Please join us on 18 September at 7Pm at the Severna Park Baptist Church for a presentation on Macro Photography by our very own Allart Kok.

This presentation is not suitable for audience members who shun crawly critters and tremble in the presence of creatures with hairy bodies, lots of eyes, and six, eight, or even more legs.  Wings are optional.  Bugs are what this presenter’s macrophotography is all about .

Macrophotography is the most democratic of photographic subjects. It is very accessible: it does not require an expensive macro lens; it does not require travel expenses, being accessible in one’s own back yard; and it can reveal alien worlds – many that we might not otherwise notice.  It has been said that the joy in life comes in surprises and, in photographing the smallest living things, we often discover marvelous details that we were unaware of when taking a photo. The macroscopic natural world is an incredible teacher of the intricacies and dynamics of life.   

To be sure, this presentation is all about accessing macrophotography, whether in a casual or dedicated mode. Bugs are the subject, but you can take the core content and photograph watch gears, coins, eyeballs, bubbles or flowers if you prefer.

Kok has been photographing living things since falling in love with the cicada emergence of 1970.  They descended on the Baltimore area in huge numbers, screaming, buzzing and procreating before finally piling up, en masse, against the curbs along the streets as Kok trudged home from school.  His father’s old 1937 Exacta became his ticket into a life-long appreciation of insects and nature photography.  While his career in the biological sciences veered into the biomedical world, a love of nature, most notably that presenting itself in local parks and back yards, has always been sustained.  These days while his faithful mutt Boh keeps him hiking in the Maryland hinterlands, Kok always carries full camera gear, including his lovely and talented long armed lens, Bertha. After all, one NEVER knows when or where the winged (or unwinged) jewels of nature will make their appearance, be they arthropod or bird.