Joni Niemelä is a self-taught nature photographer based in Finland, who started very young in this field and has been capturing the world of macro for over a decade. Joni’s photographs always fascinate and impress the viewers by their distinct colors and tones. His works have been published in a large variety of media globally.
It’s an excellent opportunity for NiSi to catch a few secrets from Joni about his macro photography. And we also appreciate the photos and impressions he shares with us in this interview after testing our Close-UP Lens.
Z for Zoe and J for Joni
Z: Hi Joni! It’s great to meet you! Firstly, could you tell us three interesting things about you that you want people to know?
J: I design and develop websites as a freelance and I like also to do some mountain biking. I also like video games – especially the wonderful games in the Legend Of Zelda series.
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
Z: How did you get your start in photography? Were you always a macro photographer or did you move towards that subject after trying other subjects?
J: I’ve been photographing for about 15 years now. It all started from a need and interest to save the moments in nature around me. I guess I’ve been always interested in capturing the details in nature so macro photography is naturally interesting to me.
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
Z: What do you find most challenging in macro photography?
J: When I’m shooting macro photos, it takes me to whole another world of photography. You don’t realize this until before you look through the lens and see the subject filling the viewfinder of a camera. I think the most challenging thing is to find the right subjects, details or patterns but it’s also what makes macro photography interesting.
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
Z: What do you think makes a beautiful bokeh effect?
J: I like to shoot with shallow depth of field which brings also a bit more challenge. I think it’s not always necessary to have the whole subject absolutely in focus. I often like to focus on a single element in the image (e.g. only top of the flower is sharp). This can also give a bit more artistic look for the image.
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
Z: Do you have any favorite places to shoot?
J: I think forests and open fields filled with wildflowers and other plants are the most usual places where I like to photograph.
A Field of Wildflowers
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
Z: You’ve tested our Close-UP Lens. Could you share some of your impressions of it?
J: Yes, I did, and it was a nice surprise. I’ve not used close-up lenses much before, so it was a bit new for me too. It was great to see how well it compared to a normal macro lens also. I think it’s a nice option to have if you don’t want to invest in a dedicated macro lens.
Check Joni’s Review of NiSi Close Up Lens here
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
NiSi Close-Up Lens on a Nikon 70-200mm Lens
NiSi Close-UP Lens
Z: Which image of yours is your favorite? What went into creating it?
J: I don’t think there’s one specific image, but I do have favorites. One must be an image of an ant spraying acid into the air.
This image was shot on one of the warmest mornings of that spring when there was still some snow and ice on the ground. This was at the edge of our local forest – not very far from where I live. Ants were just starting to wake up. I had this goal for a long time in my mind to get a photo of an ant spraying acid and there I was trying to capture it again. I had seen ants doing this several times and I had tried to capture this also before but never succeeded in it. Several ants were climbing over the block of ice which was on the nest and I noticed that one of them started to spray acid when I waved my hand over it. I shot several bursts of the ant sitting on an ice block with blue sky as the background hoping to get a photo where the acid was visible. I also moved my camera back and forth several times to get different areas of the ant in the focus. Time of spraying lasts only fraction of a second so shooting with burst mode was my best chance. Eventually the ant continued its way and I quickly browsed through the photos on my camera and luckily at least one of them had what I hoped. The final image is stacked from three exposures to get most of the ant in the focus.
An Ant Spraying Acid
Z: What was the best or worst day you’ve had as a photographer?
J: I don’t think there’s single best or worst day. One of the best days was obviously the day when I shot the image of an ant spraying acid. But there are of course also those days when you don’t seem to get one good image because of the weather, luck or you just don’t have any inspiration.
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
Z: What was the best piece of advice you got while you were learning the craft?
J: I guess I haven’t got (or asked) many pieces of advice myself, but I’ve found out that doing your own thing and finding your own style is one of the most important things in photography. Keep trying out different things (like macro photography for instance) and have fun.
Taken with NiSi Close-Up Lens
Z: What is your recent goal with photography? Where would you like to go next?
J: I’ve been planning to do more landscape photography in the future. I’ve found that photo series keep me more motivated so that’s what I may do next.
All of the macro photos were taken in Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland.
