Missing the Olloclip: Mobile Macro Photography Over the Years
I’ve been curious about photography since my grandfather showed me what I recall to be a Nikon camera when I was a child. I took a few photo classes as I got older, learned to develop film (film!) in a dark room which I very much enjoyed. The fascination reached its height in the early 2010’s when I got a Canon camera and several lenses and decided to do a 365 project, to shoot a photo a day for a whole year to help improve my photography.
The Olloclip in red
This is also when I grew fascinated to macro photography; the super close up images of very small things. I just loved the entire worlds and detail that existed on such a small scale that it was hard to appreciate with our human eyes. While I got a macro lens for my large Canon camera, it was bulky and I didn’t always have it with me. So I searched around and found a macro lens system that would attach to the camera on my cellphone. It was called the Olloclip and I immediately fell in love with it. It was a piece of tech that allowed the creation of new art, my wheelhouse.
Recently, when I got a new phone after many years I looked to get a new Olloclip and found that they shut down the business. It must be so incredibly hard to keep up with the tech cycle of new devices every year, each with changes and upgrades to the camera system, where millimeters of changes meant a lens would not fit and thus not produce a quality image. I’ve heard of another mobile macro system called Moment which I might try, but I’m feeling some reluctance around the quality. There’s also an app I’m trying called Halide which has a macro mode, but I’m can’t see how it would match up to a true macro lens. Maybe some day phone cameras will be so advanced we won’t need lenses for shots like these.
Sluggish - April 17th, 2012
Fibonacci sequence - April 25th, 2012
Pollen haul - July 5th, 2012
For now, here’s some of my favorite macro shots over the years. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did in revisiting them for this post. These were all taken on Instagram, so if you’re feeling inclined, click through any of these images to say hi.
Pistil - July 12th, 2012
Along for the ride - June 26th, 2012
Little passenger - July 3rd, 2012
Stink bug? - July 25th, 2012
Anemone - October 10th, 2012
Green on green - May 29th, 2013
Herman - July 8th, 2013
Bubbles in a bubble - August 6th, 2013
Baby beta - July 31st, 2013
Sticking around - May 8th, 2014
Ant with a snack - August 9th, 2014
Purple stamen - April 23rd, 2016
Emerald shine - June 12th, 2016
Anteater bug? Really, what is this? - July 30th, 2016
Hanging out - August 18th, 2016
A dusting of pollen - September 17th, 2016
Dew in the web - April 3rd, 2017
Cali succulents - May 3rd, 2017
Big cat - April 25th, 2019
Pistil and stamen - April 29th, 2020
If you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading and taking a look at my photos. Do you happen to do macro photography on your phone? If so I’d love to see your photos as well as what you use for a lens. Thanks again and see you soon.
For a final little bonus, here is video using a macro lens showing how a snail explores exiting and entering its shell.
