Thanks to Frans Janssens at BugGuide.net for confirming my ID: bugguide.net/node/view/2241827
Rock Creek Stream Valley Park, S. of Twinbrook Parkway x Veirs Mill Road, Rockville, Montg. Co., Maryland; Kensington quad
Originally posted to Facebook but I feel like a lot of us here can relate to this.
Over the past few years I have photographed 700+ species of live insect on a white surface, and 100+ fish with a black background. Often when I show people my pictures, respond with “you must have a really nice camera.” I get this “compliment” often enough for it to be my first Facebook rant ever. Here are photographs I took with both of my cameras. The first one, a 9.5 year old PowerShot, which has a completely black (broken) screen, and no working flash (it exploded). The other one is taken with a much newer Rebel, complete with a touch screen. As you can see the only difference between the two images is their size.
Photographers like me have talent, patience, a keen eye, and often a scientific understanding of light and the behavior of our subjects. The male betta fish in these photos don’t just swim around with their heavy fins wide opened like that. Usually they are droopy, and often during my photoshoots the fish will sink to bottom of the tank, exhausted from swimming with their long fins. They only flare up when faced with a rival male, which is not seen in the photos.
Similarly, bugs don’t just sit still and smile for the camera. I have to trick them into feeling comfortable and safe enough that they will sit calmly while exposed on a white sheet of plastic.
We have patience- I have spent hours with the same fish waiting for it to yawn, to get a shot of it with its mouth wide open. I have chased wasps in circles around my house trying to get a shot of them sitting still on a white surface (but using my scientific knowledge, I also know to photograph them near a bright window so they just fly to that, or to make the photoshoot at 3:00 in the morning so the wasp will just sleep through the photoshoot).
And it wasn’t just my “nice camera” that made the black background, it was my understanding that if I light up my subject and nothing around it, then the background will appear black to the camera.
No, I have anything but a nice camera. For my snowflake shots and some of my insect shots, I literally tape the lens on backwards. I even used Sharpie to scribble out the white words on my lens so they don’t reflect off the glass when I shoot my fish on black. If anything, most of my photo setups would be considered “ghetto”.
So remember, next time compliment the photographer, not their camera equipment.
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Arachtober is celebrating October with Spider and other Arachnid posts all month. We started in 2007.
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the web was about 8cm wide
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