CalevPhoto

Progression in macro insect photography

For a fun post, I thought I would cover the progression that a macro photography typically makes.  This covers both where I have started as well as where I hope to go.

Stage 1

In this stage, you can recognize what insect the photo is of.  With these shots, you feel it is extremely cool that you caught the insect on camera.  What you miss is that the framing may be awful, the insect is out of focus, and the lighting may be poor.

Here is a good example from when I first bought my camera.  You can see that this is a fly, but it is looking the wrong way, is too small for this shot, and should not be centered in the viewfinder.  The focus could also be improved.

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Why I’m no fun at barbecues

Last weekend some friends of ours had us over for a barbecue.  Their property is rather wooded and I had my camera with me from a recent real estate shoot.  Of course, I was curious, so I took a little stroll to see what I could find.

I noticed that there were quite a few flies that were hanging out on ferns.  When I approached them, they did not flinch too much so I knew that I had a good thing going.  I ran back and grabbed my camera to get some shots.

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That does look a bit like a flea!

While photographing last week, I found a shiny green beetle that was kind enough to let me get some shots of it.  I found it curled up and hiding in a plant stem and managed to annoy it enough that it started walking around.

When it came time to identify this beetle, I didn’t have much hope.  After all, there are thousands of “shiny green beetles” out there and I didn’t have too much hope of figuring out what this is.

To my surprise, I think I do know what this is.  It looks a lot like a flea beetle (family chrysomelidae, subfamily alticinae).  I am not 100% sure, but it does look awfully like a flea from the front – doesn’t it?

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Time for a weevil

I’ve always had somewhat of a soft spot for the weevils that are common here around Seattle.  Sure, they are pests – but up close they kind of look like little dogs.

I have seen these a number of times around here but interestingly in many of the cases the weevils were dead.  This one was alive and moving around – probably having a good meal too.

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What are these ants doing?

While taking pictures last week, I came across several ants traveling along the stem of a bush. I tried to get a good shot of one crawling along the thin limbs, but I just couldn’t get a good shot.  After some time, I became curious about what they were doing.  When I took a closer look, I was even more puzzled.

I have some suspicions about what was going on, but the truth is I don’t really know.  There were several of these “bumps” on the bush and the ants were traveling from one to the other.  There were perhaps five ants in total that I saw.

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Scorpions in the Pacific Northwest!

This weekend, we were invited over to a barbecue at some of our friends house.  I had my camera along, as I had earlier photographed one of my wife’s listings, and their property was a bit wooded.  Of course, I could not resist taking out my camera to see what I could find.

While waiting near a fern where I had noticed some fly activity, a small bug caught my eye.  I decided to photograph it to see what it was and was quite surprised with the result.

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A successful day at the ponds

After going almost a month without taking any macro shots, it was time to gather up my MP-E 65 and MT-24EX and see what I could find.  The location was the ponds by my building at work, to which I organize a group of us to meet every week.

It took me awhile to find anything truly interesting.  I dug around in the soil for a bit but gave up on that as I was more in the mood of catching something on a leaf.  While there are quite a few interesting creatures that live in the soil, due to the background it can be difficult to get the artistic edge in shots.

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A different rove beetle?

Some time ago I blogged about a rove beetle that I found in my backyard.  It was very peculiar in that it raised its tail like a scorpion and confronted me as I tried to take its picture.  Looking at the date, I blogged about this beetle in January of last year.

One of the interesting things about keeping a blog is it has caused me to ask questions that I normally would not ask.  The following came up with another similar specimen that I found over the weekend.

After looking at these pictures, I had the following questions.

1. Why did I find this beetle just now?  They are not common during other parts of the year.  Are they common during just a small part of the year?
2. This specimen looks a bit different than the other one.  It is slightly reddish while the other one is more pitch black.
3. It also did not raise its tail as a threat, but instead ran away quickly.  There were also several of them instead of just a single one as I found before.  It certainly seemed more docile than the other one.

I’m not sure if I have a perfect answer for these questions, but I did a little bit of research and have some ideas.

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Pill bugs, sowbugs and woodlice, oh my!

For any macro photographer, one of your first subjects is likely to be a pill bug.  They are the ducks of the macro world – so ridiculously easy to find that they draw the beginning photographer like a magnet.  They were one of my first subjects and from time to time I find myself coming back to them because they are so fascinating.

However, as common as they are, few people know much about them.  After learning a bit more and looking back at some of my old blogs, I even made several mistakes about them.  Try the following trivia questions to see how much you know.

1. Pill bugs are insects.
2. Pill bugs and roly polies are the same thing.
3. Pill bugs and sow bugs are the same.
4. Pill bugs and sow bugs are both called woodlice.

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What are those little millipedes?

I am not a trained entomologist (or even an untrained one) and therefore I often make mistakes when identifying the little creatures that inhabit our world.  This is one of those that I have most often misidentified.

In the past I have misidentified this as a centipede, but it is in fact a millipede.  The easiest way to tell the difference between a millipede and a centipede is a millipede has two legs per body segment while a centipede has one.

Millipedes are generally harmless, though there are several varieties that excrete cyanide as a defensive mechanism.  Still, to my knowledge there aren’t any millipedes out there that can kill out unless you eat one, which I don’t find very tempting.

There particular ones are very common here around Seattle.  I have seen them in a variety of places – from the ponds next to where I work to my backyard.  Recently, I finally took the time to figure out what they are.

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