My First Attempt at Macro/Close Up Bugs

milster

milster

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Well, well, well, I never realised how hard this is! I spent a good hour yesterday trying to photograph a ladybird and a wasp and had absolutely no success at all. Who'd of thought ladybirds walked so quickly, I thought they would be the easiest of the lot get and even when it did stand still for a second or two I got it out of focus:'( As for the wasp that was nigh on impossible, all I managed to do with that was crick my neck :lol:

I don't think it helped having the kids following me around trying to "help" next time I'm locking them in the house :lol:

All I can say is my hat goes off to you macro guys :clap:
 
Hah, they are awful!

I practised on flowers/plants, though wind can be a problem. Then spiders tend to stay stillish.

I've not yet got a successful ladybird shot, but sometimes wasps and bees will stay still enough.

Some people get these things in slight, that still seems impossible to me :lol:
 
some macro people have a tendency to freeze bugs - capture them in a plastic bag and stick them in the freezer for an hour or so - this slows them down tremendously and also allows you to take them out and pose them as required
 
milster said:
Well, well, well, I never realised how hard this is! I spent a good hour yesterday trying to photograph a ladybird and a wasp and had absolutely no success at all. Who'd of thought ladybirds walked so quickly, I thought they would be the easiest of the lot get and even when it did stand still for a second or two I got it out of focus:'( As for the wasp that was nigh on impossible, all I managed to do with that was crick my neck :lol:

I don't think it helped having the kids following me around trying to "help" next time I'm locking them in the house :lol:

All I can say is my hat goes off to you macro guys :clap:
Click to expand...

As an obsessed macro guy, thanks. Yes, it is difficult, and I still have a lot to learn. It's all about practice, practice, practice, experiment and then practice some more.

littlemonster said:
Hah, they are awful!

I practised on flowers/plants, though wind can be a problem. Then spiders tend to stay stillish.

I've not yet got a successful ladybird shot, but sometimes wasps and bees will stay still enough.

Some people get these things in slight, that still seems impossible to me :lol:
Click to expand...

Not impossible, just very difficult. Try hoverflies, because they um, hover.

Uneducated_Rick said:
some macro people have a tendency to freeze bugs - capture them in a plastic bag and stick them in the freezer for an hour or so - this slows them down tremendously and also allows you to take them out and pose them as required
Click to expand...

I know some people do that. OK I suppose as long as the critter is returned unharmed. A big part of the challenge for me though is getting them in the wild.
 
I just got the MP-E the other day, which if you don't know it is stupidly high magnification, very narrow depth of field and manual focus to boot and oddly I've found it easier than the 100mm L.

The trick to is as best as I can tell so far is for you to move with the bug, so in other words get a general bead on it either through live view or the viewfinder then once you have it move yourself forward or back, once you have it its just a case of having enough depth of field and light to actually get a piccy of the critter.
 
Cooling bugs is a good way of slowing them down, but not in the freezer - that could easily kill them. All they need is a short spell in the fridge.

Dave
 
Shoot insects early in the morning when they're cool is good advice. I wouldn't risk fridges/freezers myself.
 
What I do is find the area where I see activity and add drops of water mixed with sugar to the flowers, leaves, branches etc. I do this last thing and next day I just stay in this area and it can be quite busy. I think the water dissolves but leaves a sweet coating.

My "fly on a daffodil" in the macro section was done using this method. My mrs thinks I'm loopy:lol:
 
silure130 said:
My mrs thinks I'm loopy:lol:
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:lol:

Everyone thinks I'm loopy.

On Sunday I spent 2 hours on my belly in the mud to get this shot. I had parents calling their children away from the strange man, and youths making obscene comments.

Do I care? Heck no - that's macro :thumbs:


DSC_1642 by simon ess, on Flickr
 
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simon ess said:
:lol:

Everyone thinks I'm loopy.

On Sunday I spent 2 hours on my belly in the mud to get this shot. I had parents calling their children away from the strange man, and youths making obscene comments.

Do I care? Heck no - that's macro :thumbs:


DSC_1642 by simon ess, on Flickr
Click to expand...

That is good.Nice light background.:thumbs:
 
Spent about 3 hours wandering round the botanical gardens in brum this weekend, love macro shots and was able to get a couple. Very jealous of the level of clarity in some of the shot I see. Would love to get the stereotypical macro bug eye shot.

Getting a proper flash gun and diffuser is my next buy to aid this.
 
To get this I had to hang one handed off a tree branch, one foot pushing out from the trunk, about 7 feet up and hanging over a stream and shoot with the other hand while on liveview and AF, and hope that I got somewhere near. I was pretty pleased with this though, but my back is still aching like hell. And I didn't get wet either. This is a Jpeg SOOC and only cropped. Taken with a 7D and 100 L macro.

6841954794_8fdb6bca0b_c.jpg
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