With more than 5.2 million images at press time that are hash-tagged “#macro” on Instagram, finding great macro photos on the popular social media photo-sharing app is not difficult. However, putting together a list of top macro photographers from Instagram is a challenge with so much macro talent out in the world.
Here is a list of 17 folks that we discovered on Instagram, putting out a solid body of macro work on their Instagram feeds, with a vast majority, if not all, of their images being dedicated to the art. There are many great macro photos on Instagram, but usually the close-up photography is sprinkled into more random image collections. Also, the #macro hashtag oft gets applied to exercise photos (macro muscles?) and starscapes (distance is relative), so that made the search a bit easier. There are a lot of nail polish, selfies, and cat photos with the #macro label, too.
So, enjoy our alphabetized list and be sure to share your favorite macro shooters, or your own work, in the comments section, below. I apologize if we missed some gems, but hopefully you all can help us expand the list and get more exposure for some talented macro photographers out there!
Dr. Bill Chu www.instagram.com/imjustabill
Chu is a pediatrician living in Houston, Texas. Instagram inspired him to get started in photography and he now specializes in macro shots of butterflies. He enjoyed shooting them so much that he planted a butterfly garden at his home and started raising them!
Vincent DiVenere www.instagram.com/_cloudpounder_
DiVenere is a full-time tattooist and is into all forms of art. His macro photos are of coils used for vaping and show wire gauges up to 48 AWG, which is half the thickness of a human hair. The color on the nichrome 80 wire comes from heat tempering.
Gerald Donovan www.instagram.com/watchdxb
Donovan has had a keen interest in watches and photography since before he started schooling. But, it took him 45 years before he figured out to combine the two! Originally from the UK, he lives in Dubai and focuses on making very large, high-res prints of his watch photography.
Fatima Al Musawi
Al Musawi is a 16-year old girl living in Iraq who has been in love with photography since she was 11. Her dream is to become a professional photographer and she hopes she will one day be one of the best in the world.
Sarah Goff www.instagram.com/sarah_jane_paul
Goff lives in Georgia with her husband and two kids. She loves taking photos and finding beauty in things that normally wouldn’t be considered beautiful.
Ana Krichashvili
Krichashvili studied theater and film at the Georgian State University and now lives in France, where she attends the European School of the Arts of Bretagne (EESAB) where she studies painting, photography, sculpture, and video. She enjoys using light and transparent subjects.
Jan Martin Olsen www.instagram.com/olsenmarine
Olsen lives in southern Norway and is the CEO of a marine electronics company. He is always looking for eye-catching textures and beauty in the marine environment.
Gareth Owen
Owen is a driving instructor from Bodelwyddan, in North Wales, UK. He takes his macro photos in his back garden.
Winni Føhn Pedersen
Pederson is finishing office school, in Vejle, Denmark, and hopes to go to school for photography and acquire more macro photo gear.
Patrick Scott, Ph.D. www.instagram.com/_cpscott_
Scott is an observer of the unobserved details of decay. His photographs magnify the minute facets of urban decomposition wherever it may be found. He lives and works in Springfield, Missouri, where he is a college economics professor.
Alan Shapiro www.instagram.com/alanshapiro515
Shapiro, former Chief Creative Officer at the world’s largest advertising agency network, found photography to be a break from the daily grind. He now teaches photography and is published internationally.
Bella Stokoe www.instagram.com/lifethroughaloupe
Stokoe is an artist goldsmith in the heart of the historic Jewelry Quarter, in Birmingham, England. She started capturing the endless detail that she sees through her jeweler’s loupe and now she carries one wherever she goes.
Fredrik Tegner www.instagram.com/tegnerphotography
Tegner lives in Sweden and is a biologist and nature photographer who spends hours crawling and chasing jumping spiders across his lawn to get great shots. He enjoys capturing the myriad life that you cannot otherwise see with the naked eye.
Karla Thompson www.instagram.com/karlathompson
Thompson is a macro photographer who promotes the much-maligned arthropod. Her goal is to start a conservation movement to protect the planet's tiniest and most misunderstood wildlife. She highlights the beauty and uniqueness of insects and arachnids in order to dispel some of the fear and misconceptions surrounding these extraordinary creatures.
Can Tunçer www.instagram.com/can__tuncer/
Tunçer is a freelance journalist and amateur photographer from İzmir, Turkey, who has been doing macro work for six years.
Noel Upfield www.instagram.com/limekeyman
Upfield is a graphic designer specialized in print and web design. He lives outside of Toronto, Canada.
Zaher Ziadeh www.instagram.com/zaher.ziadeh
Ziadeh is originally from Syria, but now lives in Mulhouse, France, where he used to work at the Peugeot Motor Company. He is new to photography and enjoys macro work and still life.
Group Macro Images
There are several consortiums of macro shooters on Instagram. Keep an eye out for them. Here are two to check out in the mean time.
Memory Coco www.instagram.com/memoryco.co
Memory Coco is a group of visual artists and musicians living in San Francisco who enjoy a wide range of photography, but showcase a lot of macro work. One group member, Jana Styblova, says her project is an “Ongoing experiment utilizing acrylic, surfactants, and chemicals to form ephemeral paintings in small containers. Macro-photographs celebrate the small universes created in unexpected places, while exploring the dissociation of the artist and the final creation: they are not my paintings, simply, I am documenting chemistry."
Zeiss Microscopy www.instagram.com/zeiss_microscopy
For extreme macro photography, check out Zeiss’s microscopy Instagram account and #microscopy.
