Molting Katydid - Belize

[Steve Maxson]

This Katydid was molting at night (in Belize) and is just emerging from its old exoskeleton. The antennae are very long and extend well out of the frame. At this stage, the Katydid is very light colored and will change to a darker shade of green as the new exoskeleton hardens. 1D IV, 100 mm macro, 1/160, f/16, ISO 100, hand held off-camera 430EX flash (diffused) in Manual mode (my daughter assisted by holding the flash), hand held camera. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Norm Dulak]

This is fascinating, Steve.

I imagine that emergence occurs over a very brief period of time, and catching it is a bit of a feat. Your lighting, exposure and composition are all excellent. But despite the great length of the antennae, I would like to see all of them, even if it made your subject appreciably smaller in the frame. And if it were mine, I'd clone out that thin, pendant leaf part to the left of the main leaf. But those are minor suggested changes to what is an excellent image.

[Nancy Bell]

Those long, long antennae of katydids are problematic. It is not easy to include them and still have the insect a nice size. Unfortunately having them extend to the edges of the image and cut off looks incomplete. Love the delicate new wings emerging and the distinct actions of the legs pushing away the old exoskeleton. I agree with Norm about removing that strip of green leaf. Must be fascinating to see all of this from the very beginning.

[Mitch Haimov]

Another intriguing moment that would be very interesting to witness. Looks like having an assistant to hold the flash paid off--position of the subject relative to the leaf makes a challenging lighting situation. Since you had the off-camera flash + assistant, positioning the flash behind and below the subject could have made an interesting alternative, perhaps with a reflector bounding a little light back onto the front. I'm inclined to think the comp would work better if you either went very tight to emphasize detail or pulled back far enough to include the antennae in their entirety.

[Steve Maxson]

Thanks for the comments Norm, Nancy, and Mitch. I agree that the long antennas are a problem and either including their full length or cutting them of near the body of the katydid might be better options.