Holopyga generosa (ID-cred: Johan Abenius)
Family: Chrysididae
Size: 7mm
Got a couple of shots of this beautiful, newly awake cuckoo-wasp before it flew away and disappeared.
As in the previous shot, this is a combination between natural light and flash light.
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Tags: insect macro hymenoptera cuckoo wasp wasp Fujifilm S5pro Micro-nikkor 105mm f4 Raynox DCR-250 SB-400 VU portfolio A2 Apocrita Chrysididae blue colors sedum abdomen
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Here are four examples of different lighting approaches. Obviously there are endless possibilities and I've only made fairly small changes. In all these examples the light is provided by two LED lights. I've used two different diffusion materials – white plastic (from a yoghurt bottle) and regular copy paper.
[SWE]: En mer utförlig svensk version av denna artikel finns på makrofokus-bloggen
Even lighting (top left)
Paper cylinder diffuser wrapping around the subject and up towards the lens, two LED lights from right/left
Simply too flat and boring for my taste. The "black hole of death" caused by the dark reflection of the lens becomes painfully pronounced
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Sculptural lighting (top right)
One LED diffused through white plastic, from the top, in front of and slightly to the left + one LED diffused through a sheet of paper from the right and somewhat behind the subject.
The asymmetry/directionality of the light brings out the texture and the slight backlighting brings out some of the translucency. I would consider this the standard approach, where lighting directions etcetera are chosen in order to bring out detail, texture and dimensionality.
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Directional lighting (bottom left)
Two diffused LED's from the left.
This strikes me as a rather under-utilized lighting approach in this type of photography. I find it quite interesting – sure some of the detail is lost in the heavy shadows but this also adds some mystery and tension to the image.
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Backlighting (bottom right)
Two diffused LED's from behind and to either side of the subject.
An experimental approach which became my first pick in this case. Obviously not always the best choice but worth trying when you feel the need for variation
Tags: insect macro coleoptera beetle ceruchus chrysomelinus Canon 5DmkII Nikon PB-6 Bellows Schneider-Kreuznach Apo-Componon 60/4 Zerene stacker
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Male Allacma fusca (ID-cred: Frans Janssens)
A 3mm long globular springtail on a leaf.
Two exposures manually stacked.
Dug this up from the archives inspired by this posted by flickr-member Adrian Jones. Obviously, this is not nearly as fascinating as his find but at least it's a springtail!
This is from Öland/Sweden (see geo-tagging).
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Tags: insect macro collembola springtail Fujifilm S5pro Micro-nikkor 105mm f4 Raynox MSN-202 SB-400 Allacma fusca
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Picromerus bidens + Galeruca tanaceti
Size: 12 mm
Spiked shieldbugs are fierce predators and you can find them attacking prey many times their own size. They seem to prefer soft prey such as caterpillars. This egg filled leaf beetle female apparently qualified on the breakfast menu.
The shieldbug moved around quite a lot so I was lucky to squeeze in a sequnece of shots during a brief pause.
Stacked from 39 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.
Canon 760D, Sigma 180/3.5
Tags: insect macro hemiptera pentatomidae shield bug leaf beetle chrysomelidae Zerene Stacker Canon 760D Sigma 180/3.5
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Holopyga generosa
Size: 7 mm
It's raining today so I'm terminating my long summer hiatus!
Sleeping cuckoo wasps are always a pleasure to find during early morning sessions. I think of these as loners, since you typically just encounter solitary specimens. But apparently there are exceptions!
Stacked from 19 natural light exposures in Zerene Stacker.
Canon 760D, Canon MP-E65 @ 0.3s, f/5.6, ISO100
Tags: insect macro hymenoptera chrysididae cuckoo wasp jewel wasp Canon 760D Canon MP-E65 Zerene Stacker mmm
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