CalevPhoto

Why aren’t you bugging me?

OK, OK, so it’s been awhile since I have posted a decent old fashioned bug shot.  The reality is between being extremely busy and having rather lousy weather here I haven’t taken too many bug shots lately.  I hope to change this soon.  Last night we had a ton of midges get into the house during a party – as if they were wondering where the heck I was.

This shot was taken a few months ago by the ponds outside my office.  I spent some time photographing one stink bug and when I found another on a different leaf – I figured – why not?

They stayed together for about thirty seconds – but this was long enough to get a decent shot.  They didn’t seem too offended by one another – but soon went their separate ways.

Stink bugs are one of my favorite insects to photograph as they are so colorful.

The bugs are back in town! (Part II)

I had to finish yesterday’s blog due to a FlickR outage (they host the pictures for the blog), so continuing with the story I was amazed with how many bugs were out.  I picked up the lid on one of the trash cans in the back of our yard and noticed a stink bug.  This is a shot after I had moved it to a leaf.

At first I was rather excited because as I prodded it to move to the leaf I smelled something curious.  Had the stink bug actually fired at me?  After all, it is well known that stink bugs defend themselves through a foul smelling mixture that they spray at potential attackers.  I then heard my neighbor cussing that something he had opened really stunk, which culled the excitement.  A closer sniff of the bug revealed that it was not the stink bug itself.  Perhaps it did spray, but I couldn’t smell it.

I then moved the stink bug to a primrose that I felt was more photogenic.

It didn’t seem enthralled to be there and soon took off.

I let it go, knowing that it certainly will not be the last stink bug I photograph this year.  I always enjoy photographing them due to their bright green color and interesting eyes.  The next time though I think I’ll try finding a leaf that matches the color as close as possible and try some photographs on it.  I’m not sure the strong colors of the flower really helped the shot in this case.

Another interesting episode came with an ant that I found crawling in one of our recycle bins.  It took off when I tried to photograph it and crawled into the bin.  I watched it for a bit until it came to the very edge of the recycle bin and we stared at each other for about a minute.

I’m not sure of the species.  It did not appear to be a carpenter ant, but I didn’t get a good enough shot of the entire body to be able to identify it.

Finally, I did not have too much luck with the flies that day – who were a bit skittish, but I did manage to get one fly.  Interestingly it was wingless – though I’m not sure why.

Why this particular fly did not have wings will have to go in my mystery bin.

The 180L vs MP-E 65 Sharpness Test

A number of people have asked me about the sharpness of the Canon 180L.  In general, I find this to be a very sharp lens but that doesn’t help very much.  Therefore, I decided to try a little test.  Unfortunately, given that I do not have a tremendous amount of time, I was not able to take pictures specifically for this test.  Luckily, though, I had some pictures that were of similar subjects taken with both lenses.

Both shots were taken with the MT-24EX mounted and were at 1/200 second at apertures of f/11.  The camera used was the Canon 5D.  One shot was taken with the 180L while the other was taken with the MP-E 65.  With both shots, I took a number of the same subject so I then took the best representative shot from each set.  The following are the two test shots.

I hope it is obvious which shot was taken with the 180L and which was taken with the MP-E 65.

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Fun with the new 180L + MT-24EX and stink bugs

Green stink bugs are one of my favorite subjects due to their bright green color.  For more information about stink bugs, see the previous blog I wrote about them.  In particular I often enjoy photographing them against the strong red of the Japanese maple bushes in our front yard, which works out well because that is where I usually find them.

The leaf in this shot is from me.  In a previous shot some commented that the red of the Japanese maple was too strong against the green of the stink bug.  Also, in this case the stink bug wasn’t in a very good spot to photograph so I used the leaf to move it.  One thing I have noticed is that the MT-24EX on the 180L can tend to be a bit too strong.  In this case the front of the stink bug is a bit too strongly lit.  Continue on for a comparison with a similar shot on the MP-E 65 and more stink bug experiments.

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Something stinks here…

One day, while talking with my father on the phone, a bright shiny bug entered the house and I passed right by it.  Although I wasn’t into bugs then nearly as much as now, I was so excited that I immediately placed a cup over it to prevent it from going anywhere.  After the conversation was over I uncovered the interesting bug and took some shots of it.

The shot above is one I made several weeks later, when I found another one of these bugs in one of my Japanese maple bushes.  Many of your probably already know what this bug is – but for those not acquainted this is the stink bug.  Supposedly they have the ability to spray a cyanide containing mixture that smells rather bad, though I have never seen one do this.  Still, I have never bothered to handle one to find out.  Above is the aptly named “green stink bug” – one of my favorites around the garden.  They are among the most photogenic insects around here and are quite common.  For more information about this fascinating creature, follow the jump.

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