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 face-to-face look at insects & their kin from one photographer’s perspective.

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 neat post – go take a look…

new life

Almost ready to emerge, a lacewing larva sits enclosed inside the egg. For more images, see the Bugguide page.

the payoff!

After a very long wait, the Eastern Hercules Beetles (Dynastes tityus) that I’ve been rearing since August of 2006 have finally emerged. There are six adults, two females and four males – here’s one of the males…

Insect Photography 101: Part 2, DSLR cameras

In the first part of this series I covered point and shoot (P&S) digital cameras and their suitability for insect photography - now for the heavy hitters – digital SLR cameras.

Not to mince words, if you are serious about insect photography a DSLR is your camera. Nothing else provides similar quality or control – not yet, at least.

Here are what I consider the most important advantages of a DSLR:

Manual control – the ability to determine shutter speed, f-stop, and ISO is a must for any serious photographer as it is the key to getting good images.  There is a learning curve, but with practice the process is easily understood. While many P&S cameras have some form of manual control it is often limited and awkward to use.

Magnification – with a DSLR and quality lens/extension tubes you can obtain high quality, distortion free images of minute subjects – there is no easy way to achieve similar magnification using a P&S camera without some, often significant, degree of distortion, at least when shooting live insects. With a DSLR you also have the ability to use a wide variety of lenses, from the standard 100mm lens to rather unorthodox setups; for example, an extension tube can be attached to a wide angle lens for a drastically different view of your subject.

Higher image quality – while consumer and pro DSLRs have roughly the same amount of noise, even high end P&S cameras have markedly more noise than even your consumer DSLR. This is because P&S cameras have dramatically smaller sensors and as such require more light. In order to counteract this, the camera boosts the signal coming from the sensor, thereby creating more noise.

Control of lighting – this is another key to getting good photographs of insects. With a dedicated macro flash and quality diffuser you can create soft lighting, regardless of the ambient light conditions. Some higher end P&S cameras can be used with a macro flash, however.

The biggest drawback of DSLRs is their cost – purchased new a basic setup consisting of a camera body, 100mm-ish macro lens and flash can run into the one to two thousand dollar range quite easily. There are ways to get around this, for instance buying used equipment or third party lenses/flash units, though you then have to worry about the quality of equipment.

Pros:
Control over almost every aspect of an image, from DOF to lighting
Range of lenses, flashes, and other accessories can be used
High optical quality – not likely to suffer from image distortion or chromatic aberrations
High image quality – getting even better all the time
No shutter lag
Far better autofocus than P&S cameras; however, when shooting most insects, manual focus is largely preferred, except for large/fast subjects.

Cons:
Higher cost – while many DSLR bodies are not much more than a high end P&S camera, the cost of lenses, flashes, and accessories adds up fast
Can be rather heavy and bulky – there are many lighter and more compact models though
Few models have a flip out LCD screen – more coming all the time
Initial learning curve – DSLRs and some accessories take some knowledge/experience to get good photographs with

My final say is if you are serious about insect photography and have the monetary resources, a DSLR is your only choice. Again, as of yet, nothing else provides similar quality or control.

That said, if you aren’t looking for those National Geographic shots or just want “show and tell” photos, go with a higher end point and shoot camera, you’ll get reasonable shots of many subjects.