Tiger Beetle Close-up

[Paul Lagasi]

Went out today trying to capture a head-on image of the Beach Dune Tiger Beetle...used my D70 (D300 in for service)...
Really like the results with this camera: sharpness, color and exposure

Nikon D70
Nikon 105 marcro 2.8
hand held
overcast
f9
1/200
iso-250

[Ken Childs]

Wow, Paul! This is great! The detail you captured in that face is outstanding! :cheers:

Normally I wouldn't want that much OOF in the foreground but it works in this case. It would take a lot to pull my eyes away from that Sci Fi face. You may want to evict the red 'rock' on the left and maybe the big one on the right but it may not be necessary. I had to work hard to get my eyes off the beetle to find those 2 things. :D

[Andrew Merwin]

Amazing photo. The OOF areas really focus my eye on the beetle. Its pincers look very impressive. Are they aggressive or dangerous to humans?

[Julie Kenward]

Paul, Paul, Paul! Beautiful work my friend! Gosh I love this for the same reasons Ken noted...the OOF FG and BG really put the eye right on that face and those front legs. I think you could also go pano with it by slicing some off the bottom but it's very balanced as presented so it's totally up to you.

One thing I would suggest would be to look at a small amount of CW rotation to even him out a bit. It looks like his right side sits just a tiny bit higher than the left.

I would definitely think about removing the two rocks that Ken mentioned...they do grab the eye and play for the attention of the beetle.

Still...very impactful image. Did you desaturate it at all? It almost looks like you did but then there's so much color in the bug...

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks Everyone
Ken: the rocks did bug me too

Andrew: not dangerous or aggressive but very skittish, unless your its food...hard to get close I had to lie in sand and wait til one came towards me...

Jules: Image below is right out of camera nothing done to it..that D70 works real well with my macro lens

[Dave Mills]

Hi Paul, nicely handled with great facial detail. If this were mine I would crop out half of the OOF area on the bottom....

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Paul,
Very cool use of selective focus!!! I really like the face and then the falloff on this one. I can go with Dave's more pano crop.....but I like the OP too! Very nicely done!:cheers:

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Paul. You really nailed to focus on those impressive mandibles! Nice job getting close enough to get a photo like this - if it was easy, I'd have some of these too! :) The eye-level view is also very nice. Here's another vote for cropping some of the OOF area off the bottom. Well done.