Cecropia moth

[Steve Maxson]

Last August, my wife and daughter found a large Cecropia moth caterpillar crossing the road and brought it home. My daughter soon discovered that a parasitic fly had laid eggs on the caterpillar - once they hatch, the larvae eat the caterpillar from the inside out. She carefully removed the eggs and the caterpillar soon spun its cocoon. It overwintered in a jar in our garage and emerged 10 days ago. The feathery antennae indicate that it is a male. (Unmated females emit pheromones that males detect via sensors on their antennae.) I photographed the newly emerged moth in my lightbox using a print of OOF vegetation as the background. 1D IV, 100 mm macro, 1/160, f/16, ISO 100, 2 remotely fired 430 EX II flashes, hand held. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Ron Conlon]

Gorgeous, Steve. Love the story, too, particularly removing the eggs of the parasite successfully--very cool. The moth is in great condition, with rich colors. The background color complements the warm colors nicely. I wonder if a less bright background would work better. I have a window in the back wall of my lightbox, and the background is on a piece of cardboard that I can move closer or farther, lightening or darkening the background with the flash falloff.

[John Robinson]

Now thats a moth and a half !! Excellent. I like the suggestion re the moveable background.
Good story too. very much like or Emperor moth we have on the heathland here.
John

[Steve Maxson]

Thanks for the comments Ron and John. Here is a quick repost with a darker background for comparison. I used NIK Vivesa 2, selected the green background, darkened it 75% and reduced saturation 50%.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Like them both but the second is more dramatic... and dare I say just about perfect!

[Diane Miller]

Gorgeous! Darkening the BG gives me the impression that the moth is also darker, but stacking them in PS, I see it isn't changed. For me, the beautiful moth stands out a little more in the OP. Maybe darken the BG only half that much??

[Allen Sparks]

Lovely image Steve. what a fabulous moth. I like both images. Maybe Diane has the best suggestion with the background somewhere in between.

Allen

[Steve Maxson]

Thanks for the comments Jon, Diane, and Allen! I'll do a little more experimenting with the background brightness. :S3: