Post your insects

[Seriche]

I don't like like flies really, but I do find them fascinating and I do photograph them. But if I look at the hairs on this fly and compare it to the tedddy bear like bumblebee, I think this one is definitely less cuddly.

Feel free to cuddle the bumblebee - I'll take the spiky fly any day

Seri (back later with another photo - a cuddly one, OK? )

[Pstearns]

Thanks for the comments Peter- this one was unusually photogenic and cooperative.

[Letrow]

Feel free to cuddle the bumblebee - I'll take the spiky fly any day

Seri (back later with another photo - a cuddly one, OK? )

Okay, you do a cuddly one and I give you a fly in return

[Seriche]

Okay, you do a cuddly one and I give you a fly in return

He's utterly beautiful! You have an eye for colour that I covet. Mine is not the best. I promised 'cuddly' but tend to favour the misbegotten and overlooked, so I got the better end of this deal

Here's a Cinnabar Moth caterpillar, still quite small, but storing alkaloid poisons from ragweed for when he turns all red and black.. He's going to be an insect when he's all grown up, so he counts, right?

Seri

[Letrow]

He's utterly beautiful! You have an eye for colour that I covet. Mine is not the best. I promised 'cuddly' but tend to favour the misbegotten and overlooked, so I got the better end of this deal

Here's a Cinnabar Moth caterpillar, still quite small, but storing alkaloid poisons from ragweed for when he turns all red and black.. He's going to be an insect when he's all grown up, so he counts, right?

Seri

Yes, he certainly does. Hairy monster as well.

[Rasbury]

Another butterfly from Gainseville.Thanks for viewing...Ron.

[MiniChris]

This was shot with my Nikkor 18-105 Kit Lens...didn't have the macro with me...dang!

[Pandrion]

Have no idea what sort of butterfly but he's handsome and quite small, about 4 cms across the wings.

He was kind enough to stay put for all of ten seconds for which I thank him.

[Seriche]

Not sure, but it looks like a Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera). He's gorgeous and you were very lucky to have him stay put. Ours are much more nervous.

Ron, that's such a fascinating butterfly, and I love those green lights on the wings.

Chris, Isn't it always the way? Great flower shot though

Seri (Still looking for something worthy...)

[harwil]

Hi,

I clicked dis mentis few day back... need ur suggestions...

[CBImages]

Hi Harinder
Lovely image - I think it is well positioned in the frame, the background is a lovely neutral colour and doesn't have any distracting colours or patterns in it. Lighting is good, looks to be lit from above - maybe the use of a reflector underneath the mantis to bounce a little light back and give a bit more clarity and definition to the under side.

Focusing is always an issue with using macro lenses and you appear to have a very narrow depth of field. - what settings did you use?
I usually turn off the auto focus and Image Stabilisation then use 'Live View' to manually focus on the eyes. I don't like to shoot much above F13 as you quickly start to loose lens sharpness at any aperture above F8 on most Canon digital cameras (F13 on the 1D range - I don't have much experience with other camera's).
With modern high MP camera's you can always take the image from a little further away to give a larger depth of field, then crop the image during your processing.

That being said - it is a lovely image.
I look forward to seeing more from you.

Kind Regards

Chris

[CBImages]

An image of a 4 Spot Chaser (Dragonfly) taken about 4 weeks ago at a Water Park close to my home in Wiltshire.

[Geoff F]

When you come to the end of a caterpillar . . .

Nb. Real insect life and death - not for the squeamish.



Female Scorpion Fly struggling to find the last bits of goodness from a Peacock Butterfly Caterpillar.

The males have a slightly different shaped tip to the abdomen. It is this shape which gives them their common name.



ps. Nice clear photo of the Chaser, Chris.

[Rasbury]

When you come to the end of a caterpillar . . .

Nb. Real insect life and death - not for the squeamish.



Female Scorpion Fly struggling to find the last bits of goodness from a Peacock Butterfly Caterpillar.

The males have a slightly different shaped tip to the abdomen. It is this shape which gives them their common name.



ps. Nice clear photo of the Chaser, Chris.

Real good life and death photo Geoff.

[Rasbury]

Here's one not to good on the exposure side but i liked the way these butterflies were posed while drying their wings.C&C are welcome.Thanks...Ron.

[MiniChris]

I love the composition and am envious of finding such a shot as this. while there is a nice, delicate feel to these, it is almost to the point of the colors becoming "muddied." So, of course, I had to play...I think somewhere between yours and mine, there is a lovely blening of soft light...find it, Ron!

[Letrow]

One of the bumblebees (bombus pratorum) on my lavender earlier this week. I like the different colours on them. This one has an orange bum, most of the others are yellow and white.

At the end of the week I am going to France for a couple of weeks (holiday time), so there should be a few nice insect macros when I get back.

[Rasbury]

I love the composition and am envious of finding such a shot as this. while there is a nice, delicate feel to these, it is almost to the point of the colors becoming "muddied." So, of course, I had to play...I think somewhere between yours and mine, there is a lovely blening of soft light...find it, Ron!

Looks good Chris.I've played around with this image a few times and never was really satisfied with what i saw.I will work on it until i'm satisfied as i do love the composition.This photo and the other ones i posted in this thread are from the butterfly exhibit at UF in the museum of natural history.if you never been there go check it out because it's a great place to photograph butterflies...Ron

[Rasbury]

Beautiful shot Ron. Was there anything you could have done on the lighting or wasn't there any space left for that?

This is an interesting photo, but as Ron said the exposure is difficult to work with. I think the image is on the green side as well. I played around with the original JPEG in Gimp. I changed the white balance on the butterflies themselves in one layer to make them pop out a bit more against the background and worked on the contrast in another. Also did a very tiny bit of sharpening (too much destroys the delicacy of the image I found) and changed the colours slightly, making them a bit warmer. I left a very small border on the underside of the photo, so that the difference in colour can be seen.

Thanks Peter.The WB looks better in your photo than mine as i am still learning to understand WB in my photo's.Had my camera lens up to the glass window when it took these.All these cocoons are glued to sheets of paper with info on each one hanging from the bottom of glass shelves.I wasn't sure if i could use a flash but didn't really want to as not to spook the butterflies.On my return trip i am going to bring my 55-200mm for out in the screened enclosure and my wife's i-pod with the flashlight app to try and put some light on the butterflies in the lab area.Thanks...Ron.

[Letrow]

Thanks Peter.The WB looks better in your photo than mine as i am still learning to understand WB in my photo's.Had my camera lens up to the glass window when it took these.All these cocoons are glued to sheets of paper with info on each one hanging from the bottom of glass shelves.I wasn't sure if i could use a flash but didn't really want to as not to spook the butterflies.On my return trip i am going to bring my 55-200mm for out in the screened enclosure and my wife's i-pod with the flashlight app to try and put some light on the butterflies in the lab area.Thanks...Ron.

So, this was through glass? Wow, that makes it difficult then to light properly. It could also explain the greenish effect I guess.