Lilahpops

A couple of years ago I came across a website which has an excellent article called How to make a Life Poster using Photoshop. The post includes comprehensive step-by-step instructions on how to turn your photographic collection into a wall-hanging masterpiece. Inspired by the results, I decided to create a poster for my mother for her 60th birthday.

I gathered together (with a 95% contribution from one sister) the 98 photos necessary to carry out this project. The photos included my mother at various ages, her wedding, my father, her kids, flowers, bushland, workmates, all sorts of things that were related to or sentimental to her … after all, who has 98 photos of their own mother? Then I set to making my Life Poster.

Living in Australia, I couldn’t follow Step 7 (order a print of your poster online), so I simply burned the file to disk and took it to my local camera store. It was the first Life Poster the shop had printed up and I think we were all a bit nervous about the outcome! The result was beautiful, colorful and detailed. A huge 20×30 inch poster (I also got it framed) that she pored over with a grin here and a surprised gasp there. It now lives on a wall in her office.

Making a Life Poster was my first serious foray into the wonderful world of post-production software and techniques. It was a fun, creative photographic project and I look forward to making the next one.

I have yet to experiment with all the settings on my camera, but I’d have to say the macro and super macros settings are my current favorites. I love getting in close to a subject and have spent many hours practicing macro photography on all manner of things.

The super macro setting on my camera goes as close as 60mm which produces some wonderfully detailed results. Bees buzzing around the lavender in my backyard make great subjects. I will usually also set the Continuous Shooting Mode to help capture their movements from stem to stem. And there’s an element of danger too - a fear of bee stings!

Insects, flowers, bees, handwriting…anything really. All it takes is a bit of time and a lot of fun experimenting.

If you are interested in learning more about macro photography you’ll find there are some great books available. Here a just a handful:

• Macro Photography Photo Workshop
• Closeup Shooting: A Guide to Closeup, Tabletop and Macro Photography
• Photographing Flowers: Inspiration*Equipment*Technique
• Digital Macro Photography