I thought I'd start this blog by doing a little extension to my bio, the one on the home page looks great on search results, but doesn't really say a huge amount about me 😅.
In future, I'll use this space for tips, BTS and other news, so stay tuned!

So hi, my name is Rory J. Lewis, the J is important, it's there to differentiate me from the already succesful and highly talented U.K. celebrity headshot photographer, Rory Lewis. In some cases, especially with A.I. searches, it probably doesn't diffentiate us enough, but I like my name, I had it first and I can't change it any further, so if you came here looking for him, I apologise, but we are completely different people 😅.

(BTW it stands for James if you're wondering).

I've been doing photography for around 10 years, with about 8 of those being dedicated to wildlife macro. In hindsight I think it always would have gone in that direction. When I was kid my dad was a keen photographer and gardener, and if we weren't out with him on some photography trip, he was hollering me out to the garden to show me some interesting invertebrate he'd just dug up. The seeds were planted in me, they just needed a little water.
A bit of a catastrophe that occurred in my adult life led me to being back home with my Dad for a short spell, while I had to start things from scratch again. He gifted me one of his old cameras and encouraged me to get out of the house with him. It was a good technique, photography is incredibly therapeutic, even if I started out pretty terrible at it. Landscape was always his thing, but I just couldn't really grasp it. I found it much easier to control by concentrating on smaller things, flowers, some pebbles on a beach.. and then finally.. I took my first macro image of a spider. It was an instant lightening bolt moment. Just looking down the viewfinder at the tiny bristling hairs, the multiple eyes, the stunning markings.. it was a window into an entirely different universe. I felt connected to nature in a way I'd never felt before. And it was a feeling I just had to be able to share.
My images were not instantly great however, and I had little confidence for some time. I did eventually share a few of my better images on Facebook though, and that's when a friend of mine entered one of my images into a local competition behind my back. It won.
The local newspaper interviewed me, paid me a modest cash prize, and the fire was well and truly lit.

Maybe, I could do this for real.

I went to Instagram for inspiration, photographers like Christian Brockes, Luke D Chambers and Florian Dzula already had a fairly strong following there, and their work just blew me away. What they were pumping out was way beyond what I was capable of doing at the time, but rather than reaching out to them I just had to find my own way. Create my own style.

It's been rocky since. My youngest daughter has been battling chronic illness since birth, but in some strange way this influenced my work too. One of the questions I'm sure parents ask when faced with the constant risk to their child's mortality is 'why us? Why our child?'
It's a bitter, helpless feeling. But observing the brutal, unforgiving existence of invertebrates reminds us that life is chaos. It is unforgiving in its very nature. And yet, through the constant predation, the cannibalism, the parasitic life cycles and mind altering fungal spores that persist in that tiny battle ground, beauty and magnificence still shine through. Everywhere.
And that's my statement of intent right there I guess. To bottle that magnificence and share it. If someone says to me that through my work, their view, their 'idea' of invertebrates has changed in some way, improved, enlightened. Then that is my soul aim.
It's no secret anymore that insect species are in sharp decline. I feel a deep connection with them now and this is a very sad reality.
If in some small way, I can shift the needle of perception through my photography, then that is an honour that far transcends the art.
So if you may find some of my images a little too garish, the backgrounds a bit bright or maybe just overall unnatural. Just know there is some intended meaning there. It represents hope, and attempts to bridge the gap between the nature and the art. The brutality and the beauty.

A final note, my youngest daughter is currently doing OK. We have a long road ahead of us, but she is a constant beam of beauty and magnificence too, and she's my biggest fan ❤️.

Next time I'll be talking about my techniques, and how I've stuck with older tried and tested methods, so they can be transferred to anyone, regardless of the standard of your equipment.

See you then!