Sorry, that was very poor! This is a dorytomus longimanus (female). This little weevil landed on my window while I was procesing images. So I picked him up and placed him on an orchid next to the window. I then draped a peice of black felt behind and took some shots. I really like the boldness created by the bright pink against the blackness and the strong composition.
During spring, keep an eye on the nettles for the nettle weevil. Its a beautifully iridescent green/blue. Make sure you print these out though. They look good on screen, but at A3 a bug like this is spectacular! All comments welcome...
I think you need to clone in some rope giving the impression the great weevel is about to be catapulted into space or a handy piece of netting on righthand side, then its sorted.
Size of your subject in the frame suits the image here. I'm not a big fan of black backgrounds, (unless it's a night time flight shot) and feel that maybe a natural diffused bg would have been better here?
What is it with bug shots tonight? Place seems full of them
Lovely sharp bug Elliot. Generally I'm not a fan of black backgrounds but I think it works very well here. Not too sure about the composition with all that negative space on the right. To me a portrait format with the black canvas extended upwards works better - something for the bug to climb into.
Well, a really mixed bag of views here, which is great to see. There is no real point to the 'negative space' other than I liked it and it framed and enhanced the pink petals and small nature of the wee-beasty. I am always looking for new compositions in my photography and want different, dynamic, and bold styles that will appeal to image buyers. Cheers for the feedback!
I'm with you on the negative space - it adds to the shot for me. I would perhaps recompose (ie just have one petal) but you are right about the relationships within the frame.
I'm with you and Andy on the negative space - works extremely well for me as is. Certainly not "textbook" as regards rules of composition but I wouldn't change anything about it. Would love to see it at A3 size!
Discussion
11 repliesDuring spring, keep an eye on the nettles for the nettle weevil. Its a beautifully iridescent green/blue. Make sure you print these out though. They look good on screen, but at A3 a bug like this is spectacular!
Camera: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
Exposure: 1/30 sec @ F6.3
Exposure compensation: -2 1/3
Fill-in Flash: -1 2/3
ISO: 400
Lens: EF100mm Macro USM F2.8
Regards
Barrie
Tim
Great detail,think i prefered the other image you sent me the other day
I like the image a lot.
I think I would have cropped a heck of a lot off the right though if it were mine. I wonder what your reasoning was for the composition chosen?
Regards
What is it with bug shots tonight? Place seems full of them
John
John
I'm with you on the negative space - it adds to the shot for me. I would perhaps recompose (ie just have one petal) but you are right about the relationships within the frame.
A
I'm with you and Andy on the negative space - works extremely well for me as is. Certainly not "textbook" as regards rules of composition but I wouldn't change anything about it. Would love to see it at A3 size!
John
This is where I'd head with it
A
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