American Bird Grasshopper

[Marina Scarr]

Well I have been dabbling in a bit of macro lately since the birds are a bit scarce this time of year. It's been great fun. This week I actually touched my first frog and butterfly. :bg3: This was taken at Fort Desoto by the Mulberry tree. Went to check on migrants and found this gorgeous grasshopper. It's quite fun learning a new type of photography and new species!

Canon 1D4, Canon 70-200 & extension tube
F9, 1/640sec, ISO 400, manual mode
Handheld

C & C always welcomed and much appreciated b/c I really need the help.

Marina Scarr
www.marinascarrphotography.com (http://www.marinascarrphotography.com)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hey Marina, I don't think you need too much help:S3: this looks pretty good to me! Your focus is excellent, as a rule of thumb I would tend to go around f11 for macro work, I would have imagined you were in the region of 1:3 to1:4 in terms of magnification so f11 would have given just a tad more DOF, being hypercritical the front foreleg would have been sharper, the antennae wouldn't have been much different but for an insect this size one would not expect them to be in perfect focus without focus stacking for example. I bet you are wondering if anyone is going to mention the pieces of fibre, as you know I like to leave things as they were as much as I can but in this case I think I would clone / patch the larger piece in front of hoppy. I rather like the overall composition and think it is a pleasing image.

[PRABIR BHATTACHARYYA]

Overall, its looking very clean and I would look at it much more than once.
That's my thinking.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Marina. I'd say it looks like your macro dabbling has been going quite well! You have very nice head-to-tail sharpness (though I would tend to agree with Jon that f/11 would be even better :S3:) and I like the diagonal comp of both hopper and leaves. Since Jon mentioned the fiber in front of the grasshopper, I'll chime in - if this was mine, I'd probably remove it - mostly because it is white and is drawing my eye. This is very well done and I hope you will share more of your macro work!

[Bob Miller]

Hi Marina....I like your image and find it very well done! I would only suggest that you remove the white string

[Dave Johnson]

Shame about the piece of white fibre... Other than that a great job on this one Marina, I like everything about it - comp, sharpness, light, DoF. Thanks for sharing.

[Ken Childs]

Hi Marina,

Looking at this image, I wouldn't have known that you are new to macro if you hadn't said so. The subject looks great and I really like the diagonal flow the frond creates. I agree a bit more DOF would improve this already fine image and yes, the white fiber must go. Fortunately it should be easy to clone it away.

Keep 'em coming!

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I congradulate you on touching your first frog!! They have become my friends LOL. Great dof on this and the diagonal works great. I could also see this a little tighter.