Questions, Answers, and Coins

Greetings everyone!

A selection of live diatoms

It is Monday and I am still recovering from one of the most interesting and exhausting weeks in a long time. The highlight of the week, and quite possibly the whole year, was Saturday’s visit from Lester Lefkowitz.

Lester was my guest at Saturday’s Pzoom meeting and over the course of two uninterrupted hours of entertainment and education I was reminded why I hold this gentleman in such high esteem. He talked about Lightroom, and about his brilliantly simple file management workflow, while holding the audience in rapt attention for the first hour of the program. In the second hour he fielded questions from the audience on all kinds of interesting  topics. It was a a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning and I am already looking forward to the next visit from macro photography’s most beloved icon.

A very disappointing wasp photograph - but I was not giving up…

I know that many of you are not in a position to support the channel through Patreon membership and I completely understand and respect that position. However, I don’t think that it is right to withhold access to an event like Lester’s visit by putting it behind a pay wall. I did want to thank my Patreon group by having them at this live event and giving them access to talk to Lester, one on one, during the event. I am also happy to give them early access to the recorded event in case anyone could not make the Pzoom this Saturday. But I plan to release the entire recorded meeting for all of you at the beginning of next week. It will be released as a regular youTube video on Monday or Tuesday of next week. For my Patreon crew, the meeting recording is available today by following the link posted over on Patreon.

The next exciting macro meeting will be this coming Saturday, when AfterStack Episode 31 will include an informal battle of the post-processors. Specifically, we will be looking at your post-processing performance in salvaging three of my photographs. Then Bud and I will face off to see which of our very different approaches give the best results when editing the same three images. The pictures that you will need to edit are in a folder called “Allan’s Edits”, which can be found in the AfterStack folder in my Google Drive - the link to the file is here… https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xmrOCyrJXaxKi1mrQLKzgZoUY7PJ7OXG?usp=sharing      

Selection #1 (the TIFF is on my Google page

Download the images to your own imaging software and see what you can do to bring these unimpressive photographs to life.

Some garnet sand - challenge image #2

And here is your link to the AfterStack, coming this Saturday at 10AM.

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Allan Walls’ AfterStack - Episode 31 - Saving Allan’s Images

Time: Sep 20, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

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A Tiphiid wasp needing some post-production - the final challenge picture

The Livestreams that I have scheduled for this week include the second in our series of Coin Photography videos - “Workflows and Challenges” , in which we will breakdown the steps to talking a high quality coin photograph while looking at some of the more tricky traps that we will encounter along the way. This all happens in Thursday’s livestream, Macro Talk Too, And here is your link to that  stream.

On Tuesday, in Macro Talk, I am going to clean out my backlog of Macro-related questions from the past month.

These will be my answers to the questions that you have submitted over the last month or so, and will include an explanation of finite versus infinite conjugate microscope objectives, the role of enlarger lenses, the key components of a home macro platform, how to use  rear bellows focus stacking (and why/when you would want to do so in the first place), along with answers to several other viewer-generated inquiries. Here is your link to Tuesday’s stream… https://youtube.com/live/k69N3rlpomk?feature=share

Crystal Art, our birefringence photography meeting took place last Friday and it was also a great success, with tons of interesting discussion and a close look at the remarkable database developed by Jeff Melone, Mike Olsen, and Harold Hall. This meeting was also recorded and will be released in the next day or two as a YouTube video. I urge you to watch the video to learn about how to access this treasure trove of information on every aspect of this fascinating macro sub-discipline. Keep an eye out for this video which will be your on-ramp to the only crystal photography resource you will ever need!

The September competition is half way over and if you have not yet submitted your entries, now is the time to do so. The theme is “Action” and the judges will be looking for macro images that capture the essence of a macro-world in constant motion, We’ll be looking for the pictures that are high-quality, and that capture  interesting, informative, or entertaining  examples of how a two-dimensional photograph can tell a story depicting the dynamic, three dimensional reality of systems we rarely get to see. A spider devouring her prey, a beetle taking to the air,  water drops colliding, or the courtship gyrations of a mantid. Get creative, have fun, and show us what you’ve got!

Never leave out the interesting bits!

I am open to your suggestions for Livestream topics, video interviews, new programming ideas, or anything else that you would like to see in a future Macro Talk or Macro Talk Too. I do this for you and it makes it a lot easier for me to deliver what you want to see when you tell me what you want. You can leave a message during any livestream, or at any time by leaving a message in the Walls App (www.walls-app.com). I look forward to getting your requests and recommendations!

Like I just said…

That is all I have for today - see in a livestream!

Allan

P.S. - I have been getting some feedback about the degraded quality of my livestream video content - I am having a hard time tracking down the problem and implementing a suitable fix, but rest assured that getting this corrected is my highest priority. Thank you for your patience.

LESTER, HDR, & TELLING TALES

Greetings everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed a restful weekend. Fall’ish weather fell on Middle Earth this weekend and it was quite spectacular. I took advantage of the relatively light weekend schedule to catch up on my rest for what is looking like a very heavy week of livestreams and other activities. Most of what we have on the schedule has been driven by viewer requests, for which I am always most grateful. We will be covering a lot of new ground this week, something I always look forward to. I am also kicking off a new programming initiative - one that is both seriously overdue and promises to be a major improvement for the channel. But before I explain what will be happening, let’s talk about the week ahead.

On Tuesday, in our first livestream of the week, Macro Talk will focus on HDR (High Dynamic Range) in macro photography. I can almost guarantee that you will find this conversation interesting and surprising. I am shocked to see that this is a topic I have never discussed in this forum previously. We start at 8pm and will wrap up at 9pm. We will be looking at at the various types of HDR imaging and I will be armed with some good examples to help make my points. I will also work in a demo of how to process these images. Your link to the livestream is right here - https://youtube.com/live/OPBCsMbEjvY?feature=share

On Thursday, in Macro Talk Too, I will be talking about the art of storytelling through photography, though my comments and examples will address macro photography almost exclusively. This a topic that I am very passionate about and one which, when mastered, holds the key to a new level of macro magic. Through examples I will take you through the process of injecting narrative and meaning into your field and studio work. We get started at 2pm and wrap up at 3pm. Want to win some competitions? Don’t miss this one! https://youtube.com/live/ablNRggHm3k?feature=share

On Friday we will be kicking off our new live event, Crystal Art, with the first episode that we will later release as a YouTube video. This is a group of macro photographers who, like me, became captivated by the creative possibilities found in birefringence photography. This new group is all about creating crystals of all kinds and turning them into head-turning art. It is designed (by Harold Hall and your’s truly) to be an interactive discussion group, though each month we will set aside a little time for a brief didactic section where we will look at one specific topic. This week I will be presenting a discussion around the pros and cons of using”wave plates” or retarders with cross polarization - I expect many of you to be surprised by what I have to say. However, that is not the reason (or not the whole reason!) for you to spend an hour or two with Harold and I on a Friday afternoon.

──────────
Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
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The key attraction this week is going to be a guided tour of the amazing new Crystal Art Data base. Designed and created by Zeno and Mike Olsen, with guidance and support from my co-host Harold Hall, is the most comprehensive and fascinating resource for crystal photography that I have ever seen. During this session Harold, Mike or Zeno will show you where to find and how to use the database in your photography. I urge you to go over to the data base,  you can use this link to get there, and spend a little time exploring the awesome work that Zeno, Mike, and Harold have done to create this set of documents. This data base will benefit the entire community, no matter how much or how little experience you might have. I am not going to say anything further about this fantastic resource until Friday so take a look, be amazed, and make a note of any questions you have for our Crystal Creation Curators on Friday at 2pm, Central Time.

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one week, the very next day My Patreon Supporters will be meeting, face to face, with our favorite New York macro photographer and author, our esteemed macro educator and friend, Lester Lefkowitz! That’s right - this Saturday at 10am until noon, we will be hosting Lester for a very special Pzoom episode. Lester will be talking about his method for file management in Lightroom Classic. This should be very useful as well as hugely entertaining. If you are a Patreon member and have no plans, please join us on Saturday. If you are not a Patreon member, please join Patreon  (https://www.patreon.com/allanwallsphotography) and join us on Saturday. And if you have plans, please cancel them and join us on Saturday. I think that just about covers it! Oh, and the invitation is in the blog post I have not yet written, also over on Patreon. See you there.

“So, is that everything?”, I hear you thinking. “Of course not”, I was getting ready to reply - but then I looked at the calendar and realized that this is NOT the second Pzoom meeting of the month. It is actually the first, our last get-together being on the 30th of August. Which means no Tangent on Saturday, which is something of a relief as I was not prepared for it. So that means we really are at the end of the schedule for this week.

But there are a couple of other things I need to make you aware of. Firstly the AfterStack video is now up on YouTube. In Episode 30 we talked about black and white macro photography. It was a lively and interesting discussion with a lot of helpful new information. You can watch the video by following this link to my channel - https://youtu.be/W8yEtllRikI

The last bit of business I have concerns AfterStack 31, which happens in two weeks time on September 27, 2025. In this episode we are going have our popular post-production show and tell feature. I will be putting 3 RAW, untouched  images in a file called “Allan’s Edits” over on Google Drive. You may access the full sized files over there. The link is here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xmrOCyrJXaxKi1mrQLKzgZoUY7PJ7OXG?usp=sharing

I have posted them now so that you will have plenty of time to edit the images before AfterStack 31, at which time we will compare our edits and discuss what we did and why. There are no rules - you can do whatever you want with these images, maybe even make them look presentable. They are not good pictures, for a reason. If there were really good then we wouldn’t need to edit them. But they aren’t, so we do. Not only will you be editing them but so will Bud and I. I’m not sure why I volunteered for this, but I have two long weeks to regret doing so. Oh boy.

Just in case you think I am getting off light this week, I am not. My Camera Club meets this Wednesday and I need to come up with something interesting to show. Then I have to actually complete the photography and post production so that I can have something that I am not embarrassed to show to a roomful of innovative and famous macro masters. Am I a glutton for punishment, or what? I have about half a dozen lessons this week and am teaching a workshop on studio lighting on Friday. In my spare time this week I also need to start doing the preparations for a dinner that I am hosting on Saturday. While I consider myself to be an above average cook, I have to admit to being a well below average magician. Somehow cramming ten hours of shopping and cooking into the 10 minutes that I have free this week is definitely going to take at least some magic.

Changing direction, I want to tell you about something I am working on…

I’ve been thinking about how to get a little more out of the work I put into these livestreams. They usually run about an hour, with close to fifty minutes of solid, structured content — three or four main ideas that stand on their own. Up until now, the whole thing has gone up as a replay, which is fine, but not always the easiest way to revisit a specific point.

So here’s the plan. From now on, after each stream I’ll be editing those key sections into short, standalone videos. That way, if you’re looking for one particular tip or technique, you won’t have to scrub through an hour to find it. And for people who are new to the channel, these shorter videos will be easier to discover — and who knows, maybe they’ll bring more folks into our community.

For you, the change is all upside. The livestreams will stay exactly the same, and you’ll simply get a steady flow of extra, tightly-focused videos alongside them. Beyond that, I don’t plan any other adjustments until I see how this works out.

And just so it’s clear: my mission hasn’t changed. I’m here to share good, honest content — something useful, something entertaining — with the goal of helping you become the very best close-up or macro photographer you can be.

Thanks for sticking with me, and I’ll see you soon.

— Allan

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