Great Diving beetle

[John Robinson]

Dytiscus marginalis (Male)
Luckily this turned up im my greehouse rain water tub.
I have loads of pics with them "perching" so to speak but wanted one free swimming. Finally managed it in my special tank in the office last night. Shows the hairy leg "oars" quite well I thought.
You might find some streaks or detritus specks I,ve missed if you really blow it up.
Nikon D7100
micro Nikor 40 mm
Camera flash
About full frame.
60th sec @f18
ISO800
Neat image and CZM stacking programme with one shot to get high pass sharpening.
Curves in PSP7
Thanks for last pic comments.
Cheers
JohnR

[Diane Miller]

I don't comment here much as I'm not much of a macro shooter -- although I'd be happy if I was.

But I had to stop on this one just to say Holy Cow!! This is awesome, to see this creature suspended like this, and so tack sharp!! And I love the BG with the cool colors (OK -- colours!) contrasting with the warm creature.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Yes I like this one John - much prefer the background. I have lost my mini tank - will get another today hopefully. Yesterday I got a caddis fly larva and a boatman but the container I had did not make for decent quality images.

[John Robinson]

Thanks Diane
Its a great new world out there in Macro land ! - And you don't need to travel !
Thanks again,
John

[Vida van der Walt]

Absolutely stunning image John. Amazing detail and bg!:S3:

[Steve Maxson]

Hi John. I know from experience that this is not an easy shot to capture - and you did an outstanding job! Very nice swimming pose and excellent overall sharpness! I'm seeing 2 light streaks (scratches on the glass?) crossing his middle leg on the left side of the frame - and a similar streak nearby. These are minor and could be easily cleaned up with some careful cloning. The one thing I might suggest that would make this image even better would be to use a diffused flash (I use 2 off-camera diffused flashes for my aquarium shots) to soften the light and reduce the flash-generated specular highlights. :S3: Nevertheless, this is a striking image as presented!

[John Robinson]

Thanks all
Yes Steve - they are scratches. Someone picked these up on another forum and I hadn't even noticed them ! Easily rectified. The flash was in fact diffused with a home made one on the camera flash. I did use a second slave on some but had problems with shadows off the small tank sides on the back sheet. The flash did pick out the tiny air bubbles though. That comes with photographing the beetle too soon after putting it in the tank- I usually wait for them to disperse. I,m still experimenting ! At least with this sort of photography you can do it over and over again- without leaving the garden.
Thanks for you input
Cheers
John