Hatching caterpillar

[Ian Cassell]

Taken on St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles
I have no idea what kind of caterpillar this is

Canon 7D
Canon 100mm/2.8 Macro
Canon 430EX with diffuser on-camera
1/640 sec f/9 ISO 400 HH

Crop for composition and sharpening in CS5

113948

[bhavya joshi]

Hi.. Ian,

I think It not a caterpillar may be It a new Born Snail, With Eggs. Nice Spot and Shot.

[Ian Cassell]

Tlhanks, bhavya. No, it is a caterpillar. It was taken at the Butterfly Farm here (like an aviary but for butterflies) and I was told the type, but for the life of me can't remember. Those eggs are all of a couple of millimeters across.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Ian. A terrific scene - something I have yet to observe! Well seen and photographed - and with excellent comp and everything within your DOF. The eggs look just a bit "gritty" - maybe from oversharpening or noise? You might try a little nr and experiment with different sharpening settings to see if it helps. Still, this is a striking image! :S3:

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Steve. I'm working on my laptop, but will play with it some more on the good monitors when I get home. It was really cool to watch!

[Ken Childs]

Hey Ian, this is really cool! Those eggs are really different. I think it looks great as is but I bet once you're home and working with a bigger, calibrated monitor, you'll apply the few minor tweaks needed to get this one over the top. Very well done!