Besides writing, Steinbeck was very much interested in the ocean. His interest influenced his writing, which is clear in the very opening of Cannery Row. He begins the novel with a description of the hustle and bustle of the small world in a tide pool, then zooms out to the town of Monterey. After reading the novel, it's hard not to imagine Monterey as a small world in the same way as a tide pool with each creature moving from place to place. I never felt a sense of hopelessness of being a tiny creature in an enormous universe while I read Cannery Row, but I did feel a sense of living in my own tide pool, or my own little world within a larger world.
Macro photography works in the same way in revealing the small worlds around us, giving an emphasis to their importance and interesting-ness as well as something to compare different worlds to. I think of it as a great reminder of the fascinating universe we are a part of and the stories (or tide pools) we create within it.
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