When lighting with small subjects, a speedlight is generally all you’ll ever need. Further, because of the scale and distances involved, even with a small flash you’ll be working at low power settings.
For these photos of some of the resident animals at the Howard County Conservancy, we used a single speedlight generally at one-eighth power, and let the environment of the impromptu studio to the rest of the heavy lifting for light modification.
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Strobist
Do you find creepy crawlies fascinating? Or maybe a bit scary? Insects can be many things, and they are many! From a photographer’s perspective, they offer countless opportunities to learn about photography, your gear, and the critters themselves. In this article, I hope to share some of my love of these critters and some insect photography tips to inspire you to enjoy this buzzing, chirping, stridulating treasure trove.
Morning mantis.
Insects are the most diverse and numerous animals on the planet. While this may not seem like the most wonderful fact in the world to everyone, it’s a boon for people who like photographing insects.
As I’ll try to demonstrate, it’s not only incorrigible insect chasers who can benefit from this abundance. Anyone who enjoys or wants to learn macro photography, who is looking for inspiration in nature, or who likes to tell a story with their photography is in luck.
Insects come in many sizes and all colors.
Anyone can photograph insects. Not only are they easy subjects to find, they are also amazingly diverse in appearance, behavior, and habitat. You never have to go far to find something interesting to photograph.
Insects offer a great opportunity for different kinds of photography, from scientific documentation to abstract art. So if you’re ever running out of photography ideas, insects are a great way to get back into it.
Photographing them can reveal whole new worlds: you might find unexpected beauty in a grasshopper’s patterns and new perspectives in an ant colony’s activities.
The delicate lacewing.
On top of being a very varied group of animals, insects also have a lot of variety in their individual lives. Fluffy, colorful caterpillars turn into stunning butterflies; chubby grubs turn into formidable beetles; alien underwater nymphs turn into whirring dragonflies.
The possibilities for the eager photographer are virtually endless. So are you ready to try it out? All you need is your camera, some time, and a big bucket of patience.
Insect life cycles are fascinating! To the left is a dragonfly next to its old nymphal skin, to the right the ootheca (egg mass) of a mantis.
I’m going to focus specifically on how to photograph insects. There are a lot of great articles about macro photography in general and other relevant aspects of photography, like natural lighting vs. flash photography, good settings to know about for macro, and nature photography.
A close view of a dragonfly’s back.
The first step is to find the insects. If you’re happy with just any insect, this is very easy. You just need to go outdoors and wait for a while – some insects will even come to you!
It’s a good idea to spend some time thinking about when and where you want to take photographs. Both location and timing will affect not only the quality of light, but also the kinds of insects you’re likely to find, and their activity levels.
This mantis came to hang out with me next to the swimming pool.
In terms of timing, a good general rule is to aim for a time when it’s cool and the sun isn’t out since the cold will make insects slow. This can be early in the morning or around sunset, in spring or fall, or on an overcast day.
The light conditions may not be optimal at this time, but this is when you want to be out shooting if you don’t want your subject to fly off or run away immediately. Of course, only photographing insects when it’s cold outside means you’ll miss out on normal parts of their life, like flight, mating, feeding, and pollination.
Some insects really are nicer when they’re a bit sluggish, like these wasps.
The location depends a lot on what you want to photograph. You can find a lot of different insects in a garden, field, or forest, but if you’re hoping for something specific you’ll need to learn about that insect and its behavior.
Remember to also think about the background and how it will look in the picture!
Locust and mantis.
If you’re really eager about photographing insects, there are many methods you can experiment with.
For instance, the easiest way to photograph nocturnal insects like moths is to set up a light outdoors, next to a white or light-gray wall or sheet. Turn on the light in the evening before you go to bed, and wake up around 2 or 3 am to see all the fun creatures that have appeared. Remember not to do this too often so you don’t disturb them too much.
The larva on the left found the net before I found it. The moth on the right was photographed in the middle of the night during a biology field course.
You can also catch insects with a net, put them in a glass jar and photograph them there, or even put them in the fridge for a little while to slow them down. I only recommend doing this if you know what you’re doing and you feel it’s worth it.
The insects would probably rather be somewhere else than your fridge. Remember to release them afterward!
The camera equipment needed really depends on what kind of photos you’re after. Insect photography can definitely be done with expensive tools in complicated ways, but it doesn’t have to be.
Since insects are generally small, it’s helpful to have a good macro lens or something comparable. But you can also make a great start without any special equipment. Some insects are pretty big and insect photos don’t always have to be close-ups!
Here, the insect is not the only subject, but it’s still essential to the photo.
So you’ve chosen the time and location, found your subject, and you have everything you need; all that’s left is to actually make the photo.
No matter what kind of photo you want – a portrait, an action photo, something abstract – there are a few things you should know about insects before photographing them.
This caterpillar is covered in hairs that can cause irritation when they come in contact with skin (or lungs!).
Insects’ behavior and senses are as variable as the insects themselves. Some of them may notice you way before you see them and flee. Some may not notice that you exist, Others may become aggressive if you behave a certain way.
Some insects see much more and more accurately than we do, while some barely see at all. Some smell with their antennae and some of them have ears on their knees.
They are as alien to us as we are to them, which is why you need a lot of patience, some knowledge of what you’re photographing, and an open mind.
Locusts have ears on their knees.
It depends on what kind of photo you want, of course, but a few things that are usually good to keep in mind are:
Even flies can have beautiful eyes!
Insect photography is such a broad topic that I had to leave many things out of this article, but I hope this basic introduction was able to provide you with some tips.
What do you think about insects? Have you ever photographed them? Feel free to share your best or most interesting insect photos as well as your tips in the comments below.
The post Insect Photography Tips – How to Capture Cool Critters appeared first on Digital Photography School.
[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]
Massive deep sea monsters, jungle predators and swamp creatures lurk in the grimey shadows on the backs of trucks, thanks to interventions by illustrator Nikita Golubev. Most of the featured critters are of the potentially creepy variety, including a deep-sea angler fish, octopus, shark, alligator, lion, owl and orangutan.
Based in Russia, the artist works on cars sometimes as well, but finds the broad doors and long sides on larger vehicles particularly inviting as blank canvasses for light-on-dark works of art.
As a subtractive strategy, there is less risk associated with these impermanent pieces as well — at worst, some truck driver may be less than amused to find their dirty vehicle highlighted in such a way.
Reverse graffiti is nothing new, but most artists who work in that vein operate at smaller scales, cleaning up sections of door and rear windows rather than tall trucks. Naturally, these pieces are all temporary, destined to come off in the wash or rinse out in the rain (but live on in photographs).
[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]
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With spring comes new life, growth, rebirth. It’s also time for the bugs to show up!
Those creepy crawly, flying, buzzing, annoying insects. But yet some of them are oddly beautiful as well. Let’s see some images of these creatures.
By Allxan.
By Mike Keeling
By Grozzle J
By Dinesh Valke
By Tibor Nagy
By Santanu Sen
By Markus Trienke
By uditha wickramanayaka
By Giuseppe Calsamiglia
By Robert Whyte
By Robert Whyte
By Ziva & Amir
By the_tahoe_guy
By Mike Keeling
By Mike Keeling
By coniferconifer
By Steve Bremer
By Mike Keeling
By John Flannery
The post What Bugs You? 19 Images of Creepy Crawly Critters by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]
NYC subways are strange, dark and oft-overcrowded places where many people retreat into themselves and avoiding engagement, at least until these unusual (and invisible) creatures come along.
Artist Ben Rubin uses candid everyday photos of passengers as a canvass for an exotic cast of fictional characters that seem right at home in the public transit system of America’s largest city. His work is complex and detailed, but all rendered on a portable iPad device using the Procreate app.
One could easily imagine that the off-putting noises and smells found on subway trains would be tied to such a strange set of monsters and aliens.
In some cases, they seem to intrude on those seated next to them. In others, they unobtrusively wait in stations for a ride or look at maps, apparently puzzled about getting from Manhattan to Brooklyn.
For the artist, these works started as a way to pass the time on the commute but have become a method of engaging and layering ideas onto photographs outside of the subway as well.
Passengers engrossed in a book, listening to a podcast or zoned into a mobile phone game may not notice them, but these Subway Doodle creatures are there, at least in one man’s imagination. One has to wonder: if any of these really appeared, would the zombie humans around them even notice?
[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]
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With two weeks until PIX 2015, we’re highlighting some of the talented re:FRAME speakers who will be at the show. First up is David Fitzsimmons, who has made it his work to photograph critters for curious young minds. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Wildlife photography brings with it some natural challenges. One of the greatest being that it is often difficult to have regular access to wild animals to photograph. Many of us are guilty of looking further afield for our subjects, but our own back gardens are prime locations for attracting, and photographing wildlife.
Live in the city suburbs? Doesn’t matter. Your area is likely to be bustling with bird life that you aren’t aware of yet. This guide will run you through a few of the best ways you can attract birds and animals to your garden for easier wildlife photography.
Animals are suckers for food. They’re often hungry and looking for their next meal. The best way to get them to come to your garden is to provide nutritious, supplementary food. There are a variety of different methods you can use to feed wild animals.
Bird feeders are available in many different sizes and shapes. A normal tube system with various feeding holes is available from your local pet shop or garden centre. They’re inexpensive, and can be filled with many different varieties of seed. You can buy wild bird food from the same place, and get anything from mixed seeds to solely sunflower hearts. I use the latter, and to great effect.
For attracting mammals, you can get a variety of ground feeders. Squirrels, for example, love peanuts, hazelnuts and other nutty foods.
By providing supplementary food to animals, you must not overfeed them. Fill the feeders maybe 2-3 times per week, so that they do not become dependent on you as a food source.
Make sure what you are feeding them is suitable. Ask a garden centre for advice if you need help. If using peanuts, they must be completely natural (not roasted) and unsalted!
If you decide to stop providing food, you must do so gradually. Slowly reduce the amount you are feeding over a month or so, allowing the animals to adjust naturally. Otherwise, you could end up unintentionally starving some individuals.
Many garden birds will allow you to sit quietly near the feeders, as they will eventually get used to you. However, if you want more freedom to move without scaring them away, get yourself a small tent hide (blind). These are available on Amazon at relatively cheap prices. A shooting blind will do the job perfectly.
So by now you have the wildlife, but you still need to capture those stunning shots. A bird on a feeder isn’t the most attractive of images, but there are some neat tricks to avoid this.
Place some gnarled twigs and sticks around the feeders. If you need to, strap them to a pole so they are held horizontally. Birds will use these as queueing platforms for the feeders, waiting their turn to feed. You can utilize this moment to capture some lovely portraits of the birds on these photogenic branches. If you’re lucky, you may even get two birds fighting for pride of place.
You should also be wary of your backgrounds. If you are photographing with a messy backdrop, it will likely come out in the image and be distracting. If there’s no choice of positioning next to something plainer, then consider hanging a dark green sheet at a distance behind your subjects. This will create a pleasing bokeh for your photographs.
The key to wildlife photography is patience. Changes won’t just happen overnight. Provide food and wait, and eventually you’ll see results. It shouldn’t take too long, but birds don’t have a radar which tells them as soon as food is available – they have to find it first!
That’s just about it. Fine-tune your feeding stations overtime, adding or subtracting elements depending on what works and what doesn’t work. Good luck!
The post Guide to Attracting Critters to Your Garden for Backyard Wildlife Photography by Will Nicholls appeared first on Digital Photography School.
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