Macro photography opens up a whole new world of perspectives. I remember my first venture into this genre. I had to purchase a screw-on thread for my Nikon D300 to be able to reverse mount my Nikkor 50mm f1.4 AF-D lens on the camera. Of course, this method came without any metering capabilities, and everything had to be manually done with a lot of trial and error. Thankfully, exceptionally good macro lenses nowadays are a lot more affordable nowadays, and don’t require you to use DIY hacks. We’ve narrowed down some of the best options you can buy today.

How We Test and Choose the Best Macro Lenses

• The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear we’ve fully reviewed in these roundups.
• If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. You can read more about our ethics on this on our Disclaimer page.
• When we test products we’ve got various things in mind. First off, we consider who might want to buy the product and what they might do with it. With that in mind, we try to tackle at least three genres of photography with that product in a variety of situations. For example, if a lens has weather resistance, then we’ll test it accordingly with a weather-resistant camera. We also test the autofocus of the lens in continuous mode, single mode, with exposure preview effects, without those effects, and then with all the major image quality parameters. These days, no one really makes a bad lens — but some are far better than others. And that’s what we’re trying to find in our reviews.
• In all of our roundups, we’re basing our findings on the reviews that we’ve done. We’re choosing a favorite, but we’re also giving photographers a bunch of others that they might like, depending on how they shoot.

Our Choice Amongst the Best Macro Lenses You Can Buy In 2024: Panasonic 100mm f2.8

This wasn’t an easy choice, as this lens faced some stiff competition for the top spot from the Canon RF 100mm Macro lens. But where the Panasonic 100mm f2.8 Macro Lens pipped the latter was in AF speed and compact size. It’s a great lens to carry around everywhere, something I can’t always say about other f2.8 macro lenses in this focal length range. It’s about the same size as the rest of the Lumix S prime lenses. If you’re an L-mount camera user, this is the best one by far to get. With such great features, it’s no surprise that it took home our Editor’s Choice Award.

Tech Specs

These specs are taken from the Adorama Listing

What We Think

In our review, we state:

It’s the single most innovative 100mm f2.8 Macro lens that I’ve used in my career. The Phoblographer has been around for over 14 years, and we’ve reviewed the most lenses of any accredited photography publication. I can say with certainty that this is something as uniquely special as a perfectly sweet, ripe mango on a summer’s day. With that said, it’s just as rare.

For Some Photographers, these Might Be The Best Macro Lenses To Choose From

If you’re not a Panasonic Lumix camera owner, here are some other options from camera brands and 3rd party companies to choose from.

Canon RF 100mm f2.8 L Macro IS USM

An Editor’s Choice Award winner too, but narrowly missing out on the top spot is our next favorite, Canon’s latest 100mm macro lens. In our review, we said:

The Canon RF 100mm Macro not only expertly mixes technical greatness with character but allows photographers to choose when they want that super sharp image or a bit more character. With what feels almost like a built-in variable mist filter, this lens can add a little or a lot of softness. Of course, that softness to the bokeh as well. That’s not the only way the 100mm macro impresses. This lens adds the type of flare that software will try to imitate. This flare is also easy to control by adjusting the position of the lens so, once again, photographers can intentionally add flare or adjust to keep contrast intact.

OM System 90mm f3.5 Macro IS Pro

In our review of this lens, we state:

Besides the autofocus capability, the 90mm also makes Super Macro more accessible with a stabilization of six stops on its own or seven stops with compatible Sync IS bodies. That’s a huge help as camera shake tends to be exaggerated the closer the subject is to the lens. OM System’s weather-sealing is intact too, with the lens given an IP53 rating against dust and moisture. Using the OM System 90mm f3.5 Macro, however, is a delicate balance between an aperture narrow enough to keep something in focus and an aperture wide enough to stave off diffraction. In that sweet spot, photographers can capture wonderfully detailed close-ups

Laowa 90mm F2.8 2x Ultra Macro

This beautiful lens creates some stunning images, but it does have a few drawbacks. In our review we noted:

The Laowa 90mm f2.8 2x Ultra Macro is hands-down the most fun I’ve had with a macro lens. The 2x close-up capability makes it possible to capture detail that a standard 1:1 macro can’t. That mixed with the f2.8 and the 90mm makes bokeh so smooth that backgrounds often become a solid color. The rainbow-colored, streaky flare adds even more ways that this lens can help create photos that stand out in a feed. While it’s a manual focus lens, the metal build makes turning its focus ring luxurious. If there’s a reason not to buy the Laowa 90mm 2x, it’s the lack of weather-sealing.

Voigtlander 110mm F2.5 Macro

A slightly unconventional focal length for modern lenses, in our review of the Voigtlander 110mm F2.5 Macro we said:

The Voigtlander 110mm f2.5 almost finds the perfect balance between classic and modern. It looks fantastic with a classically-inspired metal build. And, of course, the photos ooze character, bokeh, and sharpness. Electronic contacts make shooting a bit easier, despite the lack of an autofocus motor.

Nikon Z MC 105mm f2.8 VR S

I use the F-mount version of this lens for a lot of the reviews I do here, but the Z mount version is just so much more sharper. In our review of this lens, we state:

When you add the sharpness of the Z mount to a lens that can focus up close, you get stunning detail. The Nikon Z 105mm macro does a great job reducing chromatic aberration, and delivering a sharper image with less fringing than the comparable F-mount. Even though the f2.8 isn’t available at the closest focal distances, this lens can still produce some great bokeh and soft backgrounds.

AstrHori 85mm f2.8 Macro And Tilt Lens

AstrHori’s 85mm stands out as the most unique one in this list. It’s a tad unfortunate that it’s built for crop sensors only at the moment, at least in terms of the tilt capabilities. In our review, we said:

The tilt capability is the first that I’ve seen in a macro lens at this price point. It can also be used as a handy portrait lens if you’re willing to work with the very slow manual focus throw. But the tilt feature comes with some heavy vignetting beyond the halfway point, which is why AstrHori clearly labels that feature as an APS-C option. Still, having a tilt feature on a macro lens is probably better than not having one at all. Sharpness is very impressive, even at f2.8, when you’re photographing subjects up close

Using This Guide to the Best Macro Lenses To Buy In 2024

If you’re considering purchasing anything from this list of the best macro lenses, consider the following:

• All the product images and sample photos in these roundups are shot by our staff. In fact, we don’t talk about products at length in roundups like this unless we’ve done full reviews of them. But you can surely know that we’ve done all the research ourselves.
• Laowa probably makes the best 3rd party macro lenses right now. But they aren’t without their shortcomings, as we noted above
• Does macro photography mystify you? Look at our quick guide to understand it better
• Macro photography autofocus accuracy also depends a great deal on the camera system you’re using
• The best macro photos are taken with a methodology called Focus Stacking
• We’d never recommend a product to you that we haven’t tested or that we really didn’t like. You can reference our linked reviews, for more information on this.

Picking the Right One For You

If you’re still a bit confused as to the right macro lens for you, here are some questions to ask yourself

• What’s your budget?
• How will you use the product?
• What lighting situations are you in, and how will that affect what you’re doing? Our reviews hyperlinked in this article can help with that.
• Are you traveling a lot with it?
• Will you be using it in a situation that’s a bit rougher?
• Who else uses this product? How are they using it?
• What’s so appealing about this product that I can’t get from what I have already or something else?
• When will I really have time to use this product?
• Where will I bring this product?
• How will this product help bring me joy and joy in my photography?

Not even a week ago, Alessia Glaviano – Head of Global PhotoVogue – a guest on our Spigola podcast, reminded us that it no longer matters whether you shoot with a camera or a smartphone. What matters is the intention behind the shot, not the means. We pondered deeply on this statement, and although there was initially some skepticism, we concluded that to take a true stance on the matter, we had to try it ourselves: capturing moments solely with a smartphone, but with the same attitude we would have had with a professional camera. Xiaomi provided us with the opportunity and the means.

Almost by chance, Xiaomi presented us with a challenge: to visit a distant place and attempt to capture its uniqueness using the brand-new Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G. And so began our journey, short but very intense, in Bangkok.

All the promises of this new device – which, along with four others, forms the new Redmi Note 13 Series, further enriching the brand’s Redmi Note lineup – were substantial. Starting from the battery, rechargeable to 100% in just 19 minutes with a lasting capacity of days (not hours), and of course, the camera system consisting of 3 cameras, including a main 200 MP camera, an ultra-wide-angle camera, and a macro camera.

We decided to put Xiaomi to the test in every moment spent in the Thai capital. The first stop was at the Royal Palace and the Wat Pho temple, where the goal was to capture the colors of the mosaics and decorations.

Being one of the most touristy places in the city, we encountered many people who, like us, were fascinated by the architecture of these sacred places. The Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G came to our aid in this moment as well. The smartphone is equipped with AI-based editing tools that, among other things, allow us to remove people who accidentally end up in our shots. You know those photos you see on Instagram of tourist spots always empty? Now you can have them too, effortlessly!

But a city is not only visited during the day; often, it comes to life at night, illuminated by a myriad of different lights. In our case, the lights were those of the legendary tuk-tuks, indispensable in a trip to Bangkok. In this case, the challenge was formidable: darkness, colored lights, movement. All the ingredients for a challenging shot were present.

Not content with just the shot, we continued to play with AI tools and added a bit more movement, some stars, many stars.

When traveling, we know very well that we are not only captivated by architecture, landscape, and glimpses, but we also focus on the faces we encounter on the streets. However, we often don’t have much time to photograph them, sometimes because they move, other times because we are the ones on the move. That’s exactly what happened to us in the characteristic Thai markets, first and foremost the Floating Market.

Reviewing the photos on the return flight and at home with friends was like reliving the journey once again, leaving no detail behind.

In Bangkok, on the occasion of the launch of the new Redmi Note 13 Series, the brand also introduced the brand-new Redmi Watch 4 and Redmi Buds 5 Pro. Visit Xiaomi’s website to discover all the features of these devices.

Photos shot on Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G

We call photography “art” with casual unthinkingness now. In Florence there’s a Selfie Museum just round the corner from the museum containing Michelangelo’s David. Can we really describe both as art? But maybe it’s the wrong question. As EH Gombrich put it: “There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists.” And the exquisite exhibition at MK Gallery of Saul Leiter’s pictures of postwar New York is a masterclass in demonstrating how a photographer can be an artist.

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The artist, not the lens, took his pictures. They are no more spontaneous than a Constable landscape – even though both appear unplanned and immediate. But like a plein air painter who’s put in years of looking at landscape masterpieces before taking brushes out into the fields, Leiter looked at the street life of Manhattan with an eye shaped by artistic knowledge and precise ideals of beauty.

That may seem far from obvious on first entering this show. Leiter loved to take pictures from the elevated L train, snapping people from above, or through a street window as they walked, heads down in the rain, oblivious to his camera. He is famous as a “pioneer of colour photography”, which is a boring way to describe him. This exhibition proves he’s just as brilliant in black and white. What holds you and keeps you looking is his eye for the dancing loveliness of everyday life.

In Pull, taken in about 1960, New Yorkers struggle through the snow that reduces buildings to ghostly grey towers behind them. It’s the restraint of his colour that makes this picture so gorgeous: a glimpse of a red car, a small yellow sign, the brown coat of the woman in the foreground. What luck to grab such a random shot in which life composes itself by chance like an impressionist painting. Except it’s not luck at all.

This show immerses you in the flow and surprise of Leiter’s photography yet also shows how it is rooted in clear aesthetic values and strongly felt artistic influences. He doesn’t just point his camera. He finds chance and arbitrariness because he is looking for these things, and uses all his artistry to bring them out.

Leiter moved to New York City as a young man in 1946, having given up a theology degree, because he wanted to be an artist – at a moment when New York was full of them. The abstract expressionist painters – Pollock, Rothko and the rest – were about to become famous. Leiter too wanted to paint. The photographs in this show are interspersed with his abstract paintings, often done on fine Japanese paper; they are gently peppered with pinks and yellows in a way that’s reminiscent of Helen Frankenthaler and Willem de Kooning. One very Rothko-esque painting was done in 1970, the year Rothko died, surely as a memorial. You can also see connections with these artists in his photography as when he boldly frames street life under a huge Rothko rectangle of a red awning.

Leiter painted all his life without ever being a success at it, or apparently minding that he wasn’t. In a film at the end of the show he sits in his studio surrounded by canvases, glowing with happiness as he remembers his life of bohemian hardship. There were times when he got evicted, he laughs, when he had no money at all even though he did get work as a fashion photographer – some of his alluring 1950s Harper’s Bazaar covers are here.

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Some people don’t trust beauty, he says, they think an artist like Renoir is corny. He on the other hand always chased “a certain idea of beauty”. And that idea was formed by art. Take his eye for umbrellas. They recur in so many of his pictures that a lab assistant once complained they were becoming a cliche. One example is Footprints, taken in about 1950 in which a red umbrella is seen from above, covering the pedestrian who is adding more footprints to a snowy sidewalk. It’s another moment when beauty surges through the usually unrecorded flow of the everyday.

Renoir’s most famous paintings include The Umbrellas, in which a stylish Parisian crowd in the 1880s all promenade under their parapluies in the rain. But it’s not just a passion for umbrellas that Leiter shares with French impressionism. The beauty of rain and snow, the romance of city life, a woman passing by whom he’ll never see again: Leiter is an impressionist with a camera. Yet he also traced the influences on the impressionists themselves, collecting books on Japanese woodblock prints and their art of the “floating world” in which beauty is seen in the casual moment as people carry umbrellas on a rainy day in old Edo.

Leiter doesn’t just look at women from afar as they pass by. His bohemian life wasn’t lonely. A succession of girlfriends posed for him, from a romantic portrait in the grounds of the Cloisters museum to the nudes that conclude the show. He really is unabashed by his quest for beauty. In front of these imaginatively posed erotic photos you realise it’s not just his visual intelligence that makes Leiter a true artist but the sheer joy he took in life.

Knuckles
Paramount+
Trailer Agency: MOCEAN

The Sonic franchise gets its first live-action series. Below, we meet Knuckles, Sonic’s former enemy turned best friend, as he takes Wade (played by Adam Pally), under his wing. Binge all six episodes on April 26.

UKC Articles – PHOTOGRAPHY: The North Face Photography Awards 2023 – Category Finalists

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• Opening Reception Event, Thursday February 15th, 2024, 4:30-6:00 PM, Reese Bullen Gallery, Cal Poly Humboldt, Arcata CA 
• Curator Talk Wednesday March 6th, 5pm-6pm in ArtB room 102, Lecture Hall, Cal Poly Humboldt, Arcata CA 

Lora Webb Nichols, Mary Anderson, 1911

The Reese Bullen Gallery at Cal Poly Humboldt campus showcases an exhibition curated by Professor and Art + Film Department Chair Nicole Jean Hill. Through research and collaborative preservation with the archive located in Wyoming, the exhibition features works by photographer Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962) who created and collected approximately 24,000 negatives over the course of her lifetime in the mining town of Encampment. The images chronicle the domestic, social, and economic aspects of the sparsely populated frontier of south-central Wyoming. 

Given the period of time the collection spans, the isolation of the Encampment community, and Lora Webb Nichols’ gender, this collection of images is unparalleled in its historical significance and visual storytelling. Photography enthusiasts and historians are encouraged to explore more of Lora’s photographs and writings online through the American Heritage Center (Laramie, Wyoming) or in person at the Grand Encampment Museum. 

Lora Webb Nichols, Winters and McCarthy, 1933

The exhibition “Lora Webb Nichols: Photographs Made, Photographs Collected, 1988-1935”, will run from February 15th through March 16th at the Reese Bullen Gallery. We will hold an Opening Reception Thursday February 15th from 4:30pm-6pm at the Reese Bullen Gallery, with light refreshments. Nicole Jean Hill will host a Curator Talk Wednesday March 6th, 5pm-6pm in ArtB room 102, Lecture Hall. All are welcome to attend. 

The Reese Bullen Gallery, named in honor of a founding professor of the Art Department, was established in 1970. The gallery is located in the Cal Poly Humboldt Art Building, at the intersection of B Street and Laurel Drive, directly across from the Van Duzer Theatre. The gallery is open Wednesday/Thursday 12pm-6pm, Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday 11am-2pm. Closed Sunday-Tuesday. Also open via appointment, please contact the Gallery Director at [email protected], or call 707-826-5818. Admission is free and all are welcome. For campus parking information, please visit humboldt.edu/parking. 

More information on Lora Webb Nichols Archive: https://www.lorawebbnichols.org/ 

Since leaving full-time employment in 2015 – a seven-year, post-university stint as an accountant for professional services network Deloitte – Wang’s interest in railways, and photographing them, has morphed from a hobby into his raison d’être.

“I spend about three to five months on the road each year,” he says. “I’ve visited every province in mainland China, countless times. I’m even writing a travelogue of my experiences to go along with my images.

“I’m inspired by foreign books about China, books like Peter Hessler’s River Town [2001] and Michael Meyer’s In Manchuria [2015], which contain strong observations about China.”

In a country where social conformity and familial responsibilities often trump any notions of individualism, Wang might outwardly appear like a restless loner occupied by an obscure obsession.

“I read any news about railway construction,” he says. “If a new railway is about to be opened, I will study the satellite maps in advance, determine the camera position I want to shoot from, plan the route, and choose a season with ideal weather for taking pictures.

“I usually spend one or even two months capturing a particular section of track.”

Travel genes were in Wang’s DNA. Born in Shanghai in 1985 to parents from northern China, his mother and father’s state employers uprooted the family from their east coast home when he was just two years old.

“My parents’ danwei [work department] sent us to live in an oasis town in Xinjiang. I remember the place was surrounded by cottonwood trees.

“We lived in a compound with its own canteen, transport, even an in-house kindergarten, so I rarely had the opportunity to make friends with the local kids. But every Sunday we’d take the bus to Urumqi to purchase groceries. Looking back, it was a real adventure.

“The air quality in Urumqi was good, and you could see the snow-capped Tian Shan mountains from the city centre. My parents would take me to the bazaar to eat mutton skewers. I really loved the meat sprinkled with cumin and spices.”

After three years in the far west, the family moved again, this time to Xian, which was “the first really big trip I can remember. It takes 25 hours to travel from Urumqi to Xian by train today, but at that time, it took three days”.

Life in Xian, much like that in Xinjiang, made a deep impression on the young Wang: “We lived in the northern suburbs of the city, which were surrounded by wheat fields. Tall poplar trees had been planted on both sides of the tractor path between the fields.

“Every summer night, people in the compound would go out. We would use torches to carefully search for cicadas that were shedding their shells on tree trunks, then take them home and fry them. They were delicious, not to mention rich in protein.”

The Wang family returned to Shanghai in 1994, and the timing was auspicious. With former Shanghai mayor Jiang Zemin serving as Communist Party general secretary, the 1990s was set to be Shanghai’s decade, the city’s moment to reclaim its gilded “Pearl of the Orient” status after decades of economic isolation.

“At that time, Pudong [an area on the east side of the Huangpu River that was made a special economic zone in 1990] was basically an empty space. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower was only half-built,” he recalls.

“My parents took me on a sightseeing cruise on the Huangpu River, sailing from the Bund to Wusongkou, where the Huangpu merges into the Yangtze. I remember seeing both river banks lined by dilapidated wharves and shipyards, and the fishy smell gave me a bad impression.”

But things were soon changing, and by his own admission, Wang’s adolescence took place in the world’s biggest building site. New ring roads, expressways, subway lines and railway tracks threaded through the city, while across the river, the cabbage fields of yesteryear began sprouting concrete towers out of the muddy banks of the Huangpu like groves of bamboo.

It was around this time that Wang discovered a passion for photography.

“My father was a keen amateur photographer and whenever we went on holiday he’d take pictures. He taught me how to use a camera, and importantly, how to take landscape photographs,” he says.

“I used Kodak film with a roll of 36 shots. Film was not cheap, so I set the exposure carefully for fear of taking useless pictures and wasting shots. Later, my family bought a digital camera. I started using it to take shots of the cityscape whenever I had free time.”

From Wang’s childhood in the western deserts through to his university days in Shanghai, China’s railway infrastructure had also developed radically. The Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway, launched the same year Wang graduated from university, 2008, inaugurated the high-speed era.

But it wasn’t until 2012, when he was a full-time office worker, that he began to train his lens on the transport network. What separated him from his peers was that he chose to shoot from high above his subjects.

“My first drone was the DJI Inspire 1, which I purchased in 2015. I found it quite difficult to get started with aerial photography. Back then, drone technology was still in its infancy, and I’ve crashed a few. You need to read the instructions carefully, then conduct test flights and practise in an open area to fully familiarise yourself with the controls.”

Drone technology vastly expanded Wang’s range, enabling him to capture a new perspective, one that, as he puts it, “shows the characteristics of railways in different landscapes”.

“China is a vast country, and the landscapes in the north, south, west and coastal areas are really different.”

Despite the challenges of spending up to half a year on the road, Wang says he has grown accustomed to his life-less-ordinary.

“The government has become increasingly strict in controlling society in recent years while the possibility of conflict with a neighbouring country is increasing,” he says. “Perhaps in the next few years, photographing trains will be banned or restricted, I don’t know.

“Plus, as my parents get older, I’ll have to spend more time with them. Therefore, I have to get all the shots I can as quickly as possible.”

By Jackson Posey | Staff Writer

From Christ Pantocrator in the sixth century to the Sistine Chapel in the 16th, the past 1,500 years of Christian art have primarily arisen from the bristles of a paintbrush. Today, that brush has been replaced by a Sony Alpha 7 IV.

“I feel like God has given me passions and abilities with media for a purpose,” Highlands Ranch, Colo., junior Rocky Holloway, who serves as FM72’s media director, said. “And those are not to go and be selfish, but it’s to reflect Him well. … When I’m at the church, I’m sitting and I’m starting to think about, ‘How can I capture what the Lord is doing and what’s going on with His people? What is going on in this place, and how can I tell that story in a succinct way?’”

Holloway, like other Generation Z Christians, grew up in a cultural environment that sees digitization and documentation as core values. This is the “pics or it didn’t happen” generation — a mantra that has rubbed some church leaders the wrong way.

“The Mass is not a show. It is to go to meet the passion and resurrection of the Lord,” Pope Francis said in 2017. “And I tell you that it gives me so much sadness when I celebrate here in the Piazza or Basilica and I see so many raised cellphones — not just of the faithful, even of some priests and even bishops.”

Francis, who called the increase in church technology use “a very ugly thing,” satirically challenged the use of cellphones during Mass by contrasting it with historical liturgical sayings.

“The priest says, ‘Lift up your hearts,’” Francis said. “He does not say, ‘Lift up your cellphones to take pictures.’”

That anti-technological posture is increasingly becoming the minority view, as the COVID-19 pandemic served as a breaking point for many camera-shy churches. Many congregations around the world now livestream their services to scores of remote viewers, pushing preachers to occasionally address those watching online.

And it isn’t just Sunday mornings. Digital Bible software is on the rise too. According to research conducted by John Dyer for his 2022 book, “People of the Screen,” 45% of evangelicals use their phones to read the Bible “devotionally.” That isn’t countercultural anymore; it is the culture.

And yet, from the broader perspective of American media culture, Christians remain in the minority. Big hitters like “The Chosen” and “He Gets Us” stand out precisely because of their uniqueness in the industry. In some ways, Christian media seems to be a half-step behind the pack. But for many Gen Z Christians with artistic inclinations, good Christian media can provide something nothing else can — documentation of genuine encounters with God.

“My personal style and flair is going to be to lean away maybe from always capturing what’s onstage and focus on what’s happening in the room,” Holloway said. “Because you’re trying to use a physical medium to capture something that’s intangible, right? And that’s really interesting, but what we do understand is faces, is people, is stories, is connection. And so [I use] that to try to illustrate that something ‘not normal’ is going on in this room.”

Austin senior Jenna Rigney, a former Harris Creek photographer who is also on the Kamp Love and FM72 media teams, takes a different approach. Rather than drawing attention to individual stories, she focuses on the broader environment of the room.

“To me, I don’t ever really want to get people’s faces, just because those are really intimate moments where they’re just purely worshiping God,” Rigney said. “To me, those aren’t moments that I should be capturing. I will capture them from behind, showing their hands raised. Or if I want to put on a low shutter speed, I will get some blurry photos maybe if anything, to capture kind of the mood and the movement of the space.”

There’s certainly nuance there. Rigney noted that different environments and moments can change the calculus. Some are more upbeat, like when Kamp Love devotees were “shouting worship songs and jumping around.” But in the more somber, reflective times, her default is to leave extra room.

“Overall, I think it’s just a judgment of, ‘What’s the tone of the space?’ Is it more reflective or full of confession or prayer?” Rigney said. “I’m going to take time to step away, maybe take some further-away shots, just to honor people and where they’re at in the space, because I wouldn’t want people putting a camera in my face when I’m crying, you know?”

Taking that sort of hands-off posture, even with hands still on the camera, isn’t unique to Rigney. St. Louis sophomore Jackson Lawrence, a Harris Creek videographer, is intent on keeping the holiness of God the main thing.

“I definitely think there should be some strict boundaries of keeping a space sacred,” Lawrence said. “I know during Kamp Love, they won’t allow anyone to go into the prayer room except for people on the prayer team or some of the leadership, because a camera does not need to be there. They want to keep that space sacred.”

There’s a philosophical idea that “everything is theological” — that everything Christians do, especially within a worship space, reveals something of what they think of God. Paul writes in Ephesians 1:23 that the church is “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Therefore, it’s no wonder that one’s perspective on God will practically be lived out in the things they do.

That same concept is equally true for preaching as it is for greeting, as it is for mopping floors, as it is for creating Christian media content. Lawrence, reflecting on his position, sees creating excellent artwork as a reflection of the God who created all excellencies.

“I think being faithful with my job is accurately showing what it looks like to follow Jesus,” Lawrence said. “I don’t see a problem with trying to make that look as good as possible, because that’s exactly what Christ did. I’m reminded of when Jesus is talking with the woman at the well, and He appeals to her thirst and her need for water. And He says to the woman, ‘Do you not ever want to be thirsty again? Do you want to drink from a better water?’ And He’s speaking it about Himself. He is sort of marketing Himself, in a way. And so I think being faithful [in] my job is marketing Christ, following Jesus in the best light possible.”

In the book of Exodus, God gives a particular blessing to a craftsman named Bezalel. God tells Moses that He has “filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.”

Bezalel, among others, is tasked with building the tabernacle, where God will meet with humanity. From the tent of meeting and ark of the testimony to “the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place,” God chooses artists to frame the place where He will meet with His people. In many ways, modern Christian artists are seeking to do the same.

“If it’s just me capturing beautiful moments to glorify God and help people remember who He is and be in awe of Him through that, then we’re doing something,” Rigney said. “I think there is beauty in how He’s given each of us as creatives a specific eye for things. … And I’m not saying erase my identity from that, because God is using me for this, but … there’s so many different ways to capture God’s glory, and it’s beautiful.”

The quality of the artwork certainly matters — shooting with the lens cap on doesn’t help anyone. But in worship photography, the goals are different. More important than the composition or the lighting or the angle is the ultimate subject: God. In the most important shots of their lives, the pressure is all off.

“[I want to] be excellent in it, don’t get me wrong,” Holloway said. “But it’s also stepping into that room and stopping, trying to still myself and asking the Lord, ‘Hey, I want to reflect you well, and I want this to glorify you, so would you help me in that?’ It’s almost like partnering with the Holy Spirit in capturing that moment and capturing those photos and understanding it’s not a matter of perfection; it’s more an act of obedience. [That’s] where I want to line my heart up to be.”