Shooting insects

I truly love shooting insects!  I use a Sigma 70-300 mm mounted on a 1.4x converter.  I have a manfrotto off camera mount for two flashes.  I use the Canon 550ex flash as the master and the Canon 420ex flash as a slave.  They talk via infrared.  In bright sunlight this setup is a little less than dependable.  I try not to shoot when the sun falls directly on the red infrared window.  I must manual focus with this setup.  Critical focus is a real challenge.  The eye must be in focus.  I sometimes must focus on the antennae if the eye does not contain a specular highlight or if it is a flat unreflective surface. If that fails, sometimes there is a white marking near the eye.  The double flash in broad sunlight eliminates or softens the sharp shadows.  I am learning to massage this setup to control the amount of background lighting.  I also must watch the subject coloration. If it has white, orange or yellow, I must use exposure compensation and/or flash exposure compensation to avoid blown highlights.  I shoot many shots and pick the ones I got in focus.  I am discovering new insects, to me, all the time.

Dogday Harvestfly makes its sound.

Dogday Harvestfly

The Dogday Harvestfly, a. k. a. the Cicada, is currently making its season ending sounds.  The old farmers said that frost was six weeks away when you first hear it.  If that is true, we will have frost by the end of August.  I heard it first around July 15.

They are not necessarily considered a beautiful insect.  They are not usually cooperative as subjects.  This one was cooperative and posed in good location.  I think that this is an attractive image.

You can hear the recording at:       http://www.larrysimages.com/http.htm        

Another exciting discovery!

I discovered this caterpillar just 15 days later in the same region.  It is eating what I believe to be wild parsnip.  When I arrived at the computer and wanted to name the image, I discovered that it was the caterpillar of the Black Swallowtail.  I went back the next day and it was gone.  Either a bird ate it or it crawled off to form a chrysalis.  It was a nice fat one!




http://www.larrysimages.com

An exciting discovery!

I recently discovered this butterfly on a late morning hike.  I find that the time of the hike somewhat determines which insects are active.  It was a new one for my photographic collection.  It turned out to be the Black Swallowtail Butterfly.  I found it difficult to photograph because I could not seem to catch a specular highlight in the eye upon which to focus.  I later decided that I should have looked at the base of the antenna when focusing.  The plant upon which it is sipping nectar is the Teasel.