About 6 months ago I was contacted by one of the editors of DC Photo Magazine and asked if I would be interested in an interview for publication. The editor found me via flickr and thought my photos were interesting enough to interview. After about 2 months of back-and-forth email interview questions and a few months to process, they published some of my work and interview questions. The magazine is currently an Asia-only publication, so it’s in Chinese.
Here’s the DC Photo Magazine Article:
Roy_Niswanger.pdfRather than try to translate, here are some of the interview questions and my responses:
Interview with Roy Niswanger
1. How did you start underwater photography when you were in the navy?
I’ve always had a fascination for the underwater world; in fact, Jacque Cousteau was always the person I wanted to be when I grew up. After receiving my open water scuba diving certification while stationed in Pearl Harbor, HI, I acquired my Sea & Sea 35mm film camera, lenses and strobes while on a deployment to Japan.
2. Why do you love doing nature and macro photography?
The number one thing that inspires me to shoot nature photography is the solitude in doing so. Honestly, I feel my introverted personality gives me the special focus to try to take the best nature photo that I possibly can; and of course, I enjoy viewing and sharing the photos with others.
3. Where and how do you shot the insects? Could you share some special experience with us?
Most of my insect macro photography comes from near-by water features here in Austin, TX (creeks, ponds, lakes). I also enjoy a limited amount of nature photography in my back yard. Before getting into macro photography I joined our local Texas photo forum (
www.texasphotoforum.com) where I learned many aspects about the hobby. I also joined
www.fredmiranda.com/forums/ where there are many experts in the field aka dalantech and lordv who I personally attribute a lot of my macro photography knowledge I learned that to take good macro photos that I would need special equipment which today consists of a DSLR (Canon 30D), macro lens (Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro), artificial light (Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite and a DIY Ring-Flash which I have documented here:
http://www.motleypixel.com/forum/index.php/topic,80.0.html ). I’ve come to realize that starting with even the entry level DSLR (any make) will suffice but it’s the lens that will take you to the world of macro photography. I personally feel that the ~100mm primes are a good start (Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Nikkor, etc.). More advanced lenses are available such as the Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5X Macro lens or the Canon EF 180mm f/2.8L USM.
4. Why do you shot mating insects? Any message you want to give?
I try to shoot insects in their natural state and if they happen to be mating, then I suppose that’s about as natural as you can get. I don’t necessarily strive to find mating insects, but it’s interesting when I do run across them.
5. What makes a good shot of insects? Patience? Observant? Skills? Or something else? Any difficulties have you faced and how did you overcome?
I think the number one key to good photography in general is understanding your light. Whether it’s natural, artificial or both, understanding how to leverage the most of your available light will generally yield your best shots. Generally in macro photography you are confined with a very shallow depth of field (DOF); in other words, the field of focus isn’t too shallow or deep and it’s often easy to loose focus on a particular area of a subject. Therefore, many macro photographers choose much smaller apertures such as f/11-f/14 to achieve a desirable DOF. These smaller apertures result in much less light going through the lens and thus artificial light is used a lot, aka flashes/strobes. Of course patience helps when shooting insects in their natural environment, especially when you start out because you will not know the insect’s behavior. But as you become aware of the insect’s behavior you will have higher success rate photographing the insect.
6. Regarding Tripod’s photo, what do you think is the most impressive towards others?
Well, Tripod isn’t alone; in fact, just Google “tripod green sea turtle” and you will find many sea turtles around the world are coined this name. I think the most intriguing thing about the photo, besides its eye catching composition, is that it has a reference to humans and how trash can ultimately hurt and kill animals in our world.
7. How has the photo become one of the photo puzzle thumbnails of National Geographic Website?
Good question, I really don’t know why, other than it did make the “Nat Geo Daily Dozen” photo on the website after I uploaded the photo. It would be a dream come true to photograph for National Geographic.
8. What is the story behind Tripod’s photo? How did you capture it?
* Side note…all the details are here:
http://www.motleypixel.com/forum/index.php/topic,80.0.html *
I was first inspired by a poster I saw in mall photo shop in Honolulu, HI. The poster was of a Green Sea Turtle called Nugget photographed by Dave Schrichte who shot for an organization called Friends of Hanauma Bay, a group dedicated to preserving Hanauma Bay. After acquiring my under water photography equipment and finding out about Tripod on a boat dive, I had all the elements to get a similar capture of a Green Sea Turtle with the sun behinds its head.
9. It was uploaded to Flickr and it raised many people’s interest. Do you think the Internet is the best channel of sharing photos? And Why?
The internet is definitely the best channel of sharing photos. It’s key for photo uploaders that they understand how their media will be presented and used. I often point them to “Creative Commons” for explanations on copyright terms. But equally important, users must take the time to populate accurate titles, tags, geo-tag, and preserve exif data so that sites like flickr, which utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices, can effectively publish the user’s work and make it more available to internet search users.
10. People tend to share photos on the Internet rather than holding exhibitions or printing photos, how do you comment the trend?
I personally feel that the “general” user simply wants a place to manage and archive their personal photos. However, for the professionals, another on-line photo sharing community called Smug Mug offers such things as exhibitions and ability to order prints. Professional photographers often will run their own website to manage and protect their intellectual property (photos).
11. You said you had zero knowledge of photography when you started this hobby, and so does everyone. What do you think is the key point to success?
Perpetual desire and the ability to maintain enthusiasm whilst facing failure after failure.
