MICRO MAGIC

Common exhibition of Stephen Dalton and Ghislain Simard

Few photographers have designed specific tools to freeze insects flight. All have a guide to follow called Stephen Dalton. This English photographer is the precursor of high-speed photography. Since the early 1970s, he took photographs of very fast motions of animals in a way that had never been seen before. Ghislain Simard who take pictures of butterflies since childhood considers that he is his undisputed master. In 2009 at the festival of Montier-en-Der, they presented two exhibitions together, a retrospective of his high-speed photographs for Stephen and the exhibition «Dragonfly Wings» for Ghislain.

Since then, several major improvements have been made. After many tests, Ghislain has purchased a medium format digital camera. This is high-end equipment which is rarely used in nature photography and, almost never in macro. It provides access to unprecedented image quality in wildlife photography. Then he worked on the adaptation of this new tool to high-speed photography of insects in flight. With the assistance of Hasselblad in Scandinavia, it was possible to make the medium format camera much faster than any 35mm DSLR. Thus, by early 2011, Ghislain could try to shoot very ephemeral scenes with a quality made of pin sharp details.

Ghislain has of course talked about his project to his master and friend Stephen Dalton. Stephen responded with deeds rather than words!  When Ghislain visited Stephen at his home in England in the fall of 2011, he was in for surprise! After a lapse of nearly two decades, Stephen has returned to what caught the attention of nature lovers and the wider public during the 1970’s - insect flight. Why, because recently, he has improved his techniques to produce such stunning quality that he felt that he had no option but to return to his original project!