Japanese Beetle

[Keith Kennedy]

A big year for Japanese Beetle in southeastern Wisconsin. Photographed in a backyard garden in mid August on a purple cone flower. Canon EOS 40D; Canon 180mm f3.5 macro + Canon 1.4X + Canon extention tube EF 25; Av mode, evaluative metering; exposure comp=0; ISO 1600; f13; 1/60s; Canon T24 twin flash at -1 2/3; Gitzo tripod.

While the front legs and antenae are not in sharp focus, the compound eye and hairs (setae) along the side of the body are sharp (I was focusing on the eye). Stopping down further (f16) would not have resulted in adressing these out of focus points and I was already at ISO 1600. These nits aside, I liked this image for the pose and for the background color. Any thoughts, suggestions?

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Beautiful image Keith. You got some really nice details there. Am not sure if the BG violet/pink goes well with the beetle - but that's just a personal taste...

[Julie Kenward]

Very colorful! The pink BG does look a little funny but the whole image is so full of color that it doesn't really bother me. You might play with the hue on it though. You did an excellent job of photographing the insect. He looks totally natural and you captured a great deal of detail. Nice work!!!

[Keith Kennedy]

Many thanks for the nice comments and suggestions. By the way, this was not a captive animal and the background is natural--the color is a result of purple cone flower petals just behind the flower that the beetle was on. You get this kind of background with cone flowers when the light is low or the flower is in shade.

Keith

[Robert O'Toole]

DOF looks perfect to me Keith. The color combo is different but its natural so it works for me.

Sometimes a focus bracket works, fire, hit the second focus point, fire again, then use a layer mask to blend. Works okay as long as the subject cooperates.

Robert

[Ed Vatza]

Very interesting composition, Keith. It almost looks like the beetle was superimposed or layered on the flower. I think your assessment is spot on. But I still feel I would like to see the forelegs and antennae in better focus. I think the background looks fine to me.