Aphid's Journey (Upside) Down.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be photographing aphids. But here I was down low to the ground looking for the best angle to photograph this lone aphid on a weed stem! There was another flower next to this one that had hundreds of aphids all along its' stem...although it made for fascinating "natural history" type images there was nothing artistically worthwhile. This lone one, on the other hand, proved to be a better subject and I spent a fair amount of time photographing it. Man, who knew macro could be so addictive to the point of spending 30 minutes with a single Aphid!!

Canon 7D + 100mm f/2.8 macro, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/160s., f/4.5, ISO 800, natural light, handheld. Amost FF.

[John Storjohann]

Dan, I like the angle and the perspective on this image...great color, the stem draws a nice line through the image, leading your eye to the aphid..beautiful BG, and a nice crop...I just really wish there was a bit more DOF on this one. You're doing some really nice work with that 100mm macro...and some really nice work hand-holding at this magnification. Nicely done!:S3:

[Joe Senzatimore]

Nice clean Bg sets of the subject. detail is fine as well , but I too would like to see some more DOF.

[Dave Leroy]

I really like the idea of the shot. Nice and sharp. I agree about the need for more dof. It seems dof is a big challenge with macro especially bugs. Good angle on aphid as well.

Dave

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Daniel. Welcome to the world of Macro addicts - and I don't think it's at all unusual to spend 30 minutes working one insect.:bg3: I am in agreement with the comments above - I like the comp, light, and background. You have good sharpness where you most need it, but a little more DOF would take this from being a very nice photo to being an outstanding photo. :S3: We might have to convince you to try using flash to get more depth - but flash comes with its own set of challenges plus a learning curve.:t3

[Michel Pilon]

Bonjour Daniel,

Very nice picture of this lonesome Aphid. It is nice to be able to work with an isolated individual and not on the usual clusters... I agree with people about the too short dof and mayve f/8 (instead of f/4.5) would have been a good choice here as the bg seems to be enough far. Nice colors and very good composition. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to me that you passed a NR filter on the aphid which removed some details (Am I wrong?).

Cheers and TFS,

Michel

[Ken Childs]

Hey Daniel, it's already been said.....a bit more DOF and this one would be over the top! Everything else about this one look great! Even though the subject isn't in a perfect ROT position, it works in this case, especially with the title you used. This little aphid has a long way to go!

It's great to hear you've caught the macro bug! :w3