Look for Something Interesting

Anchored
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

In May of this year I moved into a villa, and we now have a small back yard that we’ve been filling with flowers. My wife bought a vine with large white flowers and a small species of solitary bee took up residence in it. Since this is our first year here I thought about leaving them alone, but I just couldn’t resist the temptation to take one flower apart and take a few photos. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken any macro photos and I needed the practice.

The bee was really small, only about a millimeter wide and a few millimeters long, and due to the way that it has anchored itself to the flower’s stamen my first attempt at framing the critter were really poor. Looking at the images that I had taken, and at the bee’s perch, I decided to look for a different angle. If I couldn’t find something more interesting I’d have to call the entire session practice and bin all of the photos that I took. After completely rearranging my table top studio I managed to get the scene I was looking for and it’s was then that I noticed something really amazing…

The bee had anchored itself to the flower’s stamen with its proboscis!

I’ve never seen that behavior before; normally a bee will clamp onto a plant stem with their mandibles when they sleep. But this one was using its tongue :)

I shot a short video of the studio that I set up so you can see how I took the shoot. Pretty simple really, but the clamps allow me to use both hands to steady the camera.

Extreme Macro -the Art of Patience eBook

Extreme Macro -the Art of Patience is now available as an eBook. You can also order it via iTunes

Featured in Holy Crop!

When Rikk Flohr first contacted my via a private message at Deviant Art to let me know that he was featuring my blog I had mixed reservations. But after reading a few posts at Holy Crop! I realized that Rikk was basically saying what I have (that you need to get it right with the camera) and he's not a priest in the church of "fix it in post". Go on over and give it his blog a read!

Published by AMC Outdoors

Tuscany series 1-1
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

This image of a Cuckoo Bee was published by AMC Outdoors. It was a pleasure to work with their staff -very professional!

Post Moderation Part Two

The latest technique that the spammers are using is to send a compliment with a link to a web site embedded in it, like this one:

"Always so interesting to visit your site. What a great info, thank you for sharing. this will help me so much in my learning.
security equipment"

Of course "security equipment" is a hyperlink to the site the spammer is trying to advertise.

*sigh*

You have my word that if you comment on a post, even if it's extremely negative, I'll approve it for publication as long as it's not spam. My intent is not to filter out any potential negativity -I learn from all of your comments. I just don't like having to go through all the comments to delete the spam.

Learn to Lie

Hungry Moth at 5x
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

If you're a pretty good photographer then you're also a pretty good liar. You might not know it, or want to admit it, but it's true. By taking a photo you're taking the subject out of context and presenting it in a way that you didn't see it with your naked eye. Take the moth included with this post: I saw a water bottle with a blue label on it in the background, but you see what might look like a blue sky.

The trick to pulling off that lie was in knowing that I didn't want the background to be black, if it were then the scene might seem out of place even though most moths are nocturnal. So I deliberately placed the water bottle behind the critter to give the flash something to reflect off of. It had natural spring water in it, if that makes you feel better ;)

Once you realize that photography is a lie then you can start pushing the envelope to create "realistic" scenes. Like using a second flash to illuminate a vinyl table cloth that has a floral print on it. Is it "natural"? No, but it looks natural and that's all the matters.



Now some of you might shoot only using natural light because it looks more realistic -closer to the way that you actually viewed the scene. But how many of you used a reflector to get more of that sunlight into the subject?

Liars... :)

Macro by definition is not a natural form of photography -no one sees the world with the level of detail that we macro photographers can capture. So there's no need to constrain yourself since no matter what you do the final image really isn't natural anyway. The better you get at lying the easier it is to trick the viewer into thinking that the scene is normal, that nothing is out of place. They'll spend more time appreciating the image as a whole instead of picking it apart because it doesn't look right.

So learn to lie...

Habits and Quirks

Cleaning Up I
Originally uploaded by Dalantech.

It feels like spring here in southern Italy so I decided to get out and test a new diffuser that I've been working on (more on the diffuser in a future post). It was warm with plenty of sun so the critters where hyper active, and yet I managed a few shots of this Banded Eye Drone not because I'm special, or have some unique power over wild creatures.

I got close cause the Drone was busy.

Insects just don't seem to have a whole lot of "processing power" -if they are engaged in just about any activity then they aren't expending too many brain cells on predator, or photographer, avoidance. So the key to getting close to them is learning their habits and quirks.

Here's the exact same insect a few minutes later. It had taken off so I set my lens to 2x and the camera to ISO 400 (to get some detail in the background) and waited. Less than a minute later the Drone landed in the exact some spot it had been before and started cleaning itself again. Most insects move in predictable patterns that you can take advantage of...



The more you learn about the critters that you want to photograph the easier it is to get the images you want. Happy shooting folks :)