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View Full Version : Leatherwing insects mating



Kaushik Balakumar
12-03-2008, 06:41 AM
http://www.pbase.com/bkaushik/image/82628051/original.jpg

One from my older archives. Made this image of mating insects (Leatherwing insects?) a year back (2007 summer actually).
That was when I had my new Nikkor 105mm VR micro & was very excited about it. I used to shoot hand-held most of the times & never once thought of using tripod for macro shots (assuming that it might compromise on angle/position etc). What a mistake that was ! But I soon learnt that for tack sharp images one must use a tripod & more so for macros ! These days I use my tripod 99% of the times.

Techs:
Nikon D70s + Nikkor 105mm VR micro + Handheld
(Sorry, I don't have the EXIF details)

Views/critiques welcome...

Aristotle Georgiou
12-03-2008, 07:00 AM
Excellent capture Kaushik! great detail, nice composition and well controlled exposure.

Julie Kenward
12-03-2008, 08:02 AM
Kaushik, I love that you got a catchlight in the eye of one of the insects - nicely done! From that one point, I can tell you used flash but the rest looks very natural and I think that's a sign that you did a very good job of exposure.

The overall composition is very nice but if I could change one thing I'd want the two insects just a little more prominent in the frame. Maybe by tilting up and in just a bit more? Still, this view gives them a little more "privacy" and adds a bit of "Oops, sorry for peaking!" to it.

Beautiful BG as always. Good details and nice the way the flowers at the front are OOF so your eye doesn't stop there but wanders back to where the "action" is.

Kaushik Balakumar
12-03-2008, 01:06 PM
Thank you Aristotle and Julie.

@ Julie: As a matter of fact I did not use a flash in this image. I don't use flash for macro photography. But off late I've been wanting to give it a try using flash for better lighting & details. The catch light & reflections u see is due to the natural sun light. And actually there's lot of scope for improvement in this image even with respect to composition. And I agree with you when u pointed out for a different perspective by tilting up.

Julie Kenward
12-04-2008, 07:20 PM
Well bravo then Kaushik! To get a catchlight of natural light in that tiny insect's eye...that's really great!