Photographing Insects: July Shots
The story behind the photographs
Many photographs have a story behind them. Here I give you the stories behind some of the shots I made during July 2023, together with some tips.
Beautiful Demoiselle
I took this shot of a beautiful demoiselle during a trip to Luxembourg. In the Netherlands, where I live, it is rather rare. It prefers clean streams and we do not have many of those. So I had never seen one before. You can imagine I was exited when I spotted it, so I approached it a bit too enthusiastically, which is never good for insects. So it was gone before I could take the shot.
After quite a bit of searching and some further disappointments I finally found one that was sitting still and did not seem to be bothered by me. So I managed to approach him very close and took this shot from some 60 cm, without any cropping. It turns out, sitting still is not so strange for these insects. The males (and this is a male) sit along the stream waiting for the females to come.
The lesson learned: Always move slowly, even when you are exited. And always have your camera ready to shoot.
Parent Bug
I saw this parent bug during a little walk. But I did not have my camera with me. So by the time I got home I took my camera, jumped on my bike, and rode back in the hope it was still there. I was lucky. Only after the first shot I saw that the bug was sitting on its eggs, making it even more interesting.
It actually was not so much luck that the insect was still there. Parent bugs brood their eggs and even stay with their young larvae. So she would definitely not have moved anywhere. This is the task of the mother. The father dies soon after mating.
A problem was that there was a lot of wind. The leaf was moving huge distances. Not a nice place to lay your eggs I would say. Even holding it did not help enough. Fortunately I could press it against some piece of wood (without cutting or damaging it), enabling the shot.
The lesson learned: Always have your camera with you, with the correct gear.
Wasp Spider
Although a spider is not an insect, I include this one here anyway. The wasp spider builds its web close to the ground to catch its favorite food: grasshoppers. But that makes it difficult to photograph, especially because its head was pointing downwards. And any spider you photograph should show its eyes, I think.
So to take the shot I was lying in the long grass for quite a while. That was a bad idea. I ended up with two ticks that I had to remove. Fortunately they did not carry Lyme disease. Photographing insects actually has its dangers.
The lessons learned: Don’t go lying in the long grass. If you need to get low, bring a piece of plastic you can kneel on. Use the tiltable screen on the back of the camera to hold it low. And use insect repellent.
Green Cribellate Spider
Another spider. But this one was very small; about 3 mm long. I was experimenting with using both my extension tubes and a Raynox 250 close-up lens. On my camera and lens, this leads to a magnification factor of more than 2, which is pretty hard to handle handheld. Also, the depth of field becomes very small.
I was trying to photograph an ant, when in the viewfinder I spotted something else on the same leaf. Focusing on it, it was this cute little spider, with all its eyes. It was considerably smaller than the ant but it was sitting still. After quite a few shots I managed to get this one. Not perfect, but way more interesting than the ant. I like the shades of green.
This actually happens to me quite often. I try to photograph a particular insect, but then I spot something else nearby. Sometimes though I only see it when checking out the images at home, which is a pity, because they are rarely sharp.
Lesson learned: Always be alert for other insects than the one you are photographing. When there is one, there are often more.
Next: Raynox DCR-250 vs. Extension Tubes
Previous: Composition
Mark Overmars is a dedicated insect photographer that loves to share and regularly publishes about his work and about photography in general. You can visit his website at www.insectphotography.org. Download his free insect photography book at www.insectphotography.org/book.
