Ambush Bug

[Paul Lagasi]

Thank goodness for reading glasses, almost missed this Ambush Bug. I used my tripod, there was no way to keep this guy in focus hand held.
They don't move very fast so they are great subjects.
I followed some previous advice and increased my DOF, trying to get everything in focus..worked somewhat..not bad attempt for my D70 (D300 gone to Nikon service dept..) Thanks for looking


D70
converted Raw Image
105 macro 2.8
1/250
f16
iso-640

[Julie Kenward]

Nice details, Paul! I am looking at this and thinking maybe more of a vertical crop would work even better here. If you cropped about a half inch past where that back petal ends so there's a touch of green showing and lose the rest of the leaves it might put more emphasis back on the insect and moves him closer to the ROT's position. I'd also clone out some of the white spots throughout the flower petals for an even yellow color. Neat image!

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks Julie good ideas...I'll work on a vertical crop and repost...

[Mike Fuhr]

Neat picture. I like Jules' suggestions, and will be interested in seeing a vertical crop. These guys remind me of triceratops...:)

[Ken Childs]

Nicely spotted, Paul! These things are masters of camouflage. I do prefer Jules' repost and am looking forward to what a vertical crop does for the image. While your working on it, clone out some of those imperfections and white spots on the petals. :)

[Paul Lagasi]

I didn't have enough image to crop exactly like Jules suggested, this is best I could get...

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Ah, this one 'looks' lethal ! Beautiful image. Prefer (for my tastes) the horizontal version.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Paul,
I do like the vertical too.....but do you have the front of the petals in the horizontal? If yes.....then I think that would be stronger....and perhaps a touch off the bottom. Since you had it on the tripod.....1/100 would get you to f25 or at least f19 and drop a few on the ISO because of the D70. Just something to keep in mind for your next trip out.

[Vida van der Walt]

Very interesting bug Paul. Nice detail in this. I also prefer the horizontal.:)