Making Good Pictures of Bad Insects

A beautiful tiger beetle

I have never gone this long without taking pictures. Every now and again I may go a week without getting into the studio, but it is rare. So the last three months have been particularly hard on me. And whatever anyone tells you, high magnification macro photography is not like riding a bike.

Another shot of the same tiger beetle

Getting back into the rhythm of taking pictures has caused me to take a long critical look at my technique and in the process I have found a few things that needed to be improved. But I am slowly starting to get my feet back under me and some of this week’s images have been pretty decent.

Portulaca seed at 20X

One area that has needed considerable attention has been in getting insects ready to photograph. Unfortunately a great many of my preserved insects did not fare well during my recent move and almost every specimen that I have selected to photograph has had some damage. So I thought that this might be a good opportunity to talk about various tactics that I use to salvage a photograph from a damaged subject.

This might involve replacing an antenna or appendage, when the part is still useable. Other times it is preferable to pose the subject so that the damaged part is not visible in the final picture. Every once in a while I may even resort to  replacing the missing or damaged part in Photoshop.

On Tuesday I will run through my approach to each of these fixes and discuss strategies for getting the most out of specimens, both purchased and caught. The Livestream starts at 8PM and you can join by clicking on this link - https://youtube.com/live/cwu5urMVRYk?feature=share

One of the primary incentives for getting my studio operational again was the work I am doing in collaboration with sculptor, Lonnie Stewart. One of the ways in which my work can help Lonnie gain familiarity with the subjects we are working on is by providing good quality, high magnification images of the surface textures we will be encountering. And this gave me a great opportunity to get the Laowa Aurogon back to work. After a week of using the system at every magnification, but with the benefit of the awesome Z-8 and my continuous lighting workflow, I am ready to revisit my review of a year ago and tell you how the lens system has held up to a year of heavy use. That will be my topic for Macro Talk Too on Thursday afternoon. Thanks to Michelle Cox for suggesting this as a topic for a Livestream discussion!

If you care to join the conversation you can do so by following this link to the YouTube Livestream - https://youtube.com/live/rjN3qHqIuxg?feature=share.

There is no Pzoom scheduled for this weekend, and that is a good thing as I will be judging the Macro Competition this weekend, along with my guest judge, Bud Perrott. The results video should be out by the weekend, or possibly even sooner, schedules permitting.

I received a box of beetles from a new vendor this afternoon. They look spectacular and I cannot wait to dive into them!

I must dash - a busy day ahead - hope to see you on Tuesday!