10 years of photography: Get close! (How close is close enough?)

 "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." - Robert Capa

 There's two ways to get close to your subject. The first one is to use a long lens and to shoot from a decent distance from your subject. This is a good technique when your subject is shy or there's a risk that the critter you are photographing will get nasty and attack, sting or bite you. The other way, the one I prefer, is to physically get close the subject. With tiny little insects this isn't a problem, usually, but with bigger critters, such as snakes, lizards and others this may be a bit of a challenge.

    This Smooth Snake didn't go anywhere when I approached it. It's easy to shoot a mugshot of a snake when using a 150 mm macro lens and the subject is just eyeballing you with no intention of going anywhere.

Using a wide angle lens and getting really close to your subject will yield in even more interesting images, This way you can show, not only the subject, but also its habitat in a nice way. There is though a challenge you have to face when shooting closeups with a wide lens. You have to get pretty close of the animal for a good shot, but it's wort it.

So how close is close enough? You are close enough when your subject pops out, when there isn't any question about what is your main subject. You are probably too faraway if your subject wont be clear for the viewer of the image and you are too close when your subject ran away or you got bitten.