Glass Wasp Trap

[Mike Buckley]

Good friends loaned me this wasp trap so I could photograph it. It's designed to be hung outside with a sweet liquid placed in the receptacle in the bottom. A solar light to be placed at the top came with it but they no longer have it. From what I can tell, the light is purely decorative, as there are plenty of examples of traps on the Internet that have no light. The wasps fly into the trap through the hole in the bottom. Apparently they're not very good about figuring out how to exit the trap.

Setup
The tabletop and background are separate sheets of the same textured art paper. The background is lit from below by a small continuous-light lamp and the light reflecting off the background is shining through the translucent glass. A small light (designed to serve as a wine bottle closure and decorative light) is in the top of the trap.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured, too bad it's a loaner or you could have captured some wasps entering the trap.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, John!

I could easily use the trap to trap wasps but I don't have that interest. I'm not even sure we have any wasps to attract. My wife and I eat outside every day weather permits and it has been a really long time since the smell of the food has attracted a wasp. Even then there was only one wasp.

[NorthernFocus]

Nice shot, Mike. I like all of the subtle shades of blue.

We simply use two liter plastic soda bottles to trap wasps/yellow jackets. A couple of inches of water in the bottom and a small piece of salmon skin. They drown in the water.

One summer a few years ago in Fairbanks we had a wasp epidemic. We couldn't grill outside without attracting dozens of them within minutes. We had to dump and re-bait the wasp traps two or three times a day due to so many dead critters in them. Four people with bee allergies died from being stung that summer.

[Mike Buckley]

Interesting details, Dan! My wife is very afraid of wasps. That's because she has never been stung by any similar critter, so she has no idea if she is allergic to them.

[bnnrcn]

Lovely colors and reflections Mike. And the texture is very nice of course. Composition? I love it. Actually it is an image done very creatively

[IzzieK]

+1 to Binnur's comments.

[Ziggy]

Like the light in this one and the background works well.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Binnur, Izzie and Jim!

[Brownbear]

As always beautifully photographed. I especially love this because it is so pretty, and for all the gorgeous blue tones. Reminds me of your sea salt/blue glass image.

For my own learning purposes I would like to ask why you included so much negative space. Thank you.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Christina!

Anytime anyone uses negative space, it's simply a personally preferred mechanism for displaying the subject in a context that brings attention to it for whatever reason. In this case, three factors drove me to do so:

• I lit the rear area of the scene to provide a background of sorts for the tabletop's negative space. I could have instead lit that area to provide a bright area of the background only around the subject, but doing so would not have emphasized the context of the negative space or at least not in the same way in my mind.
• Allowing such a large amount of negative space allowed more room to display the interesting reflections of refracted light on the tabletop (which ironically perhaps means that there is not as much negative space as one would think).
• The position of the trap's handle suggests that the trap is facing to the left, as if it is "looking" into the negative space. Allowing anyone or any thing to look into negative space provides context that tight framing eliminates.

[Brownbear]

Thank you, kindly Mike.

A very informative and helpful explanation. I didn't see all the reflections in the tabletop because I failed to look at the image in 100% full view. Beautiful to see the extra details. The handle looking into the negative space actually did occur to me but I didn't mention it because as you know I tend to I have a habit of imagining and seeing things, so a wee bronze star for me, awarded by myself

Does the negative space also cause a sense of imbalance hence a sense of tension? Ie; the image is less like a static still life?

Thanks, Christina!

Anytime anyone uses negative space, it's simply a personally preferred mechanism for displaying the subject in a context that brings attention to it for whatever reason. In this case, three factors drove me to do so:

• I lit the rear area of the scene to provide a background of sorts for the tabletop's negative space. I could have instead lit that area to provide a bright area of the background only around the subject, but doing so would not have emphasized the context of the negative space or at least not in the same way in my mind.
• Allowing such a large amount of negative space allowed more room to display the interesting reflections of refracted light on the tabletop (which ironically perhaps means that there is not as much negative space as one would think).
• The position of the trap's handle suggests that the trap is facing to the left, as if it is "looking" into the negative space. Allowing anyone or any thing to look into negative space provides context that tight framing eliminates.

[Chri5]

Love the treatment and as John said its a pity you couldn't get some wasps trying to enter.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, Chris!

so a wee bronze star for me, awarded by myself

Add my full-size silver star to it.

Does the negative space also cause a sense of imbalance hence a sense of tension? Ie; the image is less like a static still life?

Exactly. That's true any time negative space is used.

[Mike Buckley]

Christina (and anyone),

For a different but very effective use of negative space, see Robbie's wonderful photo.

[Brownbear]

Thank you, Mike. Truly appreciated.

Indeed Robbie's image is stunning, and I will review.