"Macro" photography is described by Wikipedia as: "macro photography refers to close-up photography; the classical definition that the image projected on the "film plane" (i.e film or a digital sensor) is the same size as the subject. ..."

It actually more technical than that, but for our purposes it's the photographing of small objects. or a small area of a large object, with the goal of bringing out the intricate detail that would be lost in a conventional photograph.

Chances are that your digital camera has a special setting or "mode" for this specialized type of photography so drag the instruction book out of the socks and underwear drawer and look it up.

I took the above picture last week, right outside my front door with my Kodak P880 set on "Macro" with the shutter set to 1/2000 of a second. Those flowers are about the size of your thumb nail by the way.

Forget about depth of field at these close distances, there isn't any, so use a fast shutter speed to avoid blur caused by camera shake and the inevitable wind that will kick up the moment you press the shutter release.

Here's an excellent digital photography blog with a good Macro photography primer.

If you really want to get serious about Macro photography this site has everything.

Take a camera with you whenever possible, and look around, you'll find a picture somewhere.

Source:www.jimippolito.com