big guy

Dynastes tityus under natural light [expanded post]

Now that I have a moment to type up a post, here is a little test with natural lighting and a couple of Hercules beetles.

After rearing several of these Hercules beetles from eggs to adults, a process the I started in 2006 and finally culminated in mid-2009, I finally got around to photographing a couple of the adults. Due to their size, I decided to try and photograph the these beetles under natural light rather than setup a complex flash and diffuser array.

These photos were taken with a 100mm macro lens under natural light using an improvised setup made of tracing paper for a diffuser and a piece of white posterboard to reflect some of the ambient light. I used a Wimberly Plamp clamped on my tripod to hold several stiffened sheets of the tracing paper in place  a short distance above the beetles. 

I photographed the beetles one at a time on a fallen log; my tripod was set so it would not cast any shadows on the scene and close enough so the Plamp would hold the improvised diffuser above the beetles. The settings used for both images are 1/200 sec at  f/8 and ISO 400.

Overall I am pleased with the results but less so with the photo of the male – at the least the lighting is too overwhelming due to the male’s darker coloration. The image of the female is definitely better; the lighting looks more natural and the reflections are not to obvious. Any thoughts?

Top five photos from 2009

Well it’s that time of the year - here are my top five best/favorite images from 2009…

A minute ant carrying a thrip across a leaf

Meandering caterpillar on a tree trunk

Male Lyssomanes viridis

Face off with a katydid

Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar

take a guess…

And for a little change, a shot of a mystery insect – can you guess what it is?

Taken with Canon’s MP-E 65mm 1-5x lens with a 2x convertor @ 5x

hunting for Lyssomanes…

And now for some details on photographing Lyssomanes viridis…

I’ve found  this species to be somewhat easier to photograph than the usual jumping spider – largely because of their habitat. Since this species is found on leaves – usually on the underside – individuals do not have many escape options available; when disturbed their typical response is to flee to the opposite side of the leaf.

If you take a slow and measured approach, these spiders tend to remain stationary long enough for some neat shots – though not infrequently individuals will  turn away from the camera; I tend to hold onto the leaf with one hand, makng it easy to adjust my position while not losing site of my subject. Finding a translucent green spider through the viewfinder at twice life size can be a little bit tricky…

Occationally I’ve had an individual jump onto the front of my lens, which results in a scramble to locate the uncooperative spider and often puts an end to any more photos.

An interesting facet of this species is that, due to their translucent body, the movement of the spider’s retina is visible as shown in this animation.

Given the size of this species – body length is a bit over a centimeter – I prefer to use Canon’s MP-E 1-5x Macro Lens; it works for a shot of the whole spider or an extreme closeup of the “face” such as this shot taken at 5:1.

what big teeth you have!

This very “toothy” fellow is a Magnolia Green Jumper – Lyssomanes viridis. This handsome individual is a male - as evidenced by the considerably lengthened chelicerae and enlarged pedipalps.

Just for comparison, here is a female – notice the difference in the size of the chelicerae

This species is fairly common here in central Virginia; I often find females prowling on the undersides of leaves, presumably in search of prey.  Males seem to be far harder to find – it seems like I’ve found 3-4 females on average for every male. But that could just be me…

housekeeping

Just a quick heads up – I will be moving a large number of my posts from cicindela over to this blog – apologies for the mess.

I will also contact any bloggers who have linked to the old posts to prevent too many dead links – the old posts will remain online for some time yet, so there is  no immediate cause for concern.

If you have any suggestions, comments, or criticisms, please contact me.

and here we go…

Welcome to life on six legs, a chronicle of my adventures in insect photography.

Let’s start off with something neat - here is a Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle – Harmonia axyridis – chowing down on a very unfortunate aphid.

Antheraea polyphemus

otherwise known as the Polyphemus Moth. These stunning insects are named for the cyclops Polyphemus from Homer’s Odyssey for the startling eyespots on their hindwings.

This was my second time experimenting with my Epson scanner, now with a recently collected specimen. I think that this attempt came out better than the first – mainly because the specimen was free of dust and the antennae were better posed. Here is a 100% crop. Any comments?

Point and Shoot vs DSLR

Alex Wild has just posted this interesting comparison between some of his old images, taken with a point and shoot camera, and some newer images taken with his Canon DSLRs.  

…as my equipment and aesthetic standards improved the old images I had been so proud of began to seem… amateurish. Poorly composed, poorly lit, and heavily pixelated.

A great comparison of P&Ss and DSLRs - go take a look…