There are so many species of them,
many of them are so beautiful, and they are plentiful around us! The photographer
who undertakes to put them in his pictures will enjoy the added advantage
that most people don't have the necessary eyesight and patience to look
closely at them, and so they often don't even know how an insect really
looks! It's up to the photographer to open their eyes!
Climbing the towel
This is about as close as I can get
with my lenses. And those are no expensive, specialized lenses! This ant
was photographed using a 75-205mm zoom, combined with a "free" extension
tube (teleconverter with the optical assembly removed), and a one-dollar
toy loupe held in front of the lens. The very small aperture, necessary
to obtain acceptable depth of field, also takes care of the loupe's aberrations.
Aged fly
This individual is close to the end
of its short life, as the worn wings show.
Be careful!
The voracious appetite of a locust
can make it eat through its own support!
Funny airport
This helicopter prototype of nature
willingly landed on my hand, and posed for a picture before flying away.
It was quite awkward to hold the camera and focus with just one hand!
Rock dweller
This large and very soft insect surprisingly
lives between rocks in lava fields, where its colors make it almost invisible!
Hot landing
Lightbulbs are a good meeting point
for bugs and photographers!
Studying for his ham license?
This guy fell right out of a tree
and straight into the ham radio book I was reading!
Tiny but sooo manly!
In many insect species the males are
a lot smaller than the females.
Twig mantis
It's quite incredible to what lengths
nature can go to make something look like something else! I had to pluck
this mantis from the shrub and place it on my hand to make a picture, or
you wouldn't have believed it isn't a part of the plant! I discovered it
only because it moved.
Note the vestigial wings! And then try
to find out where exactly the mouth is!
Posing butterfly
The problem with photographing butterflies
rest in that the shallow depth of field afforded by macro lenses makes
it really hard to get them into focus. On this photo, I aimed at only one
wing, with the other seen edge-on so that its unsharpness is not too disturbing.
The butterfly helped by placing its antennas in the same plane of the left
wing!
Water dancers
These little insects live most of
their life on top of water. They are so lightweight that their legs don't
puncture the surface of the water! They even mate on water!
Romance
This is a great attitude in which
to photograph insects. They won't run away, so you have time to properly
focus and set up the light!
Golden wing
The golden spots in the wings of this
Nahuelbuta forest dweller make it really beautiful. Watching several of
them fly is like watching a golden rain!
Duel
This ferocious yellow jacket wasp
attacked the very much larger colihuacho in flight. They fell to the ground
in a whirling knot. There the wasp paralyzed its prey, and immediately
proceeded to dismantle it, eating a portion and carrying the rest of the
meat away.
A severed colihuacho head lying at the
side testifies that this is usual practice for the wasps!
Kindergarten
But yellow jackets are caring parents
too! Here a wasp checks the condition of eggs and larvae.
