Macro with the world's best macro camera: Outdoor tips and lighting tutorial

I go looking for outdoor macro images armed with the £60,000 Phase One IQ4, a 150 megapixel medium format camera, paired with a 120mm macro lens. It's an amazing setup and while it's completely unnecessary for what I'm doing, it's great fun to work with a system like this.
I show how I look for wintery, decayed subjects in a local park and how I work with off-camera lighting with the Profoto B10, before heading to a nearby bit of beach to find coastal inspiration, including some rather unexpected wildlife.
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#Macro #Photography #Tutorial

[@christopherward5065]

It’s a sea mouse Aphrodita aculeata. It’s an annelid a segmented worm like an earthworm and, it has those beautiful chaetae the long sharp filamenrs sticking out. they’re vivid iridescent blue and green shimmering wonders using eighty-eight nano sized hexagonal cylinders inside each hollow filament called complete spectrum photonic crystals. These refract reflect and scatter light passing into the chaetae into all the colours of the visible spectrum. It’s terribly beautiful. Sea mice are very special animals.

[@5RustyBin]

wow what a bit of kit that is!!!Great video again thanks Andrew.

[@KatieCollins1]

You have a brilliant eye for looking at something that wouldn’t necessarily strike me as a subject and making a jawdropping shot out of it!

[@tamarawilliams9951]

I enjoy your videos the most when you walk around and show how there truly is beauty everywhere, you just have to take the time to find it. I enjoyed the wood/old branch/ log image and know where there are some fallen trees near me. I’m going to visit next week to see if I can get some more experience trying my hand at macro. Thanks for posting. I always look forward to your videos. Have a lovely day.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks so much, Tamara, I really appreciate you watching and taking the time to leave such a nice comment! I highly recommend visiting those fallen trees and seeing what you can find. Good luck!!

[@randallvargas5315]

The picture of the dying flower was amazing!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks, Randall, much appreciated!

[@jimzielinski946]

One can dream!

[@MR-qs8zc]

Just amazing how you get such fabulous-looking final results from rather unpromising subjects!! If I tried to photograph those flowers and fruits they would look very boring. Thanks for the creative tips, therefore.

[@warrengh5647]

Love these macro adventures Andrews as they inspire me to go try myself. Thanks.

[@chrislarkin4582]

Great stuff. Those seed heads were superb in particular

[@iainmurray5716]

Entertaining and instructive. Keep them coming!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thank you, Iain!

[@CharlesForeman]

As always Andrew, First Class video. thank you

[@pauldarville3843]

Nice camera!

[@NickSmithPhotography]

Another great informative video! I feel like I'm watching a documentary on macro photography and its captivating. I think the shell from beach level is a beautiful image and not one I or others would see. Feel I've found a great channel here. 👍

[@markjacksonphotos]

Great watching you produce these vlogs.👍🙂

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks Mark!

[@MichelleCox]

Wonderful video. I'm amazed you still have blooming flowers in December! I'm struggling to take photos here in Wisconsin, USA now that everything is dead but videos like this inspire me to keep looking. Also, I had a fan-girl moment when I saw the mini TARDIS behind you. :)

[@timproffitt1508]

Very nice! Always enjoy your videos sir!

[@richardlewis9868]

lovely work, the fruit you shot are called physalis

[@kenmccormack4252]

Hi Andrew - Great video, very informative. I believe your favourite photo is that of the Chinese Lantern, they are a lovely orange colour before they decay but you nailed that photo. I think the starfish where the result of the last storm, I read that thousands of starfish had been washed up along the Scottish coast, as for the strange creature you uncovered I have no clue. Several years ago, I managed to photograph an Octopus walking/crawling along the waters edge at the entrance to Lough Foyle on the Northern Ireland coast and that is my weirdest capture.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks Ken! I think you're right. I Googled the star fish when I got back and there were quite a few seen up and down the coast. I've never seen one that size just on the beach like that. Not sure if it was alive but I shimmied it back into the waves anyway!

[@sofievanherle4570]

No, it's Nicandra physalodes in fact. The seed heads do look similar to Chinese lantern, (which is Physalis, hence 'physalodes') but they are smaller and plumper, and the veins and ridges are more protruding than in Chinese lantern. The flowers of Nicandra are purple and the lanterns are green with parts that are dark purple, almost black, with a fairly large berry inside, while the flowers of Physalis are white, and the lanterns themselves are a bright orange with a small orange berry inside.

[@kenmccormack4252]

@@sofievanherle4570 Thank you Sofie for pointing out the differences, I was totally unaware of the Nicarandra physalodes, but thanks to your botanical knowledge, I am slightly the wiser. Everyday is a school day. Thank you.

[@sofievanherle4570]

@@kenmccormack4252 You are welcome. I also didn't know about this plant until my mum had it in her garden, and I made the same "mistake". LOL

[@pepe10015995]

Awsome your awesome loved this video

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks, Juan!

[@southdevonpixiephotography4119]

The strange creature you found was and still a sea cucumber. Amazing video.

[@christopherward5065]

No, it was a sea mouse. An annelid worm. A marine relative to the earthworm. Sea cucumbers are related to starfish and sea urchins.

[@bobbowring1702]

The seed which is incased is called Nicandra Physalodes Gaertn. comman name is Apple of Peru. Love that overhead flash look great videos stay safe I am in Kent the garden of England.

[@pierrevilley6675]

Depth of field in macro is already an issue on full frame, i can't imagine how hard it must be to get anything in focus with a medium format.

[@christopherward5065]

You can use all the apertures, diffraction isn’t a problem. Depth of focus is easily enough.

[@ulriktnnesen5987]

I would like to have a go at it with my focus stacking setup to see how much detail I can pull out of my final image compared to my otherwise 16MP or 24MP cameras :D

[@jefffiles9209]

The look you get outside with the flash is inspiring. As Ken said the wonderful shot of the encapsulated fruit/seed head are physalis also known as Chinese lanterns, the orange fruits are edible. Did you know you lost sound for 10 secs at 9:21, otherwise really enjoyed the vlog.

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks so much, Jeff! Good to know that's what they are. I've eaten physalis before but not seen them growing openly like this so I'm glad I got the shot!

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Also no I absolutely did not notice that I lost sound and I have no idea what ghosts are living in my machine to cause this kind of nonsense! Thanks for the spot!

[@drpainsjourney]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography 2 times your lost the sound, it lasted between 5-10 sec each time. I really like your style as youtuber, I am now a member of your youtube channel!

[@harryburnett7086]

Nice video , I always well alot of times i shoot macro for any subject such as yourself here , water , leaves , barks , even rust paterns on metal steel 150 mp ?

[@iBengalkatze]

Realy nice pictures👍❤️ but honestly I get the same results with my Nikon 😉

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Haha yep I'd be able to get the same with my canon too. It's not about the camera, as we all love to say! But I wasn't going to miss my opportunity to take this beast out for a shoot!

[@WimBals]

8:03 Physalis or ground cherry.

[@cgarioch]

I think you're mysterious creature was a Sea Cucumber

[@ZeLoShady]

How did you make this happen and how can I make this happen? I have dreamt about getting a jumping spider photo on that beast of camera!

[@SomeonewithaSony]

Great video, I’d be terrified carrying around that gear in fear of dropping it. The Chinese Lantern (Physalis alkekengi) was my favourite

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

Thanks Leigh! I have to be very careful with it!

[@IanWilkinson]

08:03 I think those seed heads might be Apple of Peru _Nicandra physalodes_ - of the Nightshade family. Might be poisonous!

[@xpixel8530]

.. but what about a small fly to photograph with these camera…

[@alanjames8192]

Looks like a Sea Slater.

[@christopherward5065]

It was an annelid not a crustacean. It was a sea mouse. Aphrodite.

[@franmol01]

the flowers @ 8:36 are Chinese Lanterns

[@AndrewLanxonPhotography]

I bow to your excellent horticultural knowledge!

[@franmol01]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography 😁😁

[@IanWilkinson]

@@AndrewLanxonPhotography Hello Andrew. Could you satisfy my curiosity please - did you remove my reply to franmol01's comment? I placed a link to a website that supported my suggestion (see separate comment) that those flowers weren't Chinese Lanterns (lovely photo btw :). Or did KZbin flag it as spam or whatever and prevent it from being seen? Thanks.

[@edwardferry8247]

Might as well add another £2000 for a hand held flash head to the £60,000 camera… 😂

[@SomeonewithaSony]

Poo = sea cucumber

[@christopherward5065]

Definitely not a sea cucumber. It was an annelid worm called a sea mouse.

[@Crispy_Bee]

PhaseOne cameras are great but rather miserable for true macros, especially beyond 1:1 - and most of your photos are closeups but far from being macros. That's not a critique of your photos! It's just that the title "worlds best macro camera" is entirely inappropriate when it comes to PhaseOne camera.