Action

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Greetings everyone, and welcome to September!


The August competition, with the theme of “Microhabitats” is over and the Judging will be getting under way later today. This was a challenging competition, which normally means we are going to  choose something a little more straightforward for the next month. But not this time. This month the competition is, if anything, a little more challenging.

Right before the action


The theme of “Action” is deceptively simple and I think this concept is going to be sufficiently tricky to justify my taking this post to explain what the judges will be looking for. As always, we will be looking for technically successful images, with interesting compositions, a message or story, an expression of the photographer’s aesthetic, and good adherence to the theme. It is this last criterion that may trip some contestants up.



The idea behind “Action” is that the photographer will capture the subject in a way emphasizes the impression that the subject was captured “in the act” of doing something. This is subtly different than capturing a subject in motion, though that could certainly be part of the story. As we say in the science world, depicting motion may bencessary, but not sufficient to capture the essence of an action.

I know that this may be a rather subjective difference, so I thought I would show you a few examples of “action” images and compare them with with examples that would be less thematic in this contest. To be clear, you can depict action very convincingly with a non-living subject (a dead wasp, or a water droplet for example) in much the same way that you can capture a living, moving subject that fails to capture the idea of “Action” completely.

No action here


Before I forget, the subject you photograph must be shot at half life-size or greater - a requirement that further complicates the task. So, let’s take a look at a couple of examples. Probably the most direct way imply an action is by having a subject captured in flight. In this example we see a hover fly in flight - clearly an action shot of the insect, and a perfectly acceptable entry to this contest.

A hoverfly, flying


But is there any way that this image could be modified to augment the story to capture not just the motion of flight but also to give the subject a degree of agency - something that would give the viewer a little more information, something that could flesh out the story behind this photograph. Simply adding the apparent target of the hover fly’s attentions, a mere glimpse of the milkweed, can add enough context to hint at why the hover fly is in motion. Either of these entries would qualify, but the second would more fully fit the “Action” theme.



Another example of a clear action is this honey bee coming in to land in search of nectar. This bee is in the act of feeding and the image is an action shot.

Apis action

A long-dead bee in some furious action

This is an example of how a preserved specimen may be photographed to capture the essence of an action, even though the little bee quite incapable of any action. The image is reasonably good, a successful studio stack, within the required magnification window, and the subject appears to be flying purposefully towards something just out of the frame, and this could be enough to convince the judge that this is a depiction of an action.

orchid bee on a mission


But this orchid bee from South America, also a preserved specimen, not only suggests purposeful flight, but also offers a subtle clue to the bigger story. Look closely and you will see the bee’s enormously long proboscis is deployed and follows the contour of the abdomen to be seen between the bee’s hind appendages and disappearing under the right wing. This bee is shown doing the only thing that it will do during it’s short and frantic adult life - racing from orchid to orchid in search of nectar while accidentally filling the hollowed out chambers of each femur with the orchid’s aromatic oils. This bee is being shown in the act of mating! Before you complain that the judge wouldn’t know any of that, let me remind you that you have the freedom to name your submission. A title like “Mating Orchid Bee” would be more than enough to send us off in search of more information.

Skpiier at lunch

A less complicated entry might depict a subject in the act of feeding, like this skipper,

an ant on defense


or defending a nest, like this trap-jaw ant.

Drone fly - no action



Here is an example of a subject that is very much alive and involved in a number of actions, but that does not offer a hint of what they may be and could easily be a preserved specimen posed on a leaf. While this is also a perfectly acceptable image of a drone fly, it would not be likely to get a high score for thematic compliance.

More action


One simple way to evaluate your image before submitting it is to complete this sentence… “This image shows the subject in the act of ___________”. It would also be a good idea to check that the action you are depicting is something that your subject could reasonably be expected to do.

That’s action


I hope you have fun with this one!




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I should tell you about what is coming up this week.


Tuesday’s livestream was already researched and written before I realized that we were at the end of August and that there would be a competition to judge. So I am going to move the planned stream, “Planning for Spontaneity” to a future spot and I am going to use the Macro Talk slot for the August competition, “Microhabitats”. I love this competition because it is always inspiring, surprising, and very humbling. It is a great honor and distinct pleasure for me to go through your entries and give you my honest reaction to each during a livestream. So that is what we will do on Tuesday evening at 8PM. https://youtube.com/live/Z6_YEXlnywU?feature=share


On Thursday we are going to kick off a three part deep dive into the mysterious world of coin photography. I have planned to do three presentations, starting with a close look at the fundamentals of coin imaging, with emphasis on how this discipline differs from what we might typically do. We will talk about the types of coins and their photographic characteristics, the equipment preferred by coin photographers, and the key concepts for lighting coins. By the end of Thursday’s discussion you will understand why coin photography is  unique and what equipment you would need to get started.


The second episode, in a couple of weeks will break down the typical technical workflow and delve into the specific challenges of coin photography. This will be the “how”, that follows on from the “why” covered in the first chapter.



The final chapter will be an examination of the advanced and specialized techniques used by coin photographers and will cover special imaging techniques, creative approaches, the presentation and use of coin images, and a look at some of the future developments anticipated in this field.

I anticipate this being a fun series with some new information, novel concepts, and a little good-natured ribbing of the neurosurgeons of macro photography.


Saturday, at 10AM until 11:30AM, Bud and I will host AfterStack 30 - a post-production roundtable for macro photographers. This week we will be taking viewer images and brainstorming alternative post-production techniques to get the very best final result. If you are ready to up your editing game, join us on Saturday. It is completely free, always fun, and the fastest way to improve the quality of your macro images. Your invitation to the meeting is right here - Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Allan Walls’ AfterStack with Bud Perrott - Episode 30

Time: Sep 6, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=86593221260

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

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A reminder that Crystal Art with Harold Hall is right around the corner - September 12 at 2PM - and now is the time to start thinking about the pictures you would like to bring for discussion It would help Harold and I enormously if you were to  submit any images early so that we can look at them and get the meeting going organized accordingly. You can bring images you want help with, images you love and what us to see, images that demonstrate a new compound or technique, or anything else. The purpose of the group is to compare notes, talk about successes and failures, get new ideas, and most importantly of all, to show new crystal photographers the ropes and help them progress swiftly. Our sessions are completely free and the group is as friendly, helpful, and supportive as you will find anywhere. Give us a try - you won’t regret it!

Here is the invitation to the first formal Crystal Art meeting - Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.


Topic: Crystal Art with Harold Hall

Time: Sep 12, 2025 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=837419042

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

Join instructions

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The Google Drive folder that I have set up for you to drop your photos can be found right here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ngiRDNHPdoGkx2fcOqedd3EDn_TZjVF3?usp=drive_link

That is all I have for you this week! See you on Tuesday!

How did that get in here!?


The Bugs are Back!

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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.


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…

What Is This?

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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!

And the Winner Is...

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Hi everyone,

The July Competition

I just wanted to give you a quick update on the move and, while I’m in the neighborhood give you the results from the June competition (“Abstract”) and announce the theme and rules for this month’s  competition. Let me begin with the last point - this month your image would be described “It came from a Grocery Store”. Note that I don’t say which grocery store or when it was acquired or why you got it, simply that the macro photograph(s) that you submit are of an object, shot at 1:2 or greater magnification, that came from a grocery store.

The Rules

One rule that I planned to enforce this month and announced on my website was about former competition winners being allowed to submit only a  single image from this month going forward. But I messed up and did not change the wording in the rules on the competition page, so  cannot in all fairness enforce a rule that was posted properly - but it is now, or soon will be - former winners and ties get only one entry per month. It is the same for our multiple winners. Everyone else gets two entries - and no one gets 3, 4 ,or 5 entries, ever. So this month you will not be punished for submitting two entries, but in consideration of those winners who did follow the new rule, we will only accept your first submission - which sounds pretty reasonable to me. Something else I should explain is why this month there is no video. I have no equipment to record a video, not connection to upload it over, and no time to make the thing anyway. So this is a written version, and a short written version at that. And that leads me to the first point - an update on my move.

Moving one’s home, business, and studio is every bit as much fun as a vigorous frontal sinus lavage, and possibly more. Moving anytime is terrible, but moving in the heat of an Alabama July is just the worst and at the time of this writing I had not actually started the actual moving part yet! I was still packing. The move started the day after I wrote this and it took all of two days to complete - that is just the driving part. So for the week before and the week after this move I have remained hot and tired and simply have not been able to stop mislabeling boxes long enough to make  a video, let alone one that you might enjoy watching. So I decided to do the competition announcement this way, just this once. And it is not really me that did the heavy lifting to judge your entries! That accolade goes to next month’s guest Judge and all around good fellow, Harold Hall, who anticipated the tight spot this move would put me in and contacted me to offer his expert judging services to help me out in my time of need. And I accepted his offer. So this is a competition scored independently by both Harold and myself - allowing me to fulfill my promise to have two judges for future competitions. He did a spectacular job (because I agreed with his choices, in most part) and I should add that I am honored to have such a seasoned expert on the panel. As is my practice, I shared my scoring strategy with the guest judge, who scored each image using the same criteria. Then I fed his scores and mine into a Supercomputer  which struggled for less than four hours before tabulating the results into what you are about to read. As always the Honorable Mentions are not presented in any particular order, but the top ten most certainly are (in reverse order).

But before we jump into the results, a word on the topic.


ABSTRACT - relating to or denoting art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but rather seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, colors, and textures


We had one DQ (5-images) and several entries that I had a hard time thinking of as abstract images. I was definitely looking for images that implied meaning using shapes colors, and textures. When I look at an abstract artwork, especially a photograph, and I recognize what I am looking at, I find that knowledge to be quite distracting. When I make an abstract picture I take pains to make sure you see the colors, features, patterns first. If you recognize the subject, I have not done what I was trying to do.With a successful abstract, the viewers eyes  are locked into the shapes, the colors, the reflections, shadows, and the textures. The viewer is encouraged to look beyond the subject to see the beauty in the components that make up the image. So with all that in mind, here are the results from the June competition as judged by Harold Hall and I:


Honorable mentions


Aljo Anthony for “Waves of Green”

George Simpkins for “Rebirth of the Serpent”

Tom Biegalski for “Rusty Rivers”

Julie Botts for “GlueStack #2”

Francesc Damleau for “Flow of Time”


Finalists


In 10th place - Pierre Soreau for “Sometimes Rust is Creative”

9th - Mike Olsen - “Stormy Weather Map”

8th - Amy Perlmutter - “Butterfly Scale Mandela”

7th - Norbert Balog - “Smoke”

6th - Mike Olsen - “Moth Wing”

5th - Hanspeter Steiner - “Some Transparency & Reflection”

4th - Alan Lyle - “Close Shave”



In 3rd place is George Simpkins with the “Galaxy of a bread Slice”




In at number 2 is Robert Storost with “Pseudo SEM”




And our winner for June 2024, with his outstanding image “Cellular Magnetism” is TOM BIEGALSKI!

Congratulations Tom, on a very successful showing in June. We both loved your winning photograph and agreed that it was the very essence of a great abstract work. And here is the winning image for June 2024: