Don Komarechka is a nature, macro and landscape photographer located in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. From auroras to pollen, insects to infrared, much of Don’s photographic adventures reveal a deeper understanding of how the universe works. Exploring the world that we cannot see with our own eyes has been a common thread in Don’s career as a professional photographer. Always science-minded but never formally trained, Don uses photography as a way to explore and understand the world around him. Photographing something unusual or unknown is the perfect excuse to learn something new. Don’s work often pushes up against the technical limitations of modern camera equipment and the physical limitations of light itself. www.donkom.ca

The Beauty of Physics: Magical Macro from Geometry and Bending Light

Macro photographers play by a different rulebook. The challenges faced from the subject matter, the equipment and even the laws of physics make this a challenging genre of photography. It can be abstract, it can tell stories, and it can spark your imagination. It's a study of lines, shapes and colors in a very technical way.

Step into a world of photography that most artists consider magical. Photographing refracted images within water droplets reveals not only the beauty of simple physics, but it opens the creative doors to unlimited possibilities in macro photography. The same admiration of simple physics can be seen in every snowflake; the admiration can quickly shift to frustration, but with the right tools and techniques, winter becomes a much more tolerable season for those with an eye for details. In the end, the hardest part is simply finding or creating the most beautiful subject.

Specific discussion of the challenges of depth of field and focus stacking will be discussed, as well as many reasons why extreme macro photography can be accomplished entirely handheld - and why this can be an advantage.