CalevPhoto

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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A day of ducks and bugs

Last week I decided to spend some time photographing the ducks by building 30.  I felt a bit strange, as the last time I took the time to photograph ducks, I had just bought my camera.  I find it rather humorous how every photographer seems to start with ducks.  They are easy to find, pretty, and don’t mind us getting close.

We watched the ducks for about a half hour.  I didn’t get any shots that I am particularly crazy about, but it was interesting watching them.

From watching them I learned that each pair of ducks seems to have a territory.  Generally the territory is defined by some natural obstacles – such as a fallen tree or some branches.  When another duck (particularly a male) enters this territory the other male will slowly glide towards it.  Most of the time, the intruder responds by backing off and leaving the duck’s territory.  However, once in awhile they start fighting.

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The hidden world out there

As I mentioned yesterday, I took some time to photograph under one of my large camellia bushes, while the weather here is still cold.  I walked around for awhile to see if I could find something on a leaf, but I had no luck.  Therefore I decided to try the camellia bush, where I had never bothered to take shots before.  The following is a shot I took some time ago when the camellia was in bloom.

As I mentioned yesterday, there were tons of springtails.  However, there was a lot more to see with some patience.  The first thing that I was able to get a decent shot of was a tiny spider.

This spider was so tiny that I needed to take this shot at 5x.  It is so far the smallest spider that I have captured.  I actually have seen this spider multiple times before, but it tends to be rather quick and does not like being left in the open.  Therefore until this day I was not able to get a good shot of it.  Unfortunately I have really no idea what species it is.  My insect books cover spiders but I was not able to find this spider there.  I really need to find a good book on identifying spiders some day.  I would be curious to know what spiders this small eat, as even springtails seem to be a large snack.

I found a piece of wood that was laying over a fountain no longer in use and turned it over.  At first I didn’t see much, but after looking closely I wound up photographing different critters on it for the next half hour.  I kind of like the following shot, though in retrospect I think I should have framed it better.  At the time I was focusing my attention on the woodlouse and I didn’t notice the snail until it began to turn away.

I’d be curious for others’ opinions on this shot, as it sort of looks like they are checking each other out.  This woodlouse was a bit smaller than the ones I normally find, though I don’t believe I had to go to 5x to get the shot.

I found several very small moths in the area, including several on the piece of wood.  This is one of the shots I got of one.

Unfortunately some of the details are a bit blown out on it.  I’ll need to try to mask it and bring some of the details back.  This was one very small moth, and again I have no idea what species it may be.  I looked through my insect books but I was unable to find a definitive match.  I think though for the next all white subject I will need to adjust the flash compensation a bit to not blow out the details so much.

Another subject I found was a tiny see through worm.

As little I know about insects, I know even less about worms, so I won’t even try to guess what species this may be.  Still, I think it is rather cool how you can literally see right through it.  From the naked eye I thought this may be some egg at first, but when I looked at it in the camera I realized that it was a small worm.  I wish I knew more about worm anatomy to say what those little things through it are.

My final subject for this session was a tiny spider.

I really need to get a good spider book, as I was not able to find this species either.  In general it seems that the smaller species are underrepresented in the literature because most people do not notice them.  Still, I was rather surprised with the diversity I found in an area that initially seemed lifeless.

Experimenting with insect shots

After reading Myrmecos’s blog on insect photography techniques I decided to try a few of the techniques for myself, particularly photographing on white paper.  So I took a sheet of my kids’ construction paper and brought it outside.  The weather here in the Pacific Northwest still isn’t great – and I managed to find a break in the rain we have been getting recently.  Still, it was cold and windy and several times the wind blew away my paper (once with a poor pill bug still attached).  I tried stabilizing the paper with rocks, but they tended to warp the paper too much.

The experience was more of a learning experience than getting great shots.  The main lesson that I learned was that the flash needs to be compensated for the paper.  As the light meter in the camera strives to expose the image gray, I need to compensate with the flash exposure.  The next time I will try putting it at +1.  Luckily, I take every shot in RAW so I was able to easily adjust the exposure without losing too much of the quality of the shots.  My first attempt was with a millipede that I found.

I would have liked to remove the dirt in the middle of the millipede, but I was worried about hurting it.  While picking the millipede out, I found another little critter that I still need to look up.  Unfortunately none of my shots came out well of it, but this is the best one I could find.  Whatever it was, it was tiny as I needed to take this shot at 5x.

My next victim was a slug.  Here I think for the next time I need to come up with a better background.  Ideally it would be nice to find something that can expose the slime trail. Also, I need to figure out a way to remove the dirt without damaging the slug.

Of course, pill bugs are the easiest to experiment with because they are so plentiful.  I haven’t photographed one in awhile because I have grown rather bored of them, but I decided to get a closeup of this one.

My final experiment of the day was a centipede.  This little bugger was quite tough as they move very quickly and it didn’t like the exposed state of the paper at all.  After convincing it for awhile that it wasn’t about to get off the paper without a few shots it stood still enough for me to get some shots.

Altogether I feel it was a worthwhile experiment.  I will likely try submitting a few of these to the microstock sites- you never know.  The next time though I may try to find some more natural backgrounds like leaves.

Announcing the next big thing – the woodlouse!

Yes, you heard it here first! The next big thing… the thing that all of your kids will want and that will stare back at you wherever you go is the woodlouse. Not sure what a woodlouse is?

Yes, these adorable little bugs will soon be gracing you with their presence. Why just now I suspect the folks at Pixar are huddling together to figure out how to best create a new animated movie featuring said woodlouse. How do I know this? I have been paying attention to the “signs” out there. Lately I have been noticing a spike in sales of my woodlouse pictures on Shutterstock. Clearly they must know something I don’t?! The final straw was the recent genius of Ikea to release a plush woodlouse for children. Why else would a multi-billion dollar company take this risk, other than the fact that they have done painstaking research to determine that the woodlouse is indeed the next big thing?

Many of you are probably familiar with the woodlouse by a different name. Like most bugs, it has different names depending on where you are from. Common names for the woodlouse include “sowbug”, “pill bug”, “potato bug”, and “roly-poly” according to Wikipedia. Actually, pill bug usually refers to the kinds that roll up into a ball when threatened. They don’t quite have the rough scales at the edges that the one above has. The following is a picture of a pill bug. Pay attention, because pretty soon your children will expect you to know this.

The cute thing about pill bugs is how they roll up into a ball when threatened.

Pill bugs and woodlice are very easy to find. Just pick up any piece of wood in your backyard and there is a very high chance you will find at least one. As far as I know, they are present in most areas of the US. I remember seeing them often back east and here, in the Pacific Northwest, they are also very common. I’m sure there are specific species only found in certain places, but as far as I see there are just the two kinds. According to Wikipedia there are 3,000 species of them, so chances are I’m wrong.

The following cuddly picture presents the woodlouse up close – I can just imagine the Pixar animators working on this right now….

A particularly cute trait of the woodlouse is the way they molt their skin. Please advise all children though, that only woodlice and other crustaceans molt – not humans (so don’t try this on your brother…)

Like I said, you heard it here first! If I were you, I’d run down to your local Ikea right now to get your kid’s first woodlouse before the supply is gone. After all, remember what happened to the beanie babies? Don’t be the parent searching long and hard for impossible to find toys, get a head start now before the big rush!