Microscopes in Macro Photography

Greetings everyone!

Just a brief post today. I have decided to spend this week clearing up an accumulated backlog of questions related to the microscope as a tool in macro photography. It is a fascinating topic and there is much to discuss. We will start with Tuesday’s Livestream, Macro Talk at 8pm, with an overview of the various types of microscope, after which our discussion will focus on the compound microscope. I will explain the parts of the microscope and give an overview of what each subsystem does. I will share what I have learned about finding and purchasing the right tool of your particular needs, based on the features you need and those that you probably don’t. I will wrap up Tuesday’s stream with a practical guide to setting up your new microscope for photography. Here is your link to the stream. https://youtube.com/live/_c1O0jC0Ylk?feature=share

On Thursday we will pick up where we left off with a more detailed look at how to use a compound microscope as a tool for macro photography. I will talk about the various types of light microscopy and explain how each may be useful to a macro photographer. I will also cover the most common microscope mistakes and explain how to correct them using a simple troubleshooting checklist. The stream can be found here… https://youtube.com/live/8JqvfhmvRrg?feature=share

I hope that by the end of this two-part presentation you will be able to find and select the right microscope for your needs,  set it up quickly and correctly, use it efficiently and effectively, and correct any problems you encounter along the way. Throughout the discussion I will show examples of how the microscope can be an almost essential part of any extreme macro photographer’s arsenal.

This Saturday we have another AfterStack with Bud Perrott and myself. It is episode #33 and in it we will be discussing Photoshop’s “Actions” and how to make and use actions to speed up your editing workflow. The previous episode, #32, will be released on YouTube later today and you can use this link to access the recording… https://youtu.be/9sJ_udpWFeE

Here is your invitation to this fascinating and free event - Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Allan Walls’ AfterStack #33, with Bud Perrott

Time: Oct 18, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

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For those of you who attended the last AfterStack, Bud Perrott had promised to share with you a copy of his “Watercolor Conversion” Photoshop action and you can get your copy, ready to load into photoshop, by following this link to the AfterStack Google Drive folder - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JFSiKcTWqBqzlm81mh1lizAswez0L1BJ/view?usp=sharing

This link is set up so that you can download the link directly from the file. If you have any problems, let me know.

strange crystals

I will leave it here for today and close with a request - if you have any topics of interest you would like me to cover in upcoming livestream, please let me know by messaging me through the Walls App (www.walls-app.com) or leaving me a note in a livestream chat. I always look forward to getting your recommendations and requests!

Allan

Product Photography for Macro Photographers

Greetings everyone,

My apologies in advance for what will be a perfunctory post today. There is much to be done for the coming week and there are still a number of important side-projects that need to be attended to. So I will get straight into today’s business. The theme for this week is “Product Photography”, a discipline with which macro photography has much in common. I have always found this type of photography especially satisfying. It is extremely demanding, requires a great deal of precision and attention to detail, and is probably the best way to learn lighting for macro photography. It is also one of the few ways, other than teaching, that I have actually earned some income over the years. And, of course, it will soon be gone forever.

This type of technical photography has been one of the prime targets for automation and standardization. Much of the day-to-day product photography, the bulk cataloging of a business’ line of goods, the pack shots, is already being taken over by clever automated systems that can produce decent pack shots quickly and with relatively little human intervention. But this is not where the product photographer makes her money. That is from the  creative “hero” shots, the images that are designed to sell a product by creating a  legend around the product, by telling a compelling story, and by making the product look bigger, better, faster, more desirable than the competition. The problem for product photographers is that they no longer need to spend a week photographing the latest Mercedes sport coupe, in fact, they don’t have to photograph it at all. A robot at the factory has already captured thousands of hi-resolution images to create a stunningly detailed 3-dimensional model of the car. The manufacturer can, with a few keystrokes, put the car on a Tuscan hilltop, or on the streets of Atlanta, it can change the color of the paint and the  style of upholstery, They can fill the car with beautiful people, or show it driving autonomously. This is not something we might expect to see within the coming decade - it is already here - and the top end product photographer has already begun to feel his relevance starting to fade as computational image-making becomes more and more capable with every passing week.

I think this is a real shame, of course, because I like to create interesting and creative product photographs, but that is not the main reason. The primary concern that I have is that as some of these technical disciplines are taken over by machines, photographers will forget how this sort of work is done, and we will no longer think it is worth teaching - and that will be a great loss. Product photography requires an attention to detail that is not seen in most other areas of picture making. Products must wow the audience while being tru to life in the tiniest fdetails. The images must touch something in the viewer and get them excited about the product. The images, to be reproduced on billboards, in movie theaters, magazines, and on the internet must be color perfect wherever they are seen. Learning how to photograph a product in the studio is one of the best ways I have found to teach lighting at the macro scale. When we learn how to develop a workflow when using multiple off-camera flash sources, or how to use a tilt/shift lens, or design a table-top composition that can sell a $20,000 watch, we are learning how to take full control of the entire studio environment. To really learn product photography you learn how to control all the ambient light, eliminate reflections and vibrations, use bounce cards, mirrors, flags, and snoots, along with filters, gels, and polarizers. I would go so far as to say that almost every skill that I have acquired in the studio, has been informed in some way or another but lessons learned in product photography.

And that is why I want to spend a couple of days this week talking about what we can take from product photography to use in our macro practices. On Tuesday (my birthday!) we will take a closer look at product photography and talk about some of the most valuable lessons that we can learn from this discipline. That will be the subject for Macro Talk at 8PM central time on Tuesday, October 7th. Here is your link to the dicussion…https://youtube.com/live/OReNvjtb3s0?feature=share

On Thursday I am going to bring the discussion down to earth by giving you a series of tips and techniques that you can use today. I’m doing this, of course, because of this months competition theme - “Product Photography”. It occurred to be, after I announced the theme that some of you may not know exactly what we are looking for. So, in MacroTalk Too (2PM Central Time, on October 9th, 2025), I will tell you everything you need to know t create a believable product photograph that you can enter for the competition. The livestream can be found by following this link … https://youtube.com/live/7v7kIJMrOW4?feature=share

By the way, my guest judge for the October contest is none other than last month’s winner, Graham Carey! I am so glad to have the chance to work with Graham, who is not only a lovely chap, but also a brilliant inventor, skilled “maker” and, of course, one of the most exciting macro photographers I know. Having Graham join me to make the “results video” and discuss all the entries is going to be a lot of fun, and probably very educational for me, but it also has a less obvious bonus for you. As a judge, Graham will not be competing in the October competition - do you see my point? You may never get a better opportunity to join our list of elite photographers! So come on Thursday, and get what you need to make it the winner’s circle at the end of the month!

No sooner is MTT over that it will be time to turn to the strangely addictive world of crystal photography and our third episode of Crystal Art - a group of photographers who share a common interest in finding, growing, and photographing birefringent crystals under cross polarization. This may sound like a weirdly narrow field, which I suppose it is, but it is also a great deal of fun. We have a fantastic group, led by my good friend Harold Hall (and his protege… me!). It is a new group but we are off to a great start and this Friday is shaping up to be a lot of fun. I have asked  Harold to give us a little introduction, telling us where his interest in crystal imaging came from and about his experience, going from professional travel photography to the mysterious world of Crystal Art. I have several pictures and some video footage to share, and if time permits I want to tell you about one chemical combination that I have encountered that demonstrates some seriously odd behavior. That is all in Crystal Art, which happens at 2PM Central Time over on YouTube, and which is completely free - if you want to come, here is your invitation…

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Allan Walls’ Crystal Art with Harold Hall

Time: Oct 10, 2025 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

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After that it is back to our regular schedule on Saturday with another Pzoom meeting. This is a Patreon Only event that I do every other Saturday, and it is one of the ways I say thankyou to my Patreon supporters. The weekend I will be bringing some content that I have been working on for quite some time now - how (and why) to buy a microscope in 2025. That will be after we have all our usual activities. So if you want to give an update, ask a question, show off some work, or get some feedback, let me know on Saturday and I will make sure you get as much time as you need. If you would like to know more about Patreon and about how you can support my channel, please visit www.patreon.com/allanwallsphotography. For my Patreon friends - your link for the Pzoom on Saturday will be posted on Patreon later today.

Anyone waiting for the Microscope Focus Block Conversion / Crystal Polarizer Photography price lists, please bear with me a little longer. I did complete the lists but wanted to get a couple of my friends to look them over before sending them out.

Summer is drawing to a close in Middle Earth and I have had precious little time to spend in Nature this year. But I plan to remedy that this weekend. We have rain forecast for the next few days with nicer weather by the weekend. I plan to be crawling along the forest floor with magnifying glass in hand, in search of slime mold fruiting bodies. I can’t wait! If any of you live near here (Peoria in Illinois) and would care to join me for a few hours of myxomycetal exploration, let me know.

That’s all I have time for today and I hope to see you at one or more of this week’s events!

Allan

PS   I have been meaning to mention that I spent a good part of last week working out the optimal design of a lens hood that is for use with Mitutoyo M-Plan microscope objectives. I have subsequently made sets of these optimized lens hoods for the 5X, 10X, 20X, 50X, and 100X objectives, and which come in a matching box, designed specifically for these hoods.

M-Plan APO objective hoods

The bottom half of the case for the M-Plan objectives

The pictures show the hoods and the bottom half of the custom case. I am getting a few people to test these prototypes and may be making the sets available for sale in the coming months. If you want to get on the list for a set, use the Walls-app.com messaging center to give me your full name, email and mailing addresses. If I decide to sell these sets, they will be sold on a first come, first served basis. I have not thought about a price yet, but I will put the information on my website and contact anyone who signs up on the list, as soon as  the beta testing is done. Each set take 12 hours to print (the sizing has to be perfect to stay in the tiny sweet spot between too much and too little light) and each hood is hand-painted with high end ultra black 3.0 paint.

See you soon,

Allan

The October Competition - Product Photography

A marketing photograph

Good afternoon everyone! I hope you had a lovely weekend, and maybe got a chance to get out and take a few more pictures before summer is gone for the year. It was actually too hot for a lot outdoor activity this weekend in Middle Earth. Not that it would have made any difference if it had been cooler. I did not get out of the studio until late on Sunday afternoon and didn’t get to take any pictures before it was dark.

One of the reasons I was unable to get away was that I was editing the “Lester’s Lightroom” video, featuring friend of the show, Lester Lefkowitz! The editing is complete and I have posted the video to YouTube for everyone to enjoy. Here is a link to the video - https://youtu.be/49dsRxNlIY4

It was a wonderful presentation by Lester and there is a great deal of wisdom and humor packed into the two hour Pzoom meeting. Thanks again to Lester for coming back to visit, and thanks also to my Patreon Supporters for kindly agreeing to the release of this recording, a Patreon  Only Special Event.

Our “Action” competition ends tomorrow evening after Macro Talk, and the results will be shared in Macro Talk Too on Thursday at 2PM. I can’t wait to see your entries and dig into the judging process - here is your link to attend the livestream and be one of the first to hear the results. https://youtube.com/live/3dc1Q4PEBO4?feature=share.

On Tuesday we will be wrapping up the third and final episode of my coin imaging series. In this episode I will be going over many of the advanced techniques used by coin photographers, looking at some of the most exciting new technology that they are deploying. We will also discuss some of the applications these new workflows may have for those of us living in the non-numismatic macro universe. Here is your link to the  livestream, which starts at 8PM on Tuesday. https://youtube.com/live/Obgsit90SN4?feature=share

On Saturday, at 10AM, we have the first of October’s AfterStack episodes. This week it is Bud’s turn to lead the discussion, and I am not completely sure what he is going to bring, but I know he will be most grateful if you could bring a couple of your own images for us to work with. Stay tuned and I will let you know as soon as I have a topic. Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Allan Walls' AfterStack

Time: Oct 4, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

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So, with the end of the September we also have the start of the next challenge, and this is going to be a really fun one. I have thought a lot over the years about this theme but have always stepped back from it, for one reason or another. I am going to give you a little bit of information here about this topic, and what the judges will be looking for. To do that I really need to tell you about this particular discipline. For starters, Product Photography is not macro photography, though it can overlap at times. And like macro photography, at least in the studio, it is extremely demanding. The reason it is so demanding is because the people paying for these commercial photographic services demand, and expect, a degree of technical and artistic excellence that is hard to achieve. Colors must be absolutely identical to those a customer will see on the actual product. Every critical feature should be included. Diffraction, noise, and lens aberrations must be nowhere in sight and focus must be perfect. But contracts (and competitions) are won and lost on lighting. Just like in every photographic discipline. Lighting is everything! Below is a series of pictures where light is selectively applied to individual photographs using tiny pieces of gold foil as reflectors.

And this is the resulting photograph, after all the light has been applied

The final image after manual application of light

For the sake of this discussion, I will mention some of the types of product photography, so that you will better understand the guidelines for our competition in October. These are my own categories, but they should make sense. The first kind of product shot is the Hero Image - these pictures are the ones that photographers like Carl Taylor will spend a day or two to get the  details of the scene perfect. These jobs leave nothing to chance - the photographer controls every aspect of the process, the light, the camera, the setting, background, and props. The images are expected be perfect because of this.

fender telecaster with all lighting managed in the set up

A typical packshot

The next type of product work involves the rapid acquisition of dozens, even hundreds, of images that will later appear in brochures and in online retail websites. These images are called pack shots, and while they too are expected to show an absolutely accurate depiction of the item, they cannot contain distracting background elements or props. The key to the packshot is establishing an absolutely reproducible setting in which to rapidly place and photograph a bunch of similar products. They are commonly set up on a well lit platform with a perfectly white (occasionally black) background and foreground. The images should be accurate and tastefully lit, with little or no variability for shot to shot. They are often shot with an infinity curved backdrops and reflective foam core panels to direct light where it is needed. Directional lighting, and shadows are avoided, symmetry is perfect, and labels, when present are fully legible. Shooting pack shots is demanding, it does not pay very well, and the set up can be tedious and frustrating.

lifestyle product shot (sort of)

The third category is the lifestyle image. These pictures show the product being used in a way that directly, and indirectly, depicts the product as something you want to own. Lovely setting, attractive models, and a sense of prestige are a few of the tactics the lifestyle photographer will attempt to capture. This kind of photography is a lot of fun to do, but very hard to do well.

A mont blanc fountain pen

The next style is somewhat arbitrary in how it is defined, but is still worth mentioning, and it is the photography of big stuff. I split this out because many of these item cannot be photographed in the average studio and usually require specialized equipment, like larger format cameras, tilt-shift optics, lighting gantries, and a host of other, often very expensive, custom built rigs. These items include airplanes, boats, cars, and anything else you might have trouble getting in the studio. What makes this kind of work so difficult is the expectation that the photographs will have all the same qualities and be at least as good as those shot in the tightly controlled studio setting.

brass vaporizer

Some products are really more like services than tangible objects, and the only way to depict such abstract, insubstantial products is using human proxies. It is a fun way to promote banking or investment  products or healthcare services, but it is well outside the scope of this challenge. In fact, all but one of these disciplines within product photography are outside the scope of this competition which will require that you submit one or two “HERO IMAGES” of your chosen “Product”. From here on, I am talking about the rules and guidelines for this competition, so I will format this using bullet points, for clarity.

Ear buds advertising image

1. The theme for the October Competition is “PRODUCT”

2. All size and magnification restrictions are paused for this contest

3. You are encouraged, but not required, to select a relatively small “Product”. The product you choose may have a direct impact on your scoring, with more difficult products (small, reflective, color branded, highly detailed, etc.) earning higher technical scores for the same performance than would be the case with a less challenging subject.

4. You will be judged on performance in the following areas:

            A) Composition,

            B) Technical,

            C) Accuracy and effectiveness (how skillfully is your product displayed and how attractive is your depiction of the object to prospective buyers). Emotional impact and storytelling would fall into this category,

            D) Creativity and uniqueness

5.     You may add text to your image, if you believe that doing so will add to the impact or effectiveness of your composition,

  6.      The naming of your image will be considered as a creative element of your submission and could be particularly helpful in the event you have chosen an unusual or ambiguous product,

7.     Failure to comply with the naming convention, explained on the Competition page of my website, will result in the disqualification of that image, and

  8.     You may use any props , backgrounds, or other elements you wish - but it is crucial that the judges  know what the product is.

sungasses

Nothing too difficult or confusing, I hope?

The best way to think about this contest would be to imagine you are competing for a photographer post at an advertising agency and you are taking a few pictures to show the agency that you are perfect for the job. So you would probably want to select  a product that would be relatively easy to shoot well, but one that is at the same time eye-catching and memorable in some way. You would assume that every potential applicant will submit a technically flawless picture, so that would be your highest priority, as a technically perfect picture is a necessary condition but, by itself, not a sufficient one. You need more to get the job and you will need more to win first place in this competition.

I have been asked to show some of my pictures when announcing the competition theme for the month. That is a reasonable  ask. The pictures included in this discussion  of the PRODUCT contest are all examples of my product photography                                                                                                                                                   

The Objective Lens Hood

Another week is upon us, and this is going to be another busy one. I am going to get right into  the meat of this week’s post and will put all the invitations and scheduling announcements at the end of this article. That is partly because I need to get all this stuff out of my head before it explodes and partly because I want you to read this first part. And why is that? It is because it falls in the category of “one of those things somebody should have told me about when I was little, but didn’t”, and it pertains to optics.

Under the civic center - Mobile, AL

Optics is a scientific discipline, sort of. It concerns itself with the behavior of a relatively narrow band of electromagnetic wavelengths and could, in some circumstances, be confused with some sort of physics. The reality is less clear. Let us say, for the moment, that you want to understand the inner workings of your Nikon D850. You would unquestionably be in a better position to grasp the arcane mechanisms of the mirror assembly, or the instantaneous precision of the autofocus firmware, if you were the holder of a doctorate-level degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or both. But to understand optics at a correspondingly advanced level, you should know several good card tricks, have read most of Douglas Adams, get right at least half the answers to the London Times’ Cryptic Crossword every day, and be willing to concede that Flat Earthers may be onto something. An advanced degree may come in handy from time to time, but isn’t mandatory.

A lighthouse in winter

On that basis, I consider myself 75%-qualified to talk, in vague generalities, about the use of microscope objective lens hoods in macro photography. I have decided to wade into this treacherous quagmire of quasi-optical speculation, random approximation, and dubious formulae, for one sole reason - because I have just spent three days trying to figure out the truth of objective lens hoods and misery loves company.

20X hood in action

If you are a macro photographer and fortunate enough to find yourself the owner-operator of a 3D printing machine, then you have already, or soon will, attempt to print a lens hood for a microscope objective. You will do this because you heard someone like me extolling the virtues of such an accessory, while tossing out terms like, “off-axis light”. “Cone of acceptance”, and “numeric aperture. In all likelihood you will design your lens hood lot look pretty similar to ones you have seen on YouTube, and give little or no thought to trivial considerations like, “how big should the hole be?” Or “how long should I make this thing?”. I know this because that is how I came up with my last ten hood designs.

5-100X

But this time it was different. I was asked by a friend to print up a full set of Mitutoyo M-Plan objective hoods, a matched set for the 5x, 10x, 20x, 50x, and 100x apochromats. I am usually asked to make a hood for a single objective, usually a 5x or 10x, and under those circumstances my “that looks about right” approach to hood design seemed sufficient. This was a different matter and it got me thinking about the physical characteristics of a properly designed hood.

5X prototype

What, for example, is the purpose of an objective hood? The hood is used to prevent light that is not needed to form the image of our subject from entering the lens. The idea is to block ANY light that doesn’t belong in the optical train and therefor does not contribute to the photograph, from entering the lens, while also ensuring that NONE of the light that does form the image is prevented from doing so, Why? When this off-axis light does make it into the lens it will bounce around, willy-nilly, eventually interfering with the light that forms  the image and and diluting its contrast to leave a soft and slightly blurry picture at the sensor.

It should not take a Feynman-sized leap to appreciate that designing a system that is described by a term like, “just enough to cause A, without causing B”, requires that we find the precise coordinates at which these conditions are met. We should begin, then, by identifying and defining our goals and I would propose three:

1. To create an obstruction to the passage of all off-axis light

2. To ensure that #1 does not impinge on any “image light”, while also ensuring that

3. There is sufficient physical space to properly light the subject.

20X with no hood

Examining these basic ideas we can quickly see that the factors influencing the ideal size and accurate positioning of the hole in the lens hood include the Numeric Aperture (NA), which defines the “cone of acceptance” and the size and position of the hood’s opening in relation to the lens and the subject.

No lens hood with axial lighting

When we are in “object space” (in front of the lens), a vignette forms when the material of the lens hood protrudes into the acceptance cone of light. The cone is defined by the NA of the objective. Assuming we are working in an air environment, we can further assume that the index of refraction, n is 1.0. The half angle of the light cone can be expressed:

ϴ = arcsin (NA)

The distance between the front element of the objective and the subject  is known as the working distance and this can be further subdivided into the distance between objective and lens hood aperture (the Standoff - or s) and distance from the hood opening and the subject, the Clearance, or c.. At distance “s” from the front of the lens, the radius of the marginal rays can be expressed:

Image Radius (r) = s x TAN(ϴ)

And from that we can determine the minimum size of the opening in the lens hood, at that plane, and we can write that as follows:

Diameter of opening (d) = 2 x s x TAN(ϴ)

It is recommended that we add a margin of 1.0mm to allow for any manufacturing or assembly inaccuracies, which we call “m”, making the formula:

D = 2 x s x TAN(ϴ) + m

As you can see, we need to decide on a value for “c” if we are to calculate the value for “s”. “C” is the amount of linear space you need to be able to light the subject. This is obviously a subjective matter, but I can tell you what I use for oblique lighting:

At 5X, c = 20mm

At 10X, c = 15mm

At 20X, c = 10mm

At 50X, c = 5mm, and

At 100X, c = 3mm

Now if we do all the math, this what we get:

mitutoyo hood dimensions

And that, in  a nutshell, is all you need to know to make a perfect set of lens hoods for your Mitutoyo… almost.

Other design considerations include the following:

1. make sure the “lip” of each hood sits right at “s” to preserve space for lighting

2. Keep wall thickness down to 1.5mm if possible - the wider the OD of the hood, the more light it will tend to block

3. Carefully flock the inside surfaces and use sprayed-on ultra black paint if you prefer

4. It is very hard to print an edge sharp enough to really avoid reflected light from the flat edge of the hood, so I print the hood aperture a little thicker and use gentle hand-sanding to reduce it to a knife-edge

5. Add a few internal baffles by making annular grooves 0.33mm deep and 0.6mm apart

6. Use only cool LEDs to prevent melting your hood.

7. Remember that your printed hoods will contract a tiny amount, so plan for this by increasing the diameter of the hood barrel by 0.2mm before adding a slip-fit tolerance - print test rings to make sure you have the size dialed in before printing a whole run of hoods.

early prototype with thick lipped aperture

Some other cool stuff I am working on include adding tiny magnets to the barrel of the hood, allowing for a looser fit, while holding the hood firmly on a vertical rig, and some other printing materials for “tighter” prints and a sharper annulus edge. I am also trying diffusers attached to the hood barrel for a compact and flexible final diffusion layer.

A final word of caution - if you ever use water/glycerine as a subject medium, be sure to recompute your ϴ as it will change with the new value for n.

One thing that really surprised me, though it should not have, was that the shape of each hood was significantly different at each iteration, and the size of the annulus seemed to be unrelated to any other variable and changed, it seemed, randomly with each new hood. This is, of course, because of the subjective assignment of Standoff to Clearance ratios at each NA. I have tested the hood for which I own an objective. Which is to say, you will need to do your own 50X and 100X evaluations (or lend me yours for the testing).

So there you have it - not only do you know how to make the perfect lens hood for any objective, but you also know why. And if that’s not worth a spirited “Bob’s yer uncle!”, then nothing is!

*************

Shall we take a look at what is in the works for the coming week? Tuesday kicks things off with an 8PM Macro Talk on YouTube, where the topic will be Macro Video. This is something I am getting more and more excited about and I want to tall you about what I have been up to in the realm of video and suggest a few things you might want to try to get a taste of this exciting discipline. https://youtube.com/live/ylenxujEDMI?feature=share

On Thursday at 2pm, Macro Talk Too will consider the Pause Paradox and how taking a break can be just the ticket for restoring our passion for, and reenergizing our progress in, macro photography. We have talked about this before, but in todays stream I am taking a very different approach and will suggest some very specific alternatives to macro photography that I have found to be particularly helpful as pathways to to improving your macro photography while, at the same time, taking a well earned break from it. These recommendations are going to surprise you! https://youtube.com/live/7YAGg5dnn8s?feature=share

On Saturday, at 10AM I will be meeting for two hours with my friends and supporters over on Patreon. I do this Zoom call (we call it a Pzoom) twice in the month  (and sometimes three times in the same month!) and it is a time for you to have my undivided attention for whatever you would like to do.

No two Pzoom meetings are the same - sometimes we will have a special guest but usually it is just us and we spend the time talking about photography, and anything else that needs our attention. I really enjoy this face to face meetings, where I get to hear what you have to say. My Patreon Supporters share their triumphs and their challenges, show off their incredible macro rigs, present their favorite images, all while picking up great tips and pointers from their fellow enthusiasts. It is a great opportunity to meet and get to know other talented people, discover new corners of closeup photography, give me welcomed feedback about our group and about the channel, and just relax around friends. I do these meetings as one of the ways I say thank you to the people who support my work. This channel and everything I do here could not exist without this wonderful group of women and men whose monthly contributions keep the doors open and the lights on. If you would like to  become part of the inner circle, please visit www.Patreon.com/allanwallsphotography to find out how.

Another one of my favorite things to do at the weekend is to hang out with my friends over at the Tangent - another Zoom get together where we talk about the thrilling world of 3D modeling and printing. A lot of our discussion focuses on how to use the awesome Fusion 360 CAD/CAM software to take ideas that exist only in our imaginations and turn them into real, working tools for our photographic adventures. If you have ever thought, “I wish someone would invent a thing that could do this for for me!”, then you owe it to yourself to join Tangent (Larry Strunk) and me, as we take you on a journey of discovery aboard HMS Fusion 360. It does not cost a penny and you don’t need to have a 3D printer to get a ton of useful information from the discussion. This all happens at 12:30 until 2:00pm, this Saturday. Your invitation is here… Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Allan Walls’ Tangent with Larry Strunk

Time: Sep 27, 2025 12:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

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A word (another word is more accurate) about microscope conversions and crystal viewers - I know that I am overdue in getting price lists to those of you who have enquired about purchasing one of these tools, and I do apologize for that, but I have been having a very hard time finding moments in which I am not working on active channel projects, or maintaining my aging infrastructure, or doing any of the  countless tasks that come with running a YouTube channel (even a very small one). But I am making progress and have the documents in review right now. As soon as they are ready to go I will publish them and send them to those who have made their interest known to me. One reason for the delay is that I am also using this opportunity to change a few long-standing practices here at the channel, and all that takes time. Please hang tight - it won’t be much longer.

And finally, one of those tasks that has kept me away for writing policy and price list documents has been preparing a video for release this week. In just a couple of days I will be publishing the incredible presentation made during last week’s Pzoom meeting by friend of the channel, Lester Lefkowitz, where he talks about Lightroom and his system for foolproof file management, and about a hundred other things - all pure Lester! It was a long and hugely entertaining meeting and I am going to share every moment of the event with you this week - you can expect to see the video released by Wednesday! Don’t miss it.

I had better get in high gear if all of this will be ready to go on schedule over the coming week. I hope to see you there!

Allan

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)

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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.

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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

Action

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!

***************

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)

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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)

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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!?

How Photography Dies - Ten More Years

Greetings all!

This will be a short post today. I have a lot of preparation to take care of before the week gets properly under way, and a bunch of errands that I was supposed to take care over the weekend. My assistant is still out sick (it will be seven years at the end of August) so I am flying solo today.

I did spend quite a bit of time at the weekend contemplating the future of our country, our planet, my channel, and our shared enthusiasm for macro photography. All this pondering got me thinking about the future of photography, in general, and macro photography, in particular. I talked to some trusted colleagues and made a lot of notes, and by the time I was done, I had pretty much convinced myself that my prognostications were spot on. The short version of the story that I came up with is that photography, as we know it, will be gone by 2035, and replaced by something only distantly related to what we do now.

mystery crystal

But I also thought there was a lot to be excited about during and after this 10 year transition. On Tuesday, in MacroTalk, I am going to lay out what I believe we can expect to see during the coming decade, and I will explain why I believe that we will see the disappearance of photography, as we know it, by the end of that ten years. Here is your link to this stream… https://youtube.com/live/2gOAsER2dak?feature=share

On Thursday I would like to bring the discussion back to the present and talk a little bit about the ways in which our shared passion for macro photography can be used to make our communities a little better. Using examples from across the country and around the world, I will show you how our hobby can used as a force for good in the world. This is a topic that I get excited talking about and I hope you will too. You link to this stream is right here… https://youtube.com/live/YF_R93BBtHs?feature=share

On Saturday we have a Pzoom scheduled for my Patreon supporters - the invitation is over on our Patreon page. This is going to be something completely different. I am going to try something that just popped into my head, but something that I think could be a lot of fun. We are going to have a Q&A session. But a Q&A with a major twist - I will be the one asking the questions! I think I know most of my supporters well enough to be able to get them talking about the things they are interested in. It isn’t a competition or a test - just a fun way for us to get to know one another better, and maybe to learn some new stuff. Participation is voluntary and I won’t be putting anyone on the spot. We will also have time for updates, questions, and discussions, as usual.

From Lester’s last visit

Don’t forget that we will be welcoming Lester Lefkowitz for a special Patreon only event on September 13, 2025. He is coming on to talk about his method for organizing images in Lightroom - I am really looking forward to having him back on the channel - I will let you know more about the visit after he and I finalize our plans later today. Here is your invitation to that special Pzoom - Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Allan Walls’ Pzoom, with Special Guest Lester Lefkowitz

Time: Sep 13, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

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AfterStack 29 was this past weekend, and a lot of fun. We talked about the new tools available in Photoshop, and how we are using them. As always, I left the hangout with a handful of new ideas to try. The video will be posted to YouTube today and you can watch it by following this link… https://youtu.be/w6IjqucarhU

The original art - new cover to follow soon

Don’t forget about our Crystal Art group that meets at 2pm on the second Friday of every month. This is NOT the new cover art for the videos. That is still in the works but should out soon.

One of my very favorite crystal images

I have also set up a Google Drive folder for you to drop any images that you would like to discuss in the group - here is the link. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ngiRDNHPdoGkx2fcOqedd3EDn_TZjVF3?usp=sharing      Feel free to use this link to drop any images that you would like to share with the group at the next meeting (September 12, 2025) - it would help a lot if you could add the date of the session in your title, so that I can keep the folder organized.

And while I’m at it, here is the link to the next program on Friday September 12th, 2025!

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)

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hello there…

That is enough for one post, don’t you think!? I hope to see you at today’s stream! Allan

Diffraction or Aberrations - Pick your Poison

Greetings all!

I hope everyone had a more relaxing weekend than I did! I did not stop going until 8PM on Sunday evening when I wrapped up my last lesson - a “golden hour” lighting workshop that I did at a local cemetery. The weekend started with a two and a half hour Pzoom which was definitely among the best sessions that I have had the privilege of hosting. The meeting was jam-packed with interesting and engaging discussions, covering a broad range of topics. An excellent Tangent, hosted by Larry, was also well received and packed with useful information. The rest of Saturday was filled with all the stuff one has to do to keep the business open - none of it particularly fun, but all of it very necessary.

A buckeye at rest

On Sunday I worked on projects that have been somewhat neglected during my European travels, and finished a couple of clients jobs that were due. In the afternoon, after having my regular weekly Zoom meeting with my children, something I never miss, I got to meet one of the friends I have made through this channel. Julie was on her way north on an astrophotography mission to the Great Lakes, but she was kind enough to stop for a quick tour of the bunker and a nice long chat that was unfortunately cut short so that I could make it out to the cemetery in time for the workshop. Getting back to the studio at sundown, I promptly fell asleep at my desk, sedated by too much Chinese takeout and a less-than-scintillating YouTube video about AI and the end of the world.

an owl, i do believe

So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up, early on Monday morning, ready to get to work and with a great idea for the week’s livestreams! During the Sunday workshop I had talked a lot about lenses and how to use them. From the questions I was getting it became clear that there are a couple of lens-related topics that seem to be particularly challenging for many photographers. Both of these subjects are extremely important to understand but both have enough physics to make them tricky to grasp. I am, of course, talking about the two sides of the same image-quality coin - diffraction and aberrations. Both of these topics - the first a physical phenomenon and the second a design feature of lenses - can play a huge role in final image quality but both require a good understanding of the underlying science if we are to be able to control them effectively.

One pice of cover art for two streams - how economical!

On Tuesday, in Macro Talk, at 8PM, I will lay out the important facts of diffraction and give just enough of the physics to help you understand the advice we give for preventing diffraction softening. I will present some graphics that I hope will give you a very useful way to think about this physical phenomenon so that you can understand why we give the advice that we do. Some of this material may be new to you, while some may be familiar, but I hope to leave you with a new way of thinking about diffraction that will translate into better images almost immediately. Here is your link to the Tuesday Livestream… https://youtube.com/live/uQNFyq6a7xI?feature=share

Thursday’s Macro Talk Too, at the usual time of 2PM, will look at the other crucial aspect of the lens, aberrations. One fundamental difference between diffraction softening and the quality issues caused by aberrations is that the former is result of physics and the latter is the result of lens design. Or put another way, an aperture closed down to f/22 will cause softening in even the best lenses, but if you want pictures that have no chromatic or geometric aberrations at all, just buy a 150mm Printing Nikkor and use it at 1:1. But for most of us, that is not an option, so I am going to talk about all the different types of aberration, how lens design can overcome them, and which ones are most important to address in macro photography. Here is a link to that Livestream… https://youtube.com/live/CGwhTV-7lV4?feature=share

A wee baby gator

After these two streams I expect that you will be in a much better position to choose the best possible lens for your use case and to know exactly how to use it to get the highest quality images.

Coming up on Saturday we have another AfterStack - I have not yet decided on a topic for discussion but am leaning towards a look at all the new features since the last time we looked. Whatever we decide, the show kicks off at 10AM and goes until we run out of stuff to talk about. Here is your invitation to the party …

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: AfterStack 29

Time: Aug 23, 2025 10:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

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One of those crystals that I don’t have a record for - so will probably never find again!

I am going to leave it here for now - I have a lot of work to do to be ready for this week, and I really want to get out and take some pictures, preferably before I forget how it’s done!

Have a great week and hope to see you around!

The Power of Light: Photography & the Healthy Mind

the eilean donan castle near kyle in the highlands of scotland

This week we’re stepping slightly off the usual path — not away from macro photography, exactly, but into one of the reasons it matters so much to so many of us.

the highlands

If you’ve been part of this community for a while, you’ve probably noticed that the conversations here aren’t just about lights, lenses, and Lepidoptera. Somewhere in the middle of all the technical chatter, there’s a heartbeat — a shared understanding that this hobby does more than produce pretty pictures.

Monument to fallen commandos at spean bridge, scotland

For some, it’s been a lifeline during difficult times. For others, it’s a steady, creative anchor in a noisy, unpredictable world. And for all of us, it’s a way to connect — not just with the tiny subjects in front of our lenses, but with the people who share our passion. Our world is in turmoil, with explosive technological advances, building international tensions, and a deteriorating domestic order. People from Bismarck to Brisbane are worried about their future, and the futures of their children and grandchildren. Many have been struggling to cope for decades. One result of this almost universal angst has been a meteoric rise in the incidence of depression and anxiety; the CDC has reported a 60% rise in prevalence of anxiety disorders in adults and adolescents in the last ten years, an estimated 42.5 million adults in the US alone.

On Tuesday, we’ll be talking about the role photography — and the communities that form around it — can play in helping people manage anxiety, depression, and other emotional challenges. I’ll share a bit of my own story, along with some thoughts on why technical, focused activities can be such a balm for the mind, and how the connections we make here can be part of the solution. We have talked about health before, but never with this focus. I will try to keep it positive and upbeat, but will not be avoiding the tough questions. I will try to leave time for questions. Your link to this livestream is here - https://youtube.com/live/odQh0iSv1yk?feature=share

the magnificent forth rail bridge

Then, on Thursday, we’ll turn the conversation toward prevention. What can we do, as healthy, engaged individuals, to keep our community vibrant, positive, and supportive? How can directing our energy outward — encouraging, mentoring, and celebrating others — help keep us strong, too? It’ll be a lighter, forward-looking discussion, and I’ll be looking for your ideas to take into the months ahead. I am proud of the community that you have built around this little channel and I want to do what I can to keep it a safe and healthy resource for anyone who finds us. Here is a link to this livestream - https://youtube.com/live/ntkXC273Fx4?feature=share

These aren’t just “feel good” topics — they’re at the heart of why so many of us keep picking up the camera. The gear and the techniques are important, but they’re part of a much bigger picture.

the high road, or the low road - can’t remember

So, whether you join for the technical tips, the conversation, or just to be among like-minded souls for an hour, I think you’ll find something worth your time this week. I hope you’ll tune in — and bring your thoughts, your questions, and maybe even a photograph or two to share.

That is not everything, of course! We have Pzoom on Saturday morning at 10AM - a two hour face-to-face discussion forum that I host for my wonderful Patreon supporters. If you are among them, you invitation to this week’s Pzoom is over on Patreon, in today’s post.

It seems like it has been a while since our Tangent group met, but that will change on Saturday afternoon when we get together for some 3D modeling chat from 12:30 until 2:00pm. This is open to everyone and it is one of my favorite events on the channel! I never fail to learn a ton of new stuff every time we meet. Please join us - here is your invitation -

Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Tangent

Time: Aug 16, 2025 12:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

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a hairy coo enjoys a nostril lick

I hope you can make it to some of this week’s activities. Next week we will be jumping right back into technical macro photography with a couple of streams I have already started working on.

Flash is Dead - Long Live Flash

Greetings!

Heather in the highlands of Scotland - courtesy of Pixbay

This will be my last blog post for a couple of weeks - I am headed back to the Motherland for a few days of R&R and to celebrate the birthday of my older brother (who will be officially ancient following this birthday). I have decided not to to to attempt transatlantic live-streaming as I will only be away for a few days and could use a short break. I will be back on the 3rd of August and plan to have everything running as usual by that first week of August.

A castle in the highlands - courtesy of Pixbay

There will only be one livestream before I leave, and I want to make the most of it, so I will be talking about the role of flash in modern studio macro photography.

A lot has changed since the last time I talked about flash and I think it is worth taking an hour to examine the relevance of flash in the era of mirrorless cameras and high-quality LED lighting. I will start out by talking about what has not changed all that much - how flash is used in field macro. I will recap my thoughts on the various flash techniques and my recommendations for field equipment. After that I will focus on studio-based extreme macro and will summarize the relevant changes in how we do this kind of photography in 2025. I will talk about how the advent of the era of mirrorless cameras has called into question the supremacy of flash as a gold standard in studio work. We will look at advances in LED technology and how the availability of cheap but high-quality lighting has impacted the use of flash. Then we will talk about my workflow and I will lay out my “best practices” for using flash. I will talk about the common problems encountered when using flash in the extreme macro setting and discuss how they can be avoided. To join the livestream at 8pm on Tuesday, use this link… https://youtube.com/live/uWWTUj-bWNQ?feature=share

Flash is not dead, but it’s role in extreme macro photography has become less dominant in recent years, and may continue to do as lighting options increase, prices drop, and the last of the DSLRs fade from the picture.

A single Flashpoint MF12

I am confident in recommending the Flashpoint MF12 (Godox MF12 is also recommended with the caveat that is must be purchased from a vendor with a proven track record of honoring the warranty of a Godox product as Godox has a track record of not doing so). Here is a link to the Flashpoint MF12 - https://amzn.to/46Zz5NM. This flash , when used as I describe in the livestream, has performed more consistently over large stacks than any other speed light that I have tested, including the TT150 and all of Godox’s larger speedlights. The trick to avoiding dropped frames due to  slow recycle time is to use  increased numbers of flash units at decreased power levels. It also helps to charge between stacks, use a relatively long cycle time (5 seconds), and turn off the modeling lights. I have consistently stacked 6-800 images without a single dropped frame, a virtual impossibility with any of my other flashes. If a speed light ever hits the market with the capability of continuous use while connected to external power, I may consider moving to larger speedlights and fewer of them, but until then I will continue to use and recommend the amazing little MF12.

A word on the TT150 - and the v150 if it is still being made - this is a terrible flash for studio macro, and probably not particularly good for anything else. It has the worst battery life of any speedlight I have ever used, consistently failing to  shoot a full stack, even a modest one, without dropping frames. I don’t know if it is a fault in the power management circuitry, or if the tube overheats, or there is a problem with the triggering, but I avoid the use of these units entirely. There are a lot of flash devices on the market, and I have not tested more than a dozen of them, so there may be some very solid and dependable offerings that I am not familiar with. But of those that I do know, the MF12 remains the most reliable, least expensive, and easiest to learn speed light for studio macro.

The Nikon R1C1 basic kit

However, the MF12 is not my favorite option for use in the field. That honor goes to the amazing Nikon R1C1. A very expensive setup that may be unattainable for many, this system has the best TTL exposure software in the business. I was shocked at how well the R1C1 performed under all lighting conditions and by the consistent accuracy of the automatic power setting. But there are a few things that are irritating - like the use of an expensive and hard to locate battery, the non-intuitive controls, and the over engineered diffusers. But I would gladly deal with all of these issues if ever I become an R1C1 owner (unlikely given the sticker price of $850 - or close to it, for two SB-R200’s, and over $1,000 with two extra flash units). Here is a link, should you be interested - https://amzn.to/4eWziDq

I have been working in the field with a single standard speed light and the AK Diffuser. It is a very different approach to lighting than I am used to. A single bright “global” light does not offer the same degree of versatility as a multi-flash system and results in images that are a little flatter and less nuanced than those captured with the R1Ci, or the Godox MF12s, for that matter. But I am not through with my testing and think that the single light may have use cases where it shines (pun intended).

Godox mf-12 setup for field work

I am going to leave it that for today - I have still got plenty to do before I will be ready to head across the big pond in a day or two. Hope you can make it tomorrow, but if not I will see you in a couple of weeks!

A highland coo licks his nostril - courtesy of Gabriela Palai

A New Diffuser, Photographing Coins, & Catching Snakes

Hi everyone!

Even though I won’t be talking about this in either of this week’s streams, I want to show you something that I invented this weekend - a new and improved diffusion framework that fixes all of the problems of the last iteration. I will show you the device and the Fusion360 model right after these program notes.

Last week was an important week for the channel as Thursday's Macro Talk Too was the 300th livestream I have done since I started doing two streams a week. There were a few occasional streams before that, including a couple of months with only a single weekly stream, so the number is closer to 320 - either way, it is a lot.

Last week I asked you to give me some feedback on the current livestream programming and I am probably going to be tweaking the  weekly schedule ever so slightly to accommodate  your requests. A huge thanks to Alasdair for providing me with a summary of the feedback from both meetings! I will let you know as soon as I decide on a course forward.

Any changes will begin upon my return to the studio following a short upcoming break, in the first week of August.  I will be leaving on Wednesday, July 23 and returning a little over a week later on August 2nd. I will still be here for this week’s Pzoom meeting, on the 19th of July, but I will not be back in time for the Pzoom following that on August 2nd.

In summary - I will be out from July 23 through August 2, 2025, during which time I will not be hosting my usual weekly programming.

Saturday’s AfterStack, episode 27 - a fascinating discussion of the new Depth Map Blur feature in Photoshop, was a big success. - here is the YouTube link to the video - https://youtu.be/waw52kfVOJgt

There is yet another new spinoff live event, starting in August. It is called “Chemical Art”. The program will be a guided discussion on Birefringent Crystal Photography, at 2PM central time on the second Friday of the month. Our first meeting will be at 2PM on Friday August 8th, 2025 - here is the link to the inaugural meeting -

Topic: Allan Walls’ Chemical Art #1

Time: Aug 8, 2025 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

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My Co-host for this series of live events is none other than our own Harold Hall and I am very much looking forward to a lively and visually exciting discussion of all things crystal related. Hope you will be able to join us. Stay tuned for more details!

As for the coming week, I have a couple of interesting talks planned:

Tuesday July 15, 2025 - Macro Talk - “My approach to the photography of reptiles and amphibians in the wild” - a topic that will hopefully be useful to anyone struggling with this month’s competition. Here is your link - https://youtube.com/live/MfIXwPp1-Pw?feature=share

Thursday, July 17, 2025 (2PM) - Macro Talk Too - “Numismatography 101” the first in a series of discussions about coin photography.  Note that “Numismatography” is not really a word, though it should be (I just made it up a few a minutes ago). Here is your link to that stream - https://youtube.com/live/jJXlp2s-IlY?feature=share

This month’s photography competition, “Reptiles and Amphibians” is going to be guest judged by the talented and delightful British frog photographer (she is British, not the frogs), Angi Wallace - always a popular guest and a very accomplished photography judge. I can’t wait to have her back for such an interesting theme!

Those of you who have watched some of Kelly Bosch’s incredible AI-based video content and are patiently waiting for me to release the interview, please remain patient! I have missed Kelly twice over the last few weeks. Her dog had been in surgery during our first meeting and we rescheduled for the following Thursday. This time it was Kelly who was in the hospital. We are looking at times for another crack at the interview, but I just don’t know if I will have time to fit it in before leaving on my trip. I will keep you posted.

Lester is back! I have asked Lester Lefkowitz to join our Pzoom meeting on September 13 to talk with us about his Lightroom Organization Workflow. He tells me it is a superb system that all but guarantees  you will never lose another image again. I don’t believe that for one second - I will continue to lose images in some of the most creative ways possible. Anyway, I will record this section of our meeting for wider distribution at a later date.

I think that is all the announcements that I have for now, so let’s get to the new diffusion frame.

Diffuser housing in section

This new iteration of a frame that is flexible, versatile, scaleable, sturdy, inexpensive, positionable, and with much less interference when lighting from below, came to me while trying to improve on the last version, which I found a little cumbersome and restrictive.

This version consists of a slim, vertically oriented body with a female 1/4” 20tpi socket in the base - making it universally mountable. It is made up of three sections which lock into one another around 2-pairs of flexible arms terminating in a pair of alligator clips. For stability the arms are 90º out of phase and lock rigidly into the body when it is tightened from below.

The base of the assembled frame with Small Rig miniclamp attached

The frame minus the arms

Opening and closing the arm-holder body is accomplished by means of a hidden 3mm bolt that can only be accessed by placing an Allen key through the brass insert in the base. This hides the structural components while holding them captive and preventing misalignment of the parts when changing arms. The lower arm set are almost 9” long and allow for a larger external diffuser sheet to be held further out from the specimen while allowing the user to modify its exact position with ease. The upper arms are only 4” long, keeping the inner diffusion layer much closer to the subject and guaranteeing excellent separation of the diffusers (velum or mylar).

The top section with a bass shaft standing in for the specimen holder

The specimen holder replaces the brass shaft in the drawing and can be a mini ball head, and alligator clamp or any other pin holder that works for you. I am waiting on a smaller set of bendy arms to replace the heavy duty ones shown in the fusion model, though the drawings do give you the basic idea, I think.

As soon as I have a couple of working prototypes to demonstrate I will do so. After that I will probably manufacture a limited number of the devices for sale, and may also release the G-code for anyone wanting to make their own.

exploded view of the device

If you are interested in getting one of these cool gadgets, let me know via a message in the Walls-app - I will let you know the price as soon as I figure out the cost of the parts - which will be about the same time that I demo the thing.

The colors are just for show - the device is black

That is it for this week! See you in a stream!

Allan

300 Livestreams!

Greetings!

Creative chromatic aberration

And thank you for getting us to livestream #300, this week! Can you believe it? Three solid years of twice weekly livestreams. No wonder I have amassed three file boxes jammed with notes! That is more single spaced writing than I accumulated in 4 years of medical school (almost twice as much!).

a wee grasshopper

I am not a big fan of change, but not caring for change is no excuse for avoiding needed course adjustments. Some feedback that I have been given over the last few days, makes it clear that you may be ready for some change. Let me summarize the issues that are behind the call for change, and after that I will present a few possible solutions, and explain how I plan to use our two livestreams this week to build a consensus about a solution.

Wave plate pyrotechnics

The issue will make sense to those of you who have been around over three years since I started doing livestreams twice a week. For the first few months, the livestreams were little more than social gatherings, during which I would answer questions, respond to your comments, and occasionally inject some more prepared content. This was a lot of fun, but seemed to get us away from the information-dense video content that this channel was built on. For that reason, I started working to bring you two solid blocks of quality content every week. I feel like I have been successful in delivering high quality  material most of the time. I like this format, because to talk on a given subject, without a pause, for 50 minutes, I have to know what I am talking about - so my preparations for each livestream can take several days - so this way of delivering content is certainly no less demanding than doing so with regular video content, it just stacks the work in front of the content instead of behind it (editing videos is the trade off).

Scotland

However, it has come to my attention that this way of doing things is not as good as I had thought. The issue is that some viewers have been frustrated by my inability to get to questions during many of these programs. I can certainly see how this might be irritating to someone who is following along and needs clarification on something I said before they are ready for me to move on with my presentation. So a suggestion was made that instead of presenting content live, a better solution might be for me to record the content ahead of time and play it back during the livestream. This way I could pause the playback to answer questions as they come up and engage with the audience while the content of presented. The idea was that I would present the same block of recorded content on both Tuesday and Thursday while being available to answer questions both days. While reasonable on its surface, this did not take into account that many of you attend both livestreams and would have no interest in hearing the same presentation both days. But it did get me thinking. The issue is real, and I do need find a way to do better in the future, and this is what I have decided to do…

Last one, I promise (these were all the same slide)

Later in this post I am going to lay out a few suggestions for changes in programming, some of which are minor and some of which are quite significant. I am going to ask you to look these options over and come to one of my livestreams this week to register your vote for the direction in which my programming will move. These are not set in stone, so if you have another suggestion, bring it on Tuesday or Thursday and I will give it full consideration. If you read this but cannot come to either stream this week, please send me a message through the Walls app (www.walls-app.com), to let me know what you would like to see changed going forward. One thing that I will not be willing to consider is any change that makes it inconvenient for my European friends to participate. I will consider single livestream options, if the time chosen makes sense for both my US and European audiences.

I do not think we will need to take up a whole livestream to deal with this, so I am going to use the remaining time to deal with some questions that have come up over the last week. On Tuesday’s Macro Talk I will  present an overview of focal length and sensor size in macro photography. The link to that stream is here -

https://youtube.com/live/fkXpXHkdlL0?feature=share

On Thursday, we will spend the first half of the stream considering the changes presented below and discussed on Tuesday. Following that I will be answering several other interesting questions that I have been asked in recent conversations. Your link to that stream is here - https://youtube.com/live/OdEuWqwCJ4s?feature=share

On Saturday we have AfterStack 27, and I believe Bud will be back to lead the discussion - I am not sure what he has for us this weekend, but I am sure it will be excellent!

*****

Before I forget, I will be out of the studio for a few days at the end of this month and I wanted to give you a heads-up that there will be no Tuesday Macro Talk on July 29 and no Macro Talk Too on Thursday July 24th or Thursday July 31st. I will also have to miss the Pzoom meeting scheduled for August 2, 2025.

*****

Below are a few suggestions for programming adjustments that I would like you to consider. I will be soliciting your opinions in both livestreams this week, but you can also register your choice by messaging me on the Walls-app, anytime this week:

OPTION 1: Don’t change anything - keep both streams every week and continue to deliver 2 different blocks of content each week.

OPTION 2: Record one block of content for playback during both Tuesday and Thursday livestreams (same content) with real time questions and discussion for the whole hour

OPTION 3: Cut back to one livestream every week (extended to 90 minutes) with content broken into segments to allow for questions and discussion in real time. Timing for a single event would need to be early afternoon in the US, early evening in Europe. This would free up enough time to produce  more regular video content.

OPTION 4: Don’t change the schedule (two streams a week, Tuesday evening and Thursday afternoon), but break the live content into several short segments with breaks for live questions and discussion

OPTION 5: I have a better idea ……. (Be specific!)

*****

Do you have any other ideas for how I could improve your experience on the channel? Let me know - I am excited about the next chapter of AW Photography. I’m also in this for the long haul, so it is important that I get it right. Please share your ideas with me and let’s see what happens next!

Competition Time!

Greetings everyone - I hope your week is off to a good start. I have been a busy chap and thought I would use the blog post this week to give you an update on stuff that is currently in the pipeline. This is the July 4th week, with the holiday (in the US) on Friday. While this may lead to  a number of sunburns and about the same number of hangovers, it will have exactly no effect on this week’a programming - in fact, I have several extra activities to be taking care of at the end of this week. One of these is my rescheduled interview with Kelly Boesch. We had to cancel the planned meeting on Thursday but have it on the book for July 3rd. I am going to give you a couple of additional links to my favorite Kelly Boesch releases from the last few weeks. Be sure to send over any questions you would like me to ask her during the interview. I was planning to take a minute to explain what an artist like Kelly does and why it is so difficult to attain the skills she has in such abundance, but on further reflection I decided that this is exactly why I invited her to share her story with us in the first place - to educate us on how she makes this amazing art. So that is what I am going to do - let her tell you herself.

But in the meantime here is a piece she did on aging… https://youtu.be/28z0mAxIDQw?si=yeIhBlmyrTPduOyO.    It is absolutely beautiful and, having tried my hand at some of this stuff over the years, absolutely impossible. It is a real mystery to me how Kelly is able to give her imaginary characters such powerfully emotive expressions while still feeling authentically human. Well, I plan to find that out on Thursday!

Another of her videos to watch is “Kids with AI Monsters” https://youtu.be/K8CY3OXaQ-w?si=CQxXndPUdfpVw4fp - brilliantly imagined and beautifully realized                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

I thought it was about time I worked on some content for our newer friends and decided that thisTuesday in Macro Talk I would do a section on the nuts and bolts of successful focus stacking. It will be basic but extensive, with a lot of useful information for seasoned stackers as well. I will do the whole thing as a start to finish demo. That is Tuesday, July 1, at 8pm. Here is your link … https://youtube.com/live/ur5Hxkq7iVY?feature=share

Thursday will be an unusual competition results program, during which I will go through all the images submitted to the June wild card macro competition. What makes it a big deal is that Cindi, my AI assistant, will also be judging this contest but I will not look at her results before we both see them during the program on Thursday. The aim is to find out how well she learned from studying the video recordings of all our prior contests. Now, my results are the only ones that will count for the official scoring, but we will take a close look at how Cindi arrived her scores and rankings. I will also give a brief report on how the process was completed and any problems that I might have run into. Here is your link for the program …https://youtube.com/live/FHtVil6KNRg?feature=share

And while we are at it, here is the competition theme for the month of July, 2025 - “Reptiles & Amphibians” - back to our usual handicapping rule - only one entry allowed from previous winners, two from everyone else. Your subject may be shot in the wild, or in captivity. The subject’s overall size is not an issue as long as your photograph is at 1:2 (one half life-size) or more - so on a full frame sensor you could get the entire animal in the frame if it is about 2.5 inches long. But most reptiles and amphibians are longer/larger than that as adults, so for a larger subject you will need to choose the body part you want to make the subject of your image (a snake’s head, the back of a tree frog, the tail of a spotted salamander).

A word of caution - if you are not very familiar with the snake species in your area, do not try to handle snakes. The vast majority of venomous species in the US are pit vipers, named for the large sensory cell-packed , pit-like depression in front of the eye and used for thermal imaging. These include several species of rattlesnakes (eastern diamondback, timber or canebrake, and various pygmy species), cottonmouths, and copperheads, For completeness I should also mention that the coral snake, a very venomous reptile, can rarely be found in the Deep South, and should not be handled by a non-professional). All snakes will, potentially, bite when handled but most are very tolerant of humans that don’t frighten them with sudden moves.

Your best bet is do not pick up any snake that you cannot readily and accurately identify as a venomous species And if you are not absolutely certain the snake you have found is safe to be bitten by, leave it along. If you aren’t comfortable around these lovely creatures, take a longer lens, 200-300mm and take your pictures from a respectable distance. If you want to see just how much fun “herping” can be, check out this YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@NKFherping - it may help you find a cool subject, or just inspire you to give it a shot, either way, he is a lot of fun to watch and the channel is full of reliable information about reptiles and amphibians across North America. Highly recommended viewing!

Pzoom is on Saturday at 10am and it will be a full morning, with introductions, updates, and lots of other stuff to talk about.

Your link and invitation is over on Patreon, in my latest post (should be out within 24 hours). I also have an exciting announcement for my Patreon supporters. Hope you can make it on Saturday.

I try not to talk about this unless it is absolutely necessary, but the channel is having a lean spell, with a few folks leaving Patreon and my affiliate payments dropping sharply. I don’t know if this is because they have reduced the fees or because fewer purchases are being made, but either way, income is down, expenses are up, and there is nothing in reserve. I have been planning to sell some merchandise through my website, but it appears that the costs of doing this (like getting a company to stock and mail the shirts and other items) would actually be higher than any profit I might have made. I really want to do this, even if it costs me, but right now I don’t have what it would cost to get the shirts made. Without going into all the gory details, I could sure use your help. The best way you can help is by joining Patreon and supporting my work through that platform. If that doesn’t work, you can always make a donation through the web site (https://www.allanwallsphotography.com/donations), or via PayPal - Every little bit helps and would be hugely appreciated! Thank you!

the size of a quarter, a newly minted slider

Lester Lefkowitz will be joining us on September 13th, in our Pzoom meeting to talk about his Lightroom organization strategy - something I don’t need to miss.

That’s it for this week! Hope to see out there!

PS… I don’t think that anyone got the riddle from last week’s post - the pictures were of a canine testes and the appendage of a bumble bee - or the “Dog’s Bol*ocks” and “Bees Knees”, both slang terms for a person, place, or thing that is clearly of above average quality. Another slang term with the same meaning might be “the cat’s pyjamas”. an example of where any of these three might be used would be… “Did you see that English macro guy’s livestream on Tuesday!? It was the bees knees!”.

Now you know…

Meet Kelly Boesch - an Extraordinary Talent

Hello Macro-mates (is that even a thing?)

A weevil

I hope you had a restful weekend, and that those of you still fortunate enough to have a dad around got to spend some time with his on Sunday. I had a really nice visit with my kids (if I’m still around when they are in their 60s, will they still be kids? Yes, of course they will!)

Anyway, today is Monday and there is much to be done, like triple checking my YouTube live-streaming credentials. I was terribly embarrassed last week, after going the better part of a year without a hiccup on the livestream, to have two disasters in one week. At least the disasters were of a common cause, making them more like one extended disaster, which sounds a tiny bit less incompetent. I will do everything in my power to make sure there is not another week like that in the foreseeable future. But there a couple of really fun and interesting things on the horizon that are definitely within the foreseeable future.

Lester Lefkowitz will be visiting with us in a couple of weeks - we still have some details to work out, but it is looking like he will be our special guest for the first Pzoom in July. He is coming back to tell us about his Lightroom system for not losing pictures. He will present his talk and follow up with a Q&A to address any questions that come up. After the Pzoom is over I will edit the content into a YouTube video that will be available to everyone within a few days of the meeting. I will keep you posted when I know is dates for sure.

This past weekend I had the immense please of making contact with one of the most talented  artists working in the strange world of AI powered video content creation. Some of you may recall a clip from a piece of generative video content that I showed during a livestream a couple of weeks ago? It was fresh, mesmerizing, with beautiful color and a surreal dream-like flow that was altogether a new experience for me. It was is a selection of paintings by Magritte, or Dali had come to life for a short, but remarkable and very satisfying, moment in time. Well I was completely taken by this new type of video content in general and the work of the artist, Kelly Boesch, in particular. Here are links to a couple of Kelly’s videos. I encourage you to visit her YouTube page  and explore some of the totally original content that she is making. I was so impressed by the quality of Kelly’s work that I reached out to her this weekend and asked if she might be willing to record a conversation with me, so that I could share it with you. She replied immediately and most graciously agreed to an interview. One of the things that grabbed my attention was Kelly’s fascination with insects and the frequent appearance of weird and wonderful insect-like characters in many of her videos. I hope that this interview will be available in  a week or two - and I will let you know the minute that it is.

Some of my favorite surrealist video art by Kelly Boesch::

1) An AI Dance Music Video - https://youtu.be/soRDe1XbWmM?si=w0-pmnnKWJvwE-Ti

2) A Story About Aging - https://youtu.be/28z0mAxIDQw?si=dtuA5iUwpuj7x7yG

3) Kids with Magical Creatures - https://youtu.be/8wkKg_bdc2k?si=gFZHzPsVDvTQrRkl

Try to keep in mind that these video stories were created in the mid of Keely Boesch but interpreted and transformed into video content by AI tools like #Midjourney, #Luma, and #keyframe!

Let’s get back to this week. I have something very special for you tomorrow in Macro Talk, Tuesday at 8PM. This stream was prompted by a question I was asked last week. A friend asked me to discuss the equipment and workflows being used  for high speed, handheld focus stacking in the field, by wonderful macro photographers like Claus Giloi, and Graham Carey. And that is precisely what I am going to attempt in Tuesday’s stream. I will be showing some of the great work by Claus and Graham and then breaking down every piece of equipment and every step in their respective workflows. Bring your questions and get up to speed on the new focus stacking superpower! Your link…https://youtube.com/live/54x6STaXN0Y?feature=share

Thursday’s Macro Talk Too, at 2pm, is going to be a more traditional Q&A where I will attempt to answer the questions that have been piling up for a few weeks - a lot to talk about but feel free to bring any macro questions that you have been  struggling with. Here is your link…. https://youtube.com/live/dfzxWF0KjIc?feature=share

Saturday is going to be a big day also - with Pzoom kicking off at 10am - two hours of face to face macro talk, with introductions, updates, and some more field macro discussion. Your Pzoom invitation is going to be posted over on Patreon, probably tomorrow.

Right after the Pzoom wraps up we go straight over to Tangent for another fun and challenging exploration of the 3D modeling world in our Fusion 360 discussion group for macro photographers and makers. If you have a 3D printer, or might one day buy one, you really need to come and meet the group - this is a fantastic resource for anyone trying to get a fast start in CAD/CAM. Larry Strunk knows his stuff and put a lot of work into this monthly gathering. Drop by and see what it is all about - 12:30 until 2(ish), this Saturday - here is your invitation - Allan Walls is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Tangent

Time: Jun 21, 2025 12:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6916802815?pwd=TS9tZi9ZL1NXeVUvOUF4eTg5YjdlZz09&omn=82319653517

Meeting ID: 691 680 2815

Passcode: 678122

OK - that is it for this week - I have a ton of work to get done before tomorrow. Hope to see you sometime this week!

Allan

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.

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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!