The Macro/Closeup Gallery Confusion

The new Macro/Closeup galleries are catching on with the community but please just remember the galleries are for small objects typically less than 50mm in size OR parts of larger ones. There are a large number of images placed in there that are clearly miscats and take up a lot of valuable time relocating the images into the correct categories.

Something like a Rose bud could be put in the Macro/Closeup gallery but a Rose Bush belongs in Flowers/Plants gallery, another example would be the human face, a closeup of the eye or mouth could be a Macro/Closeup BUT an image of a persons head or half a head isn't a closeup image and should be in the Photography > People Gallery.

Some examples from my own gallery:

This is True Macro (ie greater than life size on the sensor)
[A][B]
Notes:
Image [A] is currently in Abstract because no one can identify what the subject is and I felt the image was more Abstract, the Macro/Closeup gallery also didn't exist when I uploaded the deviation.
Could I move it to Macro? sure I could. Should I move it to Macro? only if I wanted to.
Image [B] is in Insects & Arachnids. Mainly because if someone was looking for a Cranefly image they wouldn't look in Macro first. So the image is keyworded and placed where other people would look for it.

This is Closeup (both subjects are small and full of detail)
[C][D]
Notes:
Both the images [C] and [D] are in Insects & Arachnids. They could be in the Closeup gallery BUT again I've placed them where other people would look for them with the appropriate keywords.

These are NOT Macro or Closeup
[E][F]
Notes:
Image [E] is in Birds. If you were looking for a Barn Owl image would you look in Macro/Closeup or would you look in Birds? Could I have placed in Macro/Closeup? the answer is a maybe (as a Gallery Director I wouldn't move the image out of the Macro/Closeup gallery if I found it there.) Would I put it in Macro/Closeup? no.
Image [F] is in Wild animals for obvious reasons It is not a close up image and wouldn't be placed in that gallery.

I hope this clarifies the images that should or shouldn't be in the Macro/Closeup Gallery. It really is to everyone's benefit to place images in the correct Galleries AND equally as important to keyword your images accurately so that when dA get the search function working properly your images will be found. Another important fact is that if YOU are happy with your macro/closeup images where they are, assuming they are in another suitable gallery, then there is no reason why you should move them.

BOTTOM LINE If you can't hold the subject in the palm of your hand it probably doesn't belong in Macro/Closeup

regards
Kev Lewis
Gallery Director for
Animals, Plants and Nature