Smoke and Mirrors

Ladybug on Yellow II
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

Another post that's part image deconstruction and part technique -I think I'm gonna get into the habit of combining the two from now on since it's easier to explain the techniques by breaking down an image as an example. This shots gonna be fun cause it's totally staged.

Yup, you heard me -staged...

It was late in the day, the sun had fallen over the rim of a volcanic crater that I was shooting next to (my favorite abandoned lot) and the Ladybugs were moving slow. So it was pretty easy to approach them but they kept falling onto the ground ever time I grabbed onto the grass stems they were climbing on (had to grab on to keep the scene steady and get the angles that I wanted). I'm not sure if they were having a tough time holding on because of the temperature, or if it's a defense mechanism that kicks in when they feel threatened -drop to the ground to get away from the jerk with the camera. Either way it was pretty frustrating to line up for a shot only to watch the critter fall down and get lost in all the grass.

I really wanted to go home with a few shots since I don't have many images of these critters in my gallery and later on in the year they'll either be too active to photograph or nonexistent. So I held my hand under one of them and caught it when it fell off of its perch and placed it on that daisy (at least that's what I think it is -I'm terrible at identifying the smelly things. To me it's just a backdrop anyway ;) ). I waited for the Ladybug to settle down and when it stopped moving I grabbed onto the stem of the flower with my left hand, used the Left Hand Brace Technique to take the shot, and presto -I've got a studio quality photo even though I'm sitting in an abandoned lot playing with bugs :)

Smoke and mirrors folks, smoke and mirrors...