perhaps not much to admire about this shot from an artistic point of view, but I hope the sheer attractiveness of the insect and the considerable technical difficulties of this shot are at least of interest to some. It's clearly a bit large in the frame as I didn't get a chance to adjust the magnification of the lens (the MPE-65 has a fixed focus point for each magnification level).
It's a Ruby Tailed Wasp - a very small member of the wasp family (about 12 mm in length) and surely a contender for one of our most attractive insects. They are incredibly difficult to photograph though as they are extremely active and just do not stay still. As a result, you see very few decent photographs of them, particularly close ups like this and it's a species I've been hoping to photograph for some time. When you see one of these with the naked eye you probably wouldn't notice how colourful they are because they're so small. But from the side, particularly with flash, their colours come to life.
This is a 2 shot focus stack as I had to be so quick to take it when it paused that the first shot didn't quite get the abdomen in the focus plane and the second didn't have a sharp eye.
Canon 5D with MPE-65mm macro lens, 2 shots at f13 (or thereabouts), 1/160, ISO 50, diffused flashguns on side brackets, handheld.
Guess we normally don't get to see these little fellows as close as this, a nice insight. Can't believe they have such vibrant colours. Any more (fraction) on the lhs?
Personally would like to see the lower half all green rather than the split brown/green.
Attractive colours, and I appreciate the difficulties, but the depth of field isn't quite there. Not bothered by the background colours but the white speck (fungus?) on the eye is the main thing that I think needs to be addressed and could be so without really altering the integrity of the image imo.
Phil, the DOF is obviously extremely shallow at this level of magnification (this insect is only about 10-12mm in length). If I'd stopped down to f16 or smaller diffraction starts to become noticeable. I agree that the DOF isn't perhaps optimally placed and could have been pushed back a little, but only a tiny bit as the legs would then have been OOF. The white speck should probably go, you're right. Thanks for your comments.
I saw one two or three years ago in my front garden, it was there and gone in a blink of an eye. BIF certainly shows the detail you have captured. Quite an achievement IMO.
Discussion
17 repliesIt's a Ruby Tailed Wasp - a very small member of the wasp family (about 12 mm in length) and surely a contender for one of our most attractive insects. They are incredibly difficult to photograph though as they are extremely active and just do not stay still. As a result, you see very few decent photographs of them, particularly close ups like this and it's a species I've been hoping to photograph for some time. When you see one of these with the naked eye you probably wouldn't notice how colourful they are because they're so small. But from the side, particularly with flash, their colours come to life.
This is a 2 shot focus stack as I had to be so quick to take it when it paused that the first shot didn't quite get the abdomen in the focus plane and the second didn't have a sharp eye.
Canon 5D with MPE-65mm macro lens, 2 shots at f13 (or thereabouts), 1/160, ISO 50, diffused flashguns on side brackets, handheld.
It's best viewed large so here's a 1100 pixel version.
All C+C welcomed
Matt
Keith.
Personally would like to see the lower half all green rather than the split brown/green.
TFS
Steve
Phil, the DOF is obviously extremely shallow at this level of magnification (this insect is only about 10-12mm in length). If I'd stopped down to f16 or smaller diffraction starts to become noticeable. I agree that the DOF isn't perhaps optimally placed and could have been pushed back a little, but only a tiny bit as the legs would then have been OOF. The white speck should probably go, you're right. Thanks for your comments.
Matt
Love it!
greetings,
Jeroen Stel
Well done.
JR
Matt
Matt
David