The exception that proves the rule!
While most macro photography of dynamic objects like insects does require flash to add enough light to the exposure and to freeze motion you can get results with natural light if you are careful and lucky. This usually involves bumping the ISO up and/or accepting a marginal shutter speed and a larger aperture than you would normally shoot with. Natural light can give a wonderful, subtle light as long as it is slightly diffused by cloud or cover....in bright sun you tend to get specular highlights on shiny insects.
Of course, when using natural light, you have to set the shutter or aperture and ISO sensitivity and keep a close eye, as these factors rise and fall every time you compose a shot, so it demands more attention than when using flash, where I tend to set the camera to manual, using parameters I know work and just leave it there, only making occasional changes.
This wonderful, bristly tachinid fly was shot at 1:1 at Badbury Rings near Wimborne, when there was just enough light filtering down through the trees to give a workable exposure. Fortunately the fly hung around on its leaf long enough for a few exposure variations to make sure I had nailed a sharp, well composed shot.
This is actually one of my favourite macros despite its capture breaking my usual rules of macro photography. It shows what is possible and that you should never give up or assume something you try won't work. It doesn't seem to have suffered unduly from being taken at ISO 800, probably because the exposure was spot-on and I was using the high ISO to gain more depth of field and shutter speed, rather than simply struggling in very low light. I am normally reluctant to stray above 400 on DX crop frame cameras as detail is so important to most macro shots. In fact I have had this printed at 12x8 and the detail is stunning with no visible noise, so hat's off to the Nikon D300. Had I used ISO 400 I would have needed to open the aperture more than the F9 I eventually used and the shutter speed would have fallen into the danger zone.
It is relatively easy to shoot below macro range with natural light if you are photographing bigger game like dragonflies, so start with larger subjects. Give it a go and watch that shutter speed as camera shake is perhaps the greatest threat to getting a sharp natural light shot. Keep an eye on ISO too as you don't want to lose detail and get noisy images.
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