked to identify the  subject of the image. The pictures were always close-up shots and the reader’s task was to figure out what we were looking at. I was actually quite good at this and would often give the correct answer

In March, I want you take a picture of something small but common, while not giving enough information for a rapid identification. The winning picture will be a good quality image, at 1:1 or closer. It will be of a subject that is common enough that anyone will be familiar with it. The part of the subject shown in the image will show characteristics that are fairly unique to, or characteristic of this subject. The perfect picture will make the viewer think “Of course! I see that now!”. The judges will assign points for technical merit, originality, and the cleverness of the  puzzle picture. The judge does not have to solve your puzzle entry for you to get a perfect score, but if it is too easy you may lose points.

In this competition you must name the entry picture(s) as usual, and the title may be a clue, if you wish, but I also need you to provide the solution after the title. The judges will not see the solution prior to seeing the images.

This week, on Saturday, we have AfterStack 18, with the discussion to be led by Walter Perrott. The subject is going to be post-production management of focus stacking artifacts. We will probably touch on the retouching process though the majority of the time will be spent talking about the various techniques for artifact removal in Photoshop and other editing programs. If you have any challenging focus stacked output images that you would like to bring to the group, please send them to me or to Bud through the Google Drive link shown here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XA7tv9O2SW0TGRjiIIRBzMRMAu-ZAkKe?usp=share_link

And here is your invitation to the discussion -Topic: AfterStack18

Time: Mar 8, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=84818140645

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

That is it for this week - I must run - I have an event to attend and to keep everyone on their toes, I plan to arrive on time. Hope to see you tomorrow!

The Great Thaw

That is what it feels like, after two sun-filled days with temperatures in the 40’s and low 50’s - what the Middle-Earthers refer to as “warm”. It is not warm, of course, but one could be forgiven for thinking it is after two weeks of soul-destroying single digit highs and digit-destroying sub-zero lows. And some of the ice and snow did melt this afternoon, though not for long - most of the water in Middle Earth has phase-shifted back to the solid form. While not many who know me would accuse me of being prone to optimism, I have come across a silver lining to this meteorological catastrophe called winter. My fear of freezing to death out in the elements has forced me to face up to my fear of freezing to death in this basement, and this has allowed me to attack a few projects that have been somewhat neglected since the beginning of winter, seven years ago. Throwing myself into these projects has renewed my enthusiasm for making stuff, and you know what happens when I get enthusiastic about stuff- I feel duty-bound to get you enthusiastic about stuff too. That is my goal for this, the last week of February, 2025.

Kicking things off on Tuesday I aim going to come at the subject of DIY obliquely, walking you through the steps required to modify your macro platform for use at high magnification and high resolution. At the heart of these modifications is a gadget that, to the best of my knowledge, cannot be purchased but must be constructed. I plan to show you exactly how this is done, from start to finish, in under an hour. The link to this episode of Macro Talk, which starts at 8PM on

On Thursday, in Macro Talk Too, I will come at DIY in macro photography more directly, breaking down the various skills and tools that I believe are worth acquiring, in order to get the most out of our macro photography. I will do this by giving multiple examples of how my growing experience with tools and techniques have paid off in my macro experience over the years. I think it should be a lot of fun and if you would like to join the conversation, here is a link to the livestream on Thursday - https://youtube.com/live/JV1z2k_IatM?feature=share

This is the last week of the February Macro Competition - your pictures must be in before midnight on Friday. The theme for this month is Symmetry and I can’t wait to see what you have come up with! I will announce the theme for March later this week. Saturday is going to be a busy day for me as I will be judging the competition on Saturday while also hosting our first Pzoom meeting of the month. I am trying to come up with a creative way to combine these two activities and I think I may have a workable solution - should be fun!

For anyone who is interested, I placed a bid on a microscope this morning. It is a gorgeous Olympus CX53 fluorescence scope with DIC. It comes with a full complement of high NA objectives, DIC prisms and a multifunction condenser. I has literally everything I want in microscope - but I lost the auction in the last 5 minutes. I’m not really surprised - my bid was ridiculously low for the almost new $20K microscope, so it didn’t take too much to beat it and someone was watching closely. The final price was only $1,700, but that is out of my comfort zone until the IRS has my pound of flesh. You win some, you lose some!

Sorry for the lateness of this post - I lost my whole Monday, helping a friend out of a bind. Tuesday was spent getting my two microscope focusing devices ready to ship to two very patient photographers.

I hope you have a great week and don’t miss Thursday’s livestream - lots of really original stuff to tell you about!

Allan

Shifting Perspectives on Epi-illumination

Greetings all!

The title of today’s post is about as accurate as I could get but the post itself is going to be very brief. It does contain a couple of important announcements that you need to hear - so I will get right to the point.

I have been informed that the competition photo-naming convention that I announced a couple of weeks ago has some formatting issues, so I am going to change the instructions accordingly. This will take effect immediately, but I will not disqualify mis-named images until the March competition. The format for naming your entry (and the filename for the image - they need to be the same) is as follows…

_exact.image.title_your first name.your last name.image file type

Every entry must have the same filename and image title and both must be in exactly the same format. There should be NO spaces, so words are to be separated using a period. The convention I announced earlier used “quotation marks” - these are problematic for some computers, as are spaces, so I replacing the quotation marks with underscores (_) and the spaces with periods (.). Using this convention a typical entry would look like this …

_green.weevil.foot_allan.walls.jpg
I hope that is completely clear but if you have any questions, please ask. I really do not want to have to disqualify any images.

We had an excellent Tangent livestream this last weekend, with lots of useful information for anyone using 3D modeling or printing. The session was recorded and the recording is now posted on YouTube - this link will take you right to the recording …

This coming weekend we have Episode 17 of AfterStack and this week we will take a look at the Photoshop focus stacking utility. This can be a very handy tool but it pays to know its limitations and how to use it. We will also be discussing any images you have been having trouble with, and because of that, the next announcement is also important …

I have set up a Google Drive Folder named “AfterStack” that can only be accessed by following this link -

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XA7tv9O2SW0TGRjiIIRBzMRMAu-ZAkKe?usp=sharing

Please save this link and use it for sending images that you would like to have discussed in AfterStack.

Don’t forget AfterStack 17 starts air 10AM this Saturday - Here is your link to the meeting -

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: AfterStack 17

Time: Feb 22, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=83179811857

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

Last Saturday’s Pzoom recording is available to Patreon Supporters and can be found on my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/allanwallsphotography) and while I am thinking about it, I have also set up a Pzoom Google Drive Folder and the link to that folder is also over on Patreon.

Getting to this week’s planned Macro Talk and Macro Talk Too discussions, we are going to delve into a couple of technical topics that will be valuable to anyone interested in expanding their macro skill set or trying something new. In our first livestream we are going to take a look at epi-illumination using a very inexpensive coaxial lighting setup. I will walk through the equipment and demonstrate how the rig should be assembled. I will walk thought the steps for setting up a photograph and make some suggestions for suitable subjects and discuss some of the technical limitations of this technique. There will be plenty of time to answer questions. https://youtube.com/live/NNZTNaj0sVQ?feature=share

On Thursday we will change gears and discuss a technique that is uncommonly applied today, but one that is well worth understanding. Using the tilt, shift, and swing capabilities of some lenses, adapters and bellows to manipulate the focal plane to alter perspective in close-up and macro photography. We will accomplish this while taking a look at one of the most complicated bellows devices ever sold - the Kenlock bellows. I am sure that by the end of this hour you will clearly understand the  title of this livestream! https://youtube.com/live/0J4nqSb1CCc?feature=share

With so much technical discussion in the coming days, I need to get to work on my preparations. I look forward to seeing you at one or more of these events and encourage you top bring any questions you may have.

Iceland Again

Icelandic Glacier Flow by Harold Hall, used by permission

It is Monday, February 9th, 2025 and the week ahead is packed with macro photography. So much macro photography, in fact, that I will not be writing too much about it in this blog post. I will give you all the information about this week’s activities now, so that you can find the links quickly, and then I will get into what I want to tell you about. Tuesday’s Macro Talk will attempt to answer a question that I was asked at the end of last Thursday’s stream. I forget who asked the question, but it was a good one. How do we light highly reflective subjects in macro photography?

It is an excellent question with  several equally useful answers and I will attempt to answer them all by demonstrating all the techniques that I use to control reflections - as that is what lighting shiny objects is all about. Don’t miss this one, especially if you are new to close-up and macro photography. The link to the livestream is here … https://youtube.com/live/ha_uZ4Q10pU?feature=share

While I am answering questions I am going to address a request from Alison Pollack, one of the world’s leading myxomycetes photographers. Alison asked if I would break down my horizontal studio setup and I thought this might be a helpful discussion for anyone thinking about building or improving their own focus stacking rig. While I am doing this I will also walk you through the setup that I described last week for using high numerical aperture infinity conjugate microscope objectives with coaxial lighting. It is not a particularly complicated setup, but there is enough about this rig that is different to make it worthwhile to go over. The link to that Macro Talk Too livestream is here … https://youtube.com/live/HAAnRNy15fA?feature=share

For my Patreon Supporters, don’t forget we have a Pzoom meeting this Saturday from 10AM until Noon. At least part of that time will be spent answering questions and going a little deeper into the high magnification platform discussed on Thursday, along with a very detailed breakdown of every element in my high magnification stacking platform. This was something that Dianne asked me to cover during Saturday’s AfterStack (episode 16). In this section of the meeting I will show every adapter, mount, and optical component to take the guesswork out of what you need to order to assemble your own infinity corrected extreme macro platform. The invitation to this meeting is posted over on Patreon - https://patreon.com/allanwallsphotography.

Talking about AfterStack, Saturday’s live event will soon be available to watch on YouTube.

Believe it or not - this is the second Pzoom weekend of the month already, so right after our meeting wraps up on Saturday, at 12:30PM central to be precise, we have another episode of “Tangent” with Larry and I. For those who are not familiar with this event, it is a monthly 3D modeling workshop designed for anyone who has found designing and printing 3D objects to be a vital part of DIY macro photography. I have not talked to Larry yet this week, but I am hoping to get some feedback and help with a difficult modeling challenge that I am currently working on - designing, modeling, and printing an enclosure for a Raspberry Pi camera. On the surface this might seem like a straightforward process, though it is anything but! This is because the model needs to accommodate a battery pack, a Pi computer, an SSD expansion board, power management expansion board, and a touch screen monitor. Everyone is invited to attend and your invitation is here …

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Tangent

Time: Feb 15, 2025 12:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=81307174564

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

Stop staring!

We have a very busy week ahead and it is packed with information that should be helpful for anyone interested in extreme macro photography. Because of that, I do not feel at all guilty about straying into an altogether different genre of the photographic arts. I want to spend the rest of this post talking about one island, two photographers, and some of nature’s most arresting beauty.

HALL, COULET, & ICELAND’S GLACIAL FLOW

So this story starts with a conversation I had with my good friend Harold Hall. We were just getting caught up after Harold returned from one of his overseas adventures when he brought up this photograph on his computer, and asked me if I knew what I was looking at.

an image of Glacier Flow by Harold Hall, used by permission

Of course, having just returned from the same place that Harold had been when the image was captured, I should have known exactly what it was. I did not. So, like any good macro photographer I started guessing, and with every guess I got further and further from the correct answer. Now, in fairness (to myself), I will remind you that I am a macro photographer, with a primary interest in insect photography. This is relevant because while I was in Iceland long enough to witness the phenomenon that Harold was showing me, I had absolutely no intention of setting foot in nature when the temperature was hovering close to absolute zero. I had already made this almost fatal mistake, leaving the warmth of my vehicle to get a closer look at a bubbling, mud-filled and foul smelling hole in the ground. Our guide, despite having an almost total disregard for the comfort of his charges, did have a sense of humor. This was fully on display when he called this gaseous atrocity a geyser.

old faithful - not

Harold is clearly made of stronger stuff than am I, so he got to see this remarkable display of natural beauty, while hanging out of the side of an airplane. So what exactly are we looking at here? What are these silky braids visible from high above? We are looking at the runoff from a melting glacier, glacial flow, hundreds of braided rivulets of water so filled with silt and chemicals that it takes on these subtle blues and the earthy tones of sand, sienna, sepia, and chocolate. Knowing this is what I am looking at does not help me to understand the dynamics of the scene. Streams do not typically cross one another as these appear to be doing, nor do they usually split off from a larger flow to  wriggle snake-like in search of their own route to the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. Even armed with the knowledge that this is flowing glacial runoff, I still find its disregard for fluid dynamics baffling - and beguiling.

Glacial flow by harold hall, used by permission

I love what Harold has done, capturing the essence of this stunning display of strange beauty. By lucky coincidence, Harold published these pictures in an excellent article that he released the day before I started to write this piece and I would recommend that you take a few minutes to visit his travel and photography blog. Follow this link to his article, https://www.haroldhallphotography.com/ and while you are there, I encourage you to look around and take in some of this remarkable artist’s work. Harold is one of the most gifted photographers that I know and his treatment of this curious aspect of Icelandic vulcanology is a superb example of the man’s gift.  I consider it a great honor to have Harold as one of my long-time supporters and, if he is able too attend our Patreon event this coming weekend, I daresay he will be willing to share with us a little more about his visit to this strange and wonderful island.

Iceland’s version of a “beach”

And then, a couple of days ago, I got a call from a good friend, we will call him William (because that is his name), who wanted me to drop by his office. His office is just a short distance from my studio and I was eager for a short break after my livestream, which had just finished. Arriving in the offices of Sun Chasers, a solar energy company here in Peoria, I was delighted to find another friend of mine already there. Natasha is an artist, dancer, musician, intellectual, and photographer, who also just happens to be married to William, making them one of the most interesting and entertaining couples I have ever met. The office was beautifully appointed and several of the most striking pieces of art on display were the work of Natasha herself. As I was admiring one of her beautiful seascapes, Natasha brought up an image on her laptop and, turning the screen to face me, she asked if I knew what was shown in the photograph. Without a moment’s hesitation I replied, “Of course! This is an aerial view of the glacial flow, possibly from below the Vatnajökull glacier.”, pronouncing the name of the glacier as only an intrepid explorer of ice fields, or a person with a severe sinus infection, could do.

Thanks to this unlikely coincidence, Natasha was now convinced beyond a doubt that I was both sufficiently knowledgable about, and deeply in love with this frigid chunk of North Atlantic basalt to be worthy of an introduction to a second glacial flow photographer in the same week. And so it was that I came to meet Gabriel Coulet and learn of the beautiful and important work that he has been doing on this frigid Scandinavian outpost, halfway between his homes in Chamonix, France, and Quebec, Canada. Gabriel “Gaby” Coulet is a former downhill ski racer, adventurer, businessman and acclaimed freelance photographer. His studio is called “Third Eye Line” - and his landscape photography is absolutely stunning. But you certainly won’t need me to tell you that. After looking through his remarkable portfolio, I decided that his work deserved to be seen, and that his Icelandic “then and now” project would complement Mr. Hall’s excellent article. To that end I had planned to include a few of Gaby’s images in this piece. Alas, my request for permission to use the images has yet to be answered, and as I would not feel comfortable doing so without the photographer’s express permission, I cannot. What I can do is urge you to visit his website, https://thirdeyeline.myportfolio.com and take in the images presented in the section called “Thule” (a translation is available and can be accessed by clicking on the translation icon in the URL at the top of the page). As Natasha explained to me, the project began when Gabriel came across some old photographs of the unspoiled island taken by another photographer, 61 years ago, in 1962. Concerned about the dramatic changes in the landscape in recent years, Gaby felt a responsibility to chronicle these changes by completing the monumental task of finding and photographing each of these vistas, exactly as they were photographed all those years ago.

Iceland is a small island, compared to, say, Australia, but it is not that small. The nation is almost 40,000 square miles, almost exactly the same size as Kentucky, or Virginia. Finding the exact location and vantage point for every photograph in the earlier collection of images, many of which could not be classified as iconic landscapes, and would likely be unrecognizable by most landscape photographers, must have been a daunting prospect. The essay and images titled “Thule” (a mysterious island at farthest northern limits of Ancient Greek exploration, and today thought to be Iceland) make a beautiful and poignant piece of work that I found fascinating and moving. I urge you to visit Gabriel’s site and, for a while, lose yourself in the powerful telling of this story. If I am able to obtain the author’s permission, I will share some of these images in future articles, but for now visit his website directly - you will be glad that you did.

My thanks to Harold Hall and Gabriel Coulet for allowing me to share their inspiring work. And to you, for tolerating my digression.

See you on Tuesday!

Allan

Resolution

Resolution…

I am not talking about the empty promises made in haste at the New Year’s Eve party only to be unceremoniously discarded like the last half carton of egg nog, the purchase of which had seemed like such a good idea the week before Christmas. The resolution that I want to talk about this week is the ability for an optical system to distinguish two points that are in close proximity as separate entities on our camera’s sensor. Assuming, of course, that the number and size of photo- sites on the sensor, or the light sensitive cells in our retinas, are capable of resolving detail to the same or a higher degree, the limiting factor becomes the numeric aperture of our objective  lens. The relationship between resolution and the numeric aperture of a system can be loosely defined by the formula:

Resolution =(approximately) the wavelength of light/ 2 x NA

This is just a helpful approximation, but good enough to make it clear that the higher the NA of our objective, the smaller the separation of points and the more resolving power in the system. We typically use objectives that prioritize full spectrum color correction and long working distances, as these characteristics of a lens give us much less color fringing while providing a lot of room  for illuminating our subject. A good example of this is the 5X Mitutoyo M Plan apochromatic objective. This lens has a numerical aperture of only 0.14 but the low resolving power (2um) is an acceptable trade-off for the huge working distance of 34mm.

Consider now the resolution of an objective like the Olympus UPLX APO, which has a numerical aperture of 0.8 (at 20X) - it is also  an apochromat, but can resolve to 0.42um - five times the resolution of the Mitutoyo (and more than twice the resolution of the Mitutoyo 20X SL WD which only has an NA of 0.28). It seems, therefore, that we are limited to using only lower NA objectives because the  corresponding tiny working distances make it all but impossible to get enough light onto our subject for photography to be possible.

At first blush, this appears to present us with a Hobson’s Choice - or no real choice at all. We can take it or leave it. We choose a high NA objective or a well lit subject, but not both. However, there is another option and that is going to be the subject of Thursday’s livestream. I am going to show you a practical and affordable alternative method for using high NA objectives  while also illuminating the subject for photography. This will not be a novel concept to everyone, but even for those of you who already know the answer to this perplexing puzzle, it may surprise you to discover just how accessible super-high-resolution photomicrography  can be, with a small investment and most of the same equipment you already have. Tune in to Macro Talk Too this Thursday at 2PM to get everything you need to dive into high-resolution photography! https://youtube.com/live/DHEicfFzmgE?feature=share

Let’s now work backwards to Tuesday’s Macro Talk, our first livestream this week, at 8PM on YouTube. We are going to have a Competition Results Special, in which I will discuss the entries to last month’s contest and announce the winners. I have decided to do this because my plans for judging this competition and recording the process for release in a video fell through at the last minute. My guest judge was called away on urgent business and was unable to complete the judging and recording. So I am going to go it alone this month and if I am doing that, I might as well do it live, as these livestreams are always a lot of fun to do. There were only about 35 entries this month (mechanisms was the theme) so I should have just enough time to go through every entry. Your link to the results livestream is right here - https://youtube.com/live/RQnBEEOL3CA?feature=share

This Saturday, at 10AM, we have another AfterStack - this is Episode 16 - and Bud Perrott will be back to lead this discussion. If you have an image you would like to have discussed be sure to send it to Bud or I this week. I believe Bud has a topic lined up and as soon as I find out what it is I will announce it in a livestream. This post-processing round table discussion is free of charge and open to anyone interested in attending. But you will need an invitation to get in - here it is -

Topic: AfterStack 16 Time: Feb 8, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=84267941870

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

At the end of last week I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Zamir Pena, the inventor of the AK Diffuser and owner of the business by the same name. He is a delightful young man and our conversation covered quite a bit of ground. I decided to include a summary of my review of the AK diffuser with the interview, which will be released very soon. For anyone thinking about adding the AK Diffuser to their field macro kit, something I strongly suggest you do, Zamir has very kindly arranged to offer a discount for my viewers. This information will also be included in the video, but you can also take advantage of it now by going to:

www.AKdiffuser.com and entering the code “Allan Walls” before the end of February to get a 5% discount.

By the way, I was offered an affiliate relationship with the AKDiffuser company. I decided that this may be perceived to introduce a potential bias that could be influencing my review, so I politely declined the offer. I will not make a penny from any sales resulting from this or any future reviews or recommendations.

Finally, a word about our growing Macro Competition…

IMPORTANT REMINDER

The naming of your image is important. Failure to adhere to the requested naming convention complicates the judging process, can significantly add to the judge’s workload, and may result in errors. The required naming convention in this competition is as follows:

"TITLE” FIRST NAME.LAST NAME.FILETYPE

This is an example of the correct naming of entries for this competition -       

“Compound Eye” Allan.Walls.jpg       

The TITLE must match the name of the image used when entering the image and should be in quotation marks. Your first and last names should be separated by a full stop (period). We have not enforced this convention, but with new guest judges every month, we have to eliminate confusion about image titles and photographer’s name. So, starting with this month’s competition, failure to comply with the naming convention will disqualify the offending image. This rule will not affect entries submitted BEFORE 10AM on Sunday February 2, 2025

That is all I have for you this week and I look forward to seeing you at one of the week’s events!

Allan

The Robots are Coming!

Hello everyone!

It is Monday, January 27th and the beginning of another exciting week in the world of macro. Since partially resolving my computer issues, at the end of last week and with one more trip to Chicago, I have had a little time to catch up on some reading. And these days, most of my reading has been on the subject of Artificial Intelligence, particularly as it relates to macro photography and art in general. There is a lot going on and some of it is very exciting - Like China’s ChatGPT competitor - supposedly better and much cheaper than our own version. But anyway, I felt like it was time for an update and I am also going to use this opportunity to demonstrate some of the remarkable advances in ChatGPT. I have not decided on the exact programming for the two streams this week, but I will be doing a demo of the new advanced voice capabilities of ChatGPT in one or possibly both of them. This will be a lot of fun and may surprise you!

Macro talk is at 8PM on Tuesday and the link is here - https://youtube.com/live/z82lLYFOUys?feature=share

Macro Talk Too is on Thursday at 2PM and the link for that show is here - https://youtube.com/live/pRJeJNZo8Pg?feature=share

AfterStack 15 was this past Saturday but I have run into some technical problems uploading the video. I will let you know if and when I get it posted.

This coming weekend will see another Pzoom meeting - all Patreon Subscribers are invited to drop by! If you attend my Zoom gatherings but have not had a chance to introduce yourself, you are invited to do so this weekend - bring some of your images and tell us abut yourself and your macro photography (or anything else you want to tell us). This is always a lot of fun and something I really look forward to .

AK Diffuser Update

Later this week I will be meeting with Zamir Pena of AK Diffuser fame for an informal conversation to be published next week. I’m very much looking forward to this talk.

Competition

Also on the horizon is the January Competition - “Mechanisms” - deadline to enter is midnight on Friday - don’t miss the chance to enter. I am also looking for a Guest Judge - actually, I have already chosen one but am waiting for an answer. Fingers crossed!

I am changing the way I handle private lessons…

Private Lessons

I have decided it is time to update my policies regarding private teaching. I have been taking private students since this channel launched, about six years ago. I love teaching one-on-one and am very proud of the amazing work many of my students have gone on to produce. I love the work with almost the same passion that I hate the part where I have to ask for payment. As a result, I have almost never asked to be paid for my time and work. This is a terrible business practice that would surely have destroyed the channel were it not for the generosity and thoughtfulness of many of my students, who paid me anyway.

With the costs of keeping the channel operational, not to mention the rapidly rising cost of living, I have to make some changes to how I do this. The first step will be to lay out my new policy for private tutoring and explain how we are going to handle billing for my services. Private tutoring is expensive, partly because I am a decent teacher with a lot of experience, but also because my time is in very limited supply. My hourly rate for photography services in general is $200/hour, which is a little lower than that of my contemporaries. This is also my hourly rate for personal instruction. My day job (running this channel, and all that involves) takes up almost every waking hour of my week - and this is work that is not compensated. The channel has survived because of the generous support of a small group of Patreon Supporters, and the occasional donations made by other like-minded benefactors. This has never been  sufficient monthly income to support the channel but I have always been able to make up any shortfall from my own savings. But as those funds are slowly dwindling, something else is going to be needed and it is for these reasons that I have decided to create this new policy.

I am limited in the number of students I can have at any given time, and I will always give priority to my Patreon Supporters. As long as I have available teaching slots, not already taken by Patreon Supporters, I will take new students. My hourly rate is $200 for non-Patreon Supporters. My Patreon Supporters receive a 50% discount for every lesson with no limit. Additionally any Patreon Supporter will have their first monthly session discounted by the amount of their monthly donation to the channel. For example, a Patreon Supporter paying $40 per month who wishes to have two one-hour lessons each month will only be charged $60 for the first hour and $100 for the second. I think these are very attractive prices and hopefully the added discount will attract a few new Patreon subscribers to the fold.

Payment will be expected at the time of the lesson and can be made using Venmo, the CashApp, or by PayPal. I am also open to other methods of electronic payment upon request. If you are interested in private lessons but cannot manage these prices, I will continue to provide instruction to small groups of 2-3 students at the price of a single student - not ideal, but for students at about the same level, it can be a lot of fun and very effective.

Active and Retired Military

I am also starting something new - I am going to set aside two hours every month for two private tutoring sessions for active  or retired military. These sessions will be on a first come, first served basis but scheduling priority will be given to active duty and disabled veterans. I will make sure that every serviceman or servicewoman requesting a lesson will get one. If you know of anyone who might benefit from this opportunity, encourage them to contact me directly. To request a session, send me a message through the Walls-app, including your name, contact information, service branch and status, and what you are interested in learning about and I will get back to you. This invitation is not limited to the US military - if you have served or are serving anywhere, for any nation, you are eligible.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. If you are interested in private instruction, but are not a member of Patreon, please consider joining - the website is https://www.Patreon.com/allanwallsphotography.

For those who are already part of the Patreon family - your link for Saturday’s Zoom is over on the Patreon site!

Thank you and I hope to see you at one of the upcoming Livestreams, where you will finally get to meet and talk to my personal assistant!

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

The words of Puck, Oberon’s impish fairy, on realizing how screwed up everything had become in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare…

Have you ever done something so careless, with such disregard for the consequences, that you were embarrassed to tell anyone? I do it all the time, but on this particular occasion I have no choice - I have to tell you about it because it is such a good opportunity to teach something of real value. What follows is a cautionary tale that I have decided to use as the starting point for my two livestreams this week. It is about how one ill conceived move in data management can wreck a schedule, waste almost an entire work week, and cost several thousand dollars.

The story begins with a zoom call that I was having with a friend, one week ago. During the call I wanted to show a clip of video footage shot through my microscope and recorded onto my Nikon D7500. It was not the only clip on the card, but one of about 40 such segments - some of them very long. In my haste, I pulled the card (128GB) from the camera and inserted it into the card reader attached to my MacBook Pro - my main work machine and the device I use for all my livestreams, blog posts and other work related tasks. Early that day I had received a single warning message from Backblaze that my 2TB SSD was dangerously short on space and my backups may not be able to proceed until some data was moved off the drive.

I have been given these warnings before, and they are usually given long before anything bad happens - surely this was no different. So instead of attending to the problem I did the complete opposite and proceeded to transfer the clip to my computer’s hard drive without a second thought. Apparently I did so without much of a first thought either because I somehow selected ALL the clips, not just the one I wanted to show to my friend. And the computer obediently jumped into action. I thought nothing more of it until a couple of hours later, when I noticed that the computer had not finished the transfer, though it appeared to be still trying to do so. This was when I remembered the earlier warning and I stopped the transfer, or tried to. The machine was not working as expected and wouldn’t respond to any inputs. So, after  trying everything I could think of I decided to restart the machine, a maneuver that works to correct a great many problems on a Mac.

On this occasion, however, the computer would not reboot. It would start to, asking for my password and beginning the process promptly enough, but after a few seconds the screen would turn black and all signs of life would disappear. This was repeated multiple times, with no success. I still wasn’t too worried - this had happened before on older Macs, and I managed to restart the computer in Recovery Mode. This is not the same as starting in Safe Mode, a limited type of restart that allows for most of the normal activities of a working computer to proceed. In Recovery Mode there are only a very limited number of options available. One of these is called Disc Utility, a process that allows one to examine the various Discs, Volumes, and Partitions on the connected drives. On examining my 2TB SSD I discovered something that I have never seen before and until that moment did not think was even possible on a modern MacBook Pro. My SSD had only 78KB of space remaining. This blog post is larger than that. Put another way, if my computer’s hard drive had a total capacity of one Olympic swimming pool, filled to the brim, I had remaining enough space to fill the tank of my car. If the total capacity of my hard drive would fit on a football field, I had enough room left for a medium sized print of one of my photographs.

And why does any of this matter? Because in order to move or delete any data from a drive you must have enough space left on the disc to copy the material you wish to move or delete. As incomprehensible as it seems now, I had somehow managed to cram so much stuff into my computer that I couldn’t get rid of any of it. Neither could Apple.  I have a friend who lives in Europe, and knows more about Apple computers than anyone I know, and after 6 hours of typing incomprehensible commands into Terminal , only to get the same “No disc space available” response to every command, he too joined the ranks of experts who agreed there was nothing that could be done short of erasing the SSD and starting over. An 8 hour round trip to the Apple Store in Chicago confirmed my worst fears. I know what you are thinking… “But you have everything backed up, right?”. Well, yes… and no. Not everything, it turns out. Not the stuff I have been working on, videos, research, recent photographs, OBS settings, that kind of thing. Some of it is backed up, somewhere.  Oh what a mess.

If I have learned nothing else in the last six decades, I have learned this - making a stupid mistake is only indefensible when I don’t learn something from it. And I have learned a lot from this one. I am also lucky enough to have a platform from which I can share what I have learned - something that can turn this minor disaster into something positive and useful, for you and for me. Which brings me to this week’s Livestreams (if I ever figure out how to set up YouTube, OBS, Google, and half a dozen other pieces of the puzzle, needed to pull off a Livestream using a different computer). I am going to take Tuesday’s session to explain how I got into this mess and give you some concrete advice on how you can avoid the same nightmare. Most of it I once knew, but some of it has come from earnest research over the last week. I won’t spend a lot of time on what I did, but will instead try to cover all the common ways we can get into deep water with our computers, especially when it pertains to the special case of large volume image processing. I think there will be a lot of good information that should, at the very least, be a valuable reminder of what not to do. Your link to the stream is right here - https://youtube.com/live/7u4jT8-6rT0?feature=share

On Thursday we will regroup and talk about some of the most important “Best Practices” that can keep our computers functioning reliably and at peak performance for years to come. I would add that the whole time I have been researching these two discussions, I have had my $5,000 M1 paperweight sitting next to my left elbow, as a reminder. Many of you will remember how difficult and painful it was for me to scrape together the means to buy this machine in the first place - I sincerely hope that my efforts this week will keep you from ever having to go through this entirely avoidable distress. Join the conversation with this link - https://youtube.com/live/JtYwJaMOZGM?feature=share

Hopefully we can get back to some semblance of normalcy by Saturday, when I will be hosting episode 15 of AfterStack - devoted to understanding and using the much-feared Pen Tool in Photoshop.

I will talk a little about how I use this wonderful tool, but the majority of the time will be spent talking about how you use it and what tricks you might have to share with the group. Bud Perrott will be joining me for what should be an interesting and fun couple of hours. If you want to attend, it is completely free and all you need is this invitation -

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: AfterStack Episode 15

Time: Jan 25, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=89740348691

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

That is all I have for you this week - I hope you can make it to one or two of these events, or if not, you can always watch the videos that will be posted shortly after the  events are over. In the meantime I hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Allan