Photo courtesy of Dexter Regional High School PHOTOGRAPHY FIELD TRIP — Rick Whitney of the Dexter Historical Society welcomed students from one of the photography classes at Dexter Regional High School to the Bert Call exhibit at Millworks in Dexter on Oct. 11.

With roots in marketing and a flair for the commercial, Jodie James’s transformation into a master visual storyteller has been noticed in the advertising world.

The latest signing to Film Construction, Jodie blends artistry and marketing in her approach to photography. For her, it’s not merely about taking pictures; it’s about comprehending the campaign’s essence, target audience, and desired impact. Her eclectic interests infuse her creative process with a unique perspective, allowing her to discover beauty and inspiration in the most unexpected corners.

But what truly sets her photography apart is her skill in uncovering hidden narratives within her frames, adding depth and intrigue to her visuals, and r capturing authentic brand narratives.

LBB> Your journey from a marketing and commercial background to becoming a creative commercial and editorial photographer is intriguing. How did your marketing experience shape your approach to photography and storytelling?

Jodie> Having a background in marketing gives me a deeper understanding of what the campaign needs to communicate in its final delivery. Rather than just taking pretty pictures, understanding the reason, the audience, the story, and the outcome that they are trying to achieve. Being a lot more collaborative with clients has been fantastic, as our magic working together can really shine.

Experience in marketing also helps me get more depth, emotion and connection in the story, as knowing the psychology behind marketing and selling allows me to craft the image.

LBB> How do your diverse interests influence your creative process and photography style?

Jodie> For me, inspiration and creativity are everywhere I look, I have taught myself to push through the creative blocks, to see beyond what is right there and to make something extraordinary out of everyday things. I am so intrigued by the psychology behind what we do, how we buy, and what makes us tick that I’m constantly expanding my knowledge to understand people better.

Widening the gap of where I look for inspiration allows me to come up with new ideas and go in directions I never thought I would.

LBB> The imagery you capture aims to tell authentic brand stories. Could you share an example of a project where your photography successfully conveyed a brand’s narrative uniquely and unexpectedly?

Jodie> I worked on a beautiful internal campaign for Fonterra with D&Co, which, unlike most other campaigns, was to promote a more serious topic. We worked with local farmers around Canterbury to communicate the importance of the discussion & to encourage everyone to voice their opinions. We took a more stoic, serious tone than the usual shoot & it gave us a fantastic range of content to communicate the importance of the project.

LBB> Your work is praised for its ability to capture transitional and unnoticed moments. How do you navigate the process of integrating these hidden narratives into your photography, and what role do they play in making your work stand out?

Jodie> It involves a lot of planning to craft a story and a deeper narrative of an image. Still, sometimes, it’s about letting the moment develop authentically and continuing to shoot outside the ‘normal’ parameters. A lot of it is being patient, connecting, and collaborating. Sometimes, it’s just letting the brief percolate subconsciously for a while, and like magic, an idea will form. Creativity often needs space.

LBB> Being based in Wanaka, New Zealand, offers incredible natural landscapes for your photography. How does your unique location impact the themes and settings you choose for your photoshoots?

Jodie> Most people say I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It was just today, I was skiing on Treble Cone, where I have skied for 25 years, and I looked at the view only to see it as incredibly beautiful as the first time I saw it.

A lot of clients come and shoot campaigns here from all around the world. The significant advantage I have is that I have lived here most of my life – it means I know unique locations that are off the beaten track, I know how the weather works, where the sun will be and how quickly you need to get off the lake in your boat when the wind picks up! Most people don’t realise how diverse the landscape can be here; there are secret pockets that look like Mars to lakes off in the mountains that could be anywhere in the world. This area really does have so much to offer, so I am very lucky.

LBB> Joining Film Construction’s stills roster is a significant step in your photography journey. Could you discuss your perspective on being part of this creative powerhouse and how it aligns with your creative vision?

Jodie> Being part of the FC team is epic – these guys really align with everything I strive to be. They are kind, welcoming and ambitious. They are creative, funny, and not afraid to be brave. I am super stoked to have joined them and so excited to work with such a vast experience of knowledge. I love to create, if I didn’t get paid, I would still constantly build, design, photograph, draw, paint and whatever else comes to mind (you should see all the notes, ideas, and personal projects of all sorts that are around my home!) So, to be able to create with these guys is exciting. 

LBB> The press release mentions your goal of empowering viewers to embark on a visual treasure hunt within your work. How do you achieve this sense of discovery and engagement in your photography?

Jodie> I do love to really think about images before I take them. I love to think about the composition, where the viewer will look first, then second… I love to think about the impact the colours have on the emotion the viewer will feel. I love to trigger an emotion, regardless of whether it’s a good or bad one, rather than just take a pretty picture. The images I am most proud of create the opportunity for viewers to create their own story, to use their rose-coloured glasses to see what they see. I try not to spell everything out but to let them experience it themselves.

LBB> As the current president of the New Zealand AIPA, you undoubtedly have a deep connection to the photography industry. How does this leadership role influence your work and approach to photography? 

Jodie> I am new to this role, so it has not had much influence on my work yet! However, I have always wanted to build connections and help people wherever possible. Being a creative can be a lonely journey, I love any opportunity to collaborate but, more importantly, share my knowledge and help others be the best they can be. I have had and continue to have plenty of wonderful people in my life who have helped me along the way, so the least I can do is pass it on. Being the president does feel a little scary as I hope I can do all our members justice and continue to create an organisation that is a fantastic group to be part of.

LBB> Film Construction has highlighted your ability to find beauty in everyday scenes and people, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Could you share a story behind a photograph where you achieved this transformative effect?

Jodie> I love adding some quirk to my images, especially a touch of humour. I love it when I see an image that makes me laugh…even if, after my first reaction, it actually makes me a little sad.

One example that will likely make you laugh is the Wrapped Christmas Tree. It was close to Christmas, and I was thinking about how ridiculous the amount of presents my niece and nephew get… inspired by oversized gestures, I jokingly said to my partner, “I want to wrap up one of our trees”. So, on his next visit to Kmart, being the wonderful, generous person he is, he called to ask if I needed anything. I said as much wrapping paper as you think I would need to wrap the big round tree – oh, and a big bow.

By the time he got home, I had lost the excitement; however, a few days later, I suddenly had the urge to go and do it. Sadly, because the sport was on television, I was left to battle alone with three thin wrapping paper rolls. I don’t know what my neighbours thought I was up to, but it was definitely entertaining for them. After about a 30-minute wrestling match, I made it acceptable and had to rush to get my camera before the sun went down. If nothing else, it was a great afternoon outside and my neighbours got some light entertainment.

LBB> Your work is described as having intentional undertones that lend immediacy and gravitas to your imagery. How do you infuse your photos with these subtle yet impactful elements that resonate with viewers?

Jodie> Usually, quite a lot of thoughtful planning. I do waiver between shooting, getting in the groove and seeing what happens to intentionally planning almost every part of the image. I love taking inspiration from others’ work, but I love problem-solving, and I think a considerable amount of photography involves precisely that.

A photo of a golden horseshoe crab —one of the world’s most ancient and highly endangered animals— earned a marine photographer the grand title in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. The Natural History Museum in London, which runs the competition, made the announcement Tuesday.

The picture, taken by Laurent Ballesta, shows a tri-spine horseshoe crab on a seabed near Pangatalan Island in the Philippines, as it is followed by three golden trevallies. Ballesta documented the horseshoe crabs as they moved through water, fed, mated and provided a home to other animals, according to the museum.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest is produced by the Natural History Museum. Ballesta’s photo was chosen from nearly 50,000 entires across 95 countries. Kathy Moran, who was the chair of the jury, called the image “luminescent.” 

“To see a horseshoe crab so vibrantly alive in its natural habitat, in such a hauntingly beautiful way, was astonishing,” Moran said. 

“We are looking at an ancient species, highly endangered, and also critical to human health,” Moran added. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed the tri-spine horseshoe crab as “endangered.” 

It’s the second time Ballesta has won the grand prize, after he earned it in 2021.

Horseshoe crabs are typically found in waters off southeast Asia and despite their name, they’re more closely related to spiders and scorpions than crabs. According to the Natural History Museum, the horseshoe crab has survived relatively unchanged for around 100 million years —meaning they were around when dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex were roaming the planet. 

However, their existence is under threat. Its blue blood is critical for the development of vaccines, and it’s used to test for potentially dangerous bacterial contamination. In addition, the arthropods are used as bait to catch other species. Overhfishing, paired with habitat destruction and ocean pollution, has led to all living species of horseshoe crabs being at risk.

The young Wildlife Photographer of the Year title went to 17-year-old Carmel Bechler, who took a long-exposure image of two barn owls in an abandoned roadside building. The teen from Israel said he hopes to share in his photography that “the beauty of the natural world is all around us, even in places where we least expect it to be.”

Moran said Bechler’s photo “has so many layers in terms of content and composition.”

“It simultaneously screams ‘habitat destruction’ and ‘adaptation,’ begging the question: If wildlife can adapt to our environment, why can’t we respect theirs?” Moran said. 

Ballesta and Bechler’s photos were chosen from 19 other category winners. All of the images will be on exhibition at the Natural History Museum beginning Friday. 

Christopher Brito

Christopher Brito is a social media manager and trending content writer for CBS News.

I have been searching for a portable power station that can meet my energy needs on the go and power my home office during power outages for some time now. And with the Bluetti AC60, I found a compact solution.

The Need for a Power Station

Additional power on the road is always welcome. As photographers, we have quite some gear to charge, and we also want to review our photos, for which we have to power our laptops.

A few years ago, I rented an RV for a trip through France. Being a rental, its batteries didn’t have enough capacity for more than one day off the grid. Hence, I had to find powered campsites most of the time. Back then, a portable power station could have given me more flexibility.

But portable batteries are expensive and might seem hard to justify unless you’re on the road a lot. That’s why the perfect solution should also work in a home setup. UPS mode, which stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply, is a great additional feature for that. You can plug a station supporting UPS between the grid and the devices you want to power. In case of a blackout, the power station seamlessly takes over, and you don’t even notice that the grid is down.

Where I live, we don’t get many outages. In the last 12 months, we had two. Although annoying, it still doesn’t justify the investment in such a battery. But we also get plenty of thunderstorms, during which I usually unplug all my equipment. That time can add up, so in that case, a strong enough battery to power my office for a couple of hours would be a big plus.

Important Information About Power Stations

I was already aware that the inverters used in power stations to convert the DC current from the battery to AC, require power to operate. However, I wasn’t fully aware of the significant difference in efficiency that can result from using such power stations with different AC loads. If you use low-powered AC devices, the efficiency can drop to 70, 60, or even 50%.

This knowledge is essential when choosing a power station, as those don’t only come with varying capacities but also with different inverters. The Bluetti AC60, for example, has an inverter that can power an AC load of up to 600 watts in normal mode. For short periods, it can double the load. Bigger stations support even higher loads.

But bigger is not always better. If, for example, your typical load is less than 100 watts, the efficiency can be quite low for large stations. That’s why you should get a wattmeter before you buy a power station. Make sure to measure the load of the devices you intend to power and choose the battery’s capacity and power accordingly.

Bluetti AC60

Thankfully, power stations like the Bluetti AC60 also include a set of DC outlets. The AC60 has one 12V car cigarette lighter port, which you could use to power a DC fridge, two 15-watt USB-A outlets, and even a 100-watt USB-C outlet. With such a variance of DC outlets, you often don’t need to use one of the two AC outlets, as even a laptop can directly plug into the USB-C. Charging your phone works wireless by placing it on top of the AC60.

The loss when operating the AC60 in DC mode is low. You’ll lose some power if the fan becomes active at higher loads. Otherwise, the efficiency is very good. I did a test drawing 60watts from the USB-C and got 90% efficiency.

But what about the AC efficiency? My office setup consists of a Dell XPS, a monitor, and a Sonos speaker – that’s it. At this relatively low load, I get an efficiency of 77% from the 403Wh battery of the AC60. It can power my office for 4.5 hours. For higher loads, the efficiency should increase, as I explained above and as other tests I’ve read confirm.

More capacity would have been welcome, but I guess there’s always a compromise with batteries, especially if they come with the set of features of the AC60. It’s very robust, made of high-quality materials, and water and dust-resistant. The inverter is also relatively strong for a battery of its size. Another great feature is its extensibility. The AC60 comes with two ports for plugging in Bluetti’s B80 packs. This way, you can extend the capacity to a total of 2015Wh.

The ideal use is to have the AC60 for the go, where you can mostly use its efficient DC outlets. You’ll value its compact size and weather-resistant build for that. An extension might be necessary to use it in the office for a longer time, and I hope to get my hands on one for a future test. So stay tuned for that.

What I love about the AC60 is its fast charging capability. The integrated inverter works both ways and allows you to directly plug the AC60 into a wall outlet for a maximum input of 600 watts. With it, you can charge the AC60 to 80% in less than an hour. I got to a full charge in 71 Minutes. In normal mode, it took about two hours. Note that you’ll again lose some power in the process. I measured an efficiency of around 90%.

On the road, the 12V cigarette port can also serve as input. Or you can get Bluetti’s PV120 or PV200 portable solar panels to get up to 200 watts of solar charging.

At the beginning of this article, I also mentioned the UPS mode. The AC60 includes this feature with a less than 20ms switch-over time. In the feature video, I show this mode in action. Be aware, though, that continuously operating such a power station in UPS mode will consume energy. I also noticed it with the AC60. Doing some research, I found that this is normal. However, as it may come as a surprise to some, I wanted to mention it here. It happens because the AC60 also draws energy from the battery to power its internal components. Because of it, the battery drops to 99% every 15 to 20 minutes. Recharging means an extra 15 – 20Wh drawn from the grid each hour. It can become a factor if you plan to use the AC60 in UPS mode continuously.

When buying a battery, it’s also important to understand the difference between Li-Ion and LiFePO4. Li-Ion batteries are more compact and offer a higher energy density. But they also have a significantly shorter lifespan and are less secure. The AC60 uses LiFePO4 batteries, which allow up to 3000 recharges until the capacity drops below 80%. It roughly equates to a lifetime of 10 years when used continuously. Bluetti backs the longevity of their products with six years of warranty.

And what about noise? Power stations produce heat and usually require a fan to handle it. With less than 45db when the fan is active, it is silent compared to many competitors. But as I show in the feature video, it might still be too loud if you intend to record videos in the same room.

The final feature I want to mention is the Bluetti app. Using the QR code on the AC60, it was easy to connect it. From the app, I get an overview of the different currents and loads in the AC60. I can also control features like fast charging or ECO mode. Firmware updates are also handled via the app. Those are important because the AC60 is still a very new power station, and Bluetti uses those updates to tune things like the operation of the fans, for example.

What I Like

Here, I want to highlight a few features I particularly like about the AC60. For one thing, it’s the robust build and the IP65 rating. When I bring it on a camping trip, I won’t have to worry about it. I also appreciate the 100-watt USB-C outlet. It’s perfect for powering my Dell XPS on the road. I was also surprised by the quick and efficient charging, which doesn’t require an additional adapter. I can plug the cable directly into the AC60 for charging.

There’s one more thing that can be a game-changer: the extensibility. By getting just one B80 from Bluetti, I could power my office setup for more than 13 hours based on the efficiency I measured. Now, that’s some piece of mind right there.

What Could Be Improved

While I appreciate the extensibility, it would have been nice for the AC60 to have more capacity. Comparable power stations usually pack 512Wh. With 9kg, the AC60 is also not very lightweight. The reason is most likely due to the use of LiFePO4 vs. Lithium-ion. Considering it, more weight for security and a longer lifetime is a good trade-off.

As for the inverter efficiency, I hoped it would be higher for my typical loads. As I wrote in the beginning, the advertised efficiencies usually refer to higher loads and ideal conditions. It’s good to know though, that the formula in the AC60 manual to calculate the efficiency is correct. I value such transparency, even though it requires digging a bit deeper. I downloaded the manual of some competing brands, trying to find a similar formula, but I couldn’t.

Conclusion

The Bluetti AC60 is currently available for $699. It is a robust and feature-packed power station strong enough to supply power throughout a weekend photo adventure. The installed LiFePO4 batteries and the 6-year warranty provide some piece of mind after making such an investment and its extensibility flexibility. And while for me, the capacity of the AC60 is sufficient for now, it’s good to know that Bluetti also has bigger stations in their AC line. As I wrote in the beginning, first measure how much power and capacity you need to make an informed decision.

Three photos from two Canadian photographers are part of the 2023 Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, whose winners were announced Tuesday night.

Mark Williams, a photographer based in Jordan River, B.C., was highly commended in the animal portraits category for photos of an Arctic fox backlit by the sun and a dramatic drone shot of five belugas surfacing among fragments of sea ice, both captured in Nunavut. Garth Lenz of Victoria was highly commended in the photojournalism category for an aerial, early morning shot of the biggest open excavation on Earth, the massive Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah.

Grand prize winners

The winners of the annual competition were announced at a ceremony in London by the Natural History Museum, which organizes the annual competition.

The grand prize went to Laurent Ballesta of France for an underwater portrait of a shiny, gold horseshoe crab at Pangatalan Island in the Philippines accompanied by three young golden travellie fish. Ballesta previously won the grand prize in 2021, and is only the second photographer to win twice in the competition’s 59-year history.

The young wildlife photographer of the year prize went to 17-year-old Carmel Bechler of Israel for a photo of barn owls in an abandoned roadside building, behind light trails from passing traffic.

In all, 100 photographs were chosen in 19 categories among 49,957 entries from 95 countries to appear in the exhibition.

The Canadian photos

Williams captured his two photos in the summer of 2022 while working as a guide at a lodge called Arctic Watch Wilderness Lodge on Somerset Island, which in the summer hosts tourists, researchers studying things like muskox populations and climate change impacts, and, sometimes, cinematographers.

He said he’s excited to share his photos of the region, since not many people get a chance to go up there.

“The beluga one is certainly one of my favourites,” he said from London on Wednesday, where he attended the awards ceremony. But he was surprised that it was chosen by the international panel of judges. “That one is quite arty and out there in my mind.”

The fox photo represented a “rare encounter” he said. He was at a camp on the side of the river around midnight, about to go to bed, when he spotted some movement in the distance that he couldn’t identify with binoculars. He went to have a closer look, and managed to capture an Arctic fox with a ragged blend of winter and summer coats haloed by sunlight. On closer inspection, he realized that it had only three legs. “It comes across as tenacious.”� 

Williams hopes the photos help people relate to the Arctic species impacted by climate change. He noted that many may question whether small actions they take to slow climate change make a difference. “It does make a difference,” he said. “I hope that my imagery speaks to that.”

William’s photos of the isolated wilderness contrast sharply with Lenz’s image of a giant, open pit mine.

“It’s part of my bigger project on what the Anthropocene looks like,” said Lenz, referring to the proposed geological epoch marked by humans’ influence on the Earth. Lenz’s photos of Alberta oilsands mines have appeared in two previous Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibitions.

This year’s image was taken in 2017, when he opened an exhibition in Salt Lake City, Utah, and hired a plane to photograph the mine. The ride itself was a reminder of the impact on the landscape — thermals rising up from the massive pit cause severe turbulence. “So we were bouncing around a lot in the air,” Lenz recalled. “My head kept hitting the top of the frame of the window, which of course was open as we smacked around.”

Still, he was determined to capture images of the mine.

“I’m really trying to tell the story of our treatment of the planet,” he said. “We have become so disconnected from the environment that we take everything from — that we allow this devastation to actually occur virtually under our noses… it’s a societal problem that we don’t really see our fate as being [as] closely tied to the health of the planet as it actually is.”

Where to see the exhibition

The touring exhibition opens Friday at the Natural History Museum in London.

It makes its North American debut at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on Nov. 25, 

For the people that regularly frequent, live in and/or still love the Tenderloin and mid-Market neighborhoods, these widely distributed, one-note perceptions of the area are frustrating and frequently worthy of an eye-roll. Outsiders are all too often willing to focus on the worst rather than appreciate the Tenderloin’s small businesses, tasty restaurants, fun bars, long-standing charitable organizations and interesting local characters.

Enter photographic hero Dave Glass. He’s a San Francisco local that has long documented neighborhoods — and, crucially, the mix of people within them — across the city. Glass had the good sense to spend decades documenting the Tenderloin and Civic Center, and his new exhibition, Central City 1960-2016, reflects an appreciation for those neighborhoods right when it’s needed most. Right when, let’s be frank, so many people have nothing good to say about the area at all.

In the exhibition, on view at the Tenderloin Museum through the end of the year, Glass only has 14 images on display — nine in black and white, five in color. But each is potent, and the collection is carefully curated to reflect the broad swath of life that has always existed in the neighborhood. Cool kids on street corners, anti-war protesters, a smiling baby in a Volvo driver’s seat, a stoic Polk Street watch repairman. They all exist alongside old neighborhood bars and their patrons, liquor store foot traffic, and cops lined up on Market near Sixth.

Though small, Central City is a fuller — and fairer — picture of the Tenderloin and mid-Market than most of the country is afforded right now.  Glass’ black and white images are the most striking, too, in part because, at a glance, they all appear to be from the same era — despite them spanning 45 years of street life.

Through Glass’ lens, the Tenderloin and its surrounding streets become timeless. There is something undeniably beautiful about that — especially while so much of the country is still talking smack about them.

‘Dave Glass: Central City 1970-2016’ is on view at the Tenderloin Museum (398 Eddy St.) until Dec. 30, 2023. Glass will appear in conversation at the museum with Adrian Martinez and Austin Leong on at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 7 .

REVIEW – Macro photography can be a creative way to take a photo that shows something we don’t normally see so well. Mobile macro photography is interesting, with many phones having macro support built in, but how good is that macro lens really? To get the best mobile macro photos you should invest in a lens attachment like the SANDMARC Macro 100mm Lens I’m reviewing today.

What is it?

The SANDMARC Macro 100mm Lens is a macro lens designed for iPhone photography. This lens provides crisp focus and natural bokeh compared to the built-in macro of most phone camera systems.

What’s in the box?

• Macro Lens
• Lens Pouch
• Clip-on Mount
• Cleaning Cloth
• Lens Caps
• iPhone Case

Hardware specs

• Lens: 100mm
• Height: 39mm
• Diameter: 48mm
• Minimum Distance: 53mm 

Design and features

SANDMARC Macro 100mm Lens is a small, black, aluminum lens housing with a large 48mm lens, coming to a small threaded end, which is designed to screw into the included phone case or the included clip-on mount. I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max and the case that comes for that size phone has two threaded attachment points – one for the standard 1x lens, and one for the 3x lens. These threaded points line up the lens correctly to prevent vignetting. When the clip-on mount is used the lens needs to be lined up just right or you’ll see vignetting around the edges of the image. It might even be necessary to use the clip-on attachment without a case, depending on the thickness of the case or how much it sticks out in the back to prevent damage to the phone’s built-in lenses. I found that my case prevented the clip-on attachment from sitting flat against the phone’s lens so it wouldn’t line up properly.

The lens comes with a soft pouch to protect it from scratches or other damage as well as a carrying case for the lens and the clip-on mount. There are also lens caps for both ends of the lens. For the safety of the lens’s glass, make sure not to lose these. A cleaning cloth is also included to help with keeping dust and smudges off the lens.

Installation and setup

You need to decide whether you want to use the included phone case or the clip-on mount. For my use, I mostly used the case because I knew it lined up the macro lens correctly with the phone’s built-in lenses. I used the clip-on enough to test how it works but decided I didn’t want to have to deal with keeping the lens perfectly aligned, especially outdoors when I’m moving around and sometimes barely able to see what’s on my screen because of the sunlight.

I did come across one quirk with the iPhone’s built-in camera app that I couldn’t always work around. It isn’t always easy to select exactly which camera the phone is shooting with. The SANDMARC case doesn’t have a threaded attachment point for the 0.5x lens, so I knew I couldn’t use that one, but when I was trying to use either the 1x or 3x lens, sometimes the screen would show a shot of the back side of the macro lens vs. the image coming through what I thought was the right camera. The iPhone sometimes uses a different camera than you think it’s going to. I was able to correctly select the lens I wanted to use in an old version of Camera+. I didn’t have a recent version of that app to test with, so I can’t say whether it would do the same or not but I can’t imagine it wouldn’t. An app like Halide would probably also do the trick. I don’t consider this a negative mark against SANDMARC. They haven’t done anything wrong, the iPhone is just quirky sometimes when you’re trying to do some specific things like this.

The lens is a bit hefty so your phone is going to be pretty top heavy while using it but I didn’t find this to be a problem to adjust to in my testing. Clearly, you won’t be using the phone for standard phone purposes with the lens attached so this only applies while you’re shooting with the lens attached.

In use

I haven’t actually done a lot of macro photography before. I think I need to spend a lot more time figuring out the process. Most of my test shots were done in my backyard with some trees and flowers we have back there. One thing I found is that the depth of field with this lens is very shallow. The minimum distance, according to a video tutorial on SANDMARC’s site, is 53mm or about 2”. I don’t know the full depth of field but it felt like just a few inches. This means focusing is very critical, which for me while wearing glasses and trying to see my phone’s screen outside in daylight, proved to be quite a challenge. Still, I think I was able to get some pretty decent shots, considering my lack of experience with macro photography. It’s a skill I definitely want to continue to improve.

As mentioned above, I didn’t use the clip-on mount very much. I like the idea of the clip-on mount, but I wish it had some way of making sure the macro lens was aligned properly with the phone’s built-in lenses, like some kind of circular grooves or an indentation that fits around the phone’s lens. I suppose the way it is now means it can be compatible with more phone models, but it didn’t prove to be very useful in my experience.

As far as I can tell SANDMARC does not make a case for Android phones. The included clip-on mount could be used with those but proper alignment would be an issue there as well.

I don’t plan to use the case for my phone long-term. I’ll only use it when I need to attach the lens. The texture of the case is a soft, rubbery texture, which feels good in the hand and helps prevent the phone from sliding out of my often very dry hands, but this also prevents it from sliding into and out of my pockets very easily sometimes. It also doesn’t sit level on the table when I put down my phone so it wobbles a little bit when I go to use it. I don’t consider the texture a negative, it’s just not my preferred phone case material, but I do wish the phone sat flat on the table. Other phone case manufacturers figured that out quite a while ago.

What I like

• Creative macro photography with an iPhone
• Shallow depth of field for a nice bokeh effect

What I’d change

• Proper alignment with the clip-on mount and the phone’s lenses
• Phone case doesn’t sit flat on a table

Final thoughts

If you want to go beyond the capabilities (and true shallow depth of field) of your phone’s built-in lenses, the SANDMARC Macro 100mm Lens is a solid choice. Just make sure you use the case for proper lens alignment with your phone’s cameras.

Price: $129.99
Where to buy: sandmarc.com
Source: The sample for this review was provided by SANDMARC. For more information visit their site.