Beautiful Bugs

As discussed in my post 'Shooting Little Critters', one of my objectives this summer was to shoot 'small' using my recently acquired Canon 500D close up filter. I determined that the sharpest images were obtained by using the 500D with my Nikon 300mm f4 lens without a teleconverter.

Well things didn't work out quite the way that I expected.

My efforts at handholding were less than stellar So far I had managed to engage in fairly random walk around photography, pointing and shooting birds and some dragonflies as they popped into view.  Actually this is a bit of an oversimplification as there was some planning and careful positioning once a subject was engaged, but I did manage to avoid using tripods (or even a monopod) and flash.

If you have been following my posts, you would know that the Nikon 300mm f4 lens is not image stabilized and I compensate by shooting at fast shutter speeds and high ISO. That works well for shooting up to the normal focus range of 54 inches but when I tried to shoot handheld at 18inches using the close up filter, almost every shot had evidence of camera shake.

When shooting closeup at high magnification, depth of field becomes a critical consideration. In my post "depth of field disasters", applying the depth of field calculator you will find that the depth of field at the maximum aperture of f4 is 1mm. Imagine that you can get an co-operative stationary subject perfectly focused using a tripod and the leaf or branch shifted by 1mm due to the wind, the image will be unfocused. Now imagine that instead of a tripod, you tried to handhold and by some magic managed to keep a heavy lens steady without any tremors and focused ... now you breathed ... out of focus.

Stop the lens down to f/20 and the depth of field is now 4mm. Still razor thin, but manageable.with very steady camera support.

F/20 is about 6 stops from f/4 meaning that shutter speeds are usually less than 1/30 sec for proper exposure. Remembering that my lens is not stabilized, the only way to get exposure is to use a flash.

Finally, I come to my shooting method for closeup using the 300mm f4 with Canon 500D 2x closeup filter.

Mode = Manual.
Aperture - f18 - f22
Shutter speed 1/250 sec flash sync.
Flash = Yes. I use a Nikon SB400 rather than the larger SB600 which I also own.
Support = Monopod although I really should be using a tripod with a focusing rail.

So here is what's possible with this setup.

Here you can clearly see the hexagonal elements of the compound eyes.

Common Whitetail Dragonfly Eyes

The Red Milkweed Beetle is one of the few insects that can feed on the poisonous milkweed, the best known of which is the Monarch Butterfly caterpillar. The the poisonous glycosides remain unmetabolized so if the beetle is eaten the poison would cause the predator to become ill. The Red colour advertises this fact to any would be predators - once bitten, twice shy..

This longhorn beetle appears to have 4 eyes, in fact the base of the antenna splits each of the eyes in two so it's and academic question as to whether it has 4 eyes or 2 eyes (each split in two).
This was shot at f18 ISO 200 and the SB400 flash was used.

Red Milkweed Beetle

This guy is so cute that I have to give him another entry.

Red Milkweed Beetle

I don't know what kind of fly this is but it is about half the size of a house fly and very iridescent.

Shot at f18 with flash.

Tiny Fly (species unidentified)

Shooting this close requires lots of patience, a steady hand and good knees (most were shot kneeling in the bushes).

An obvious question would be 'if depth of field increased as the aperture is stopped down, why not shoot at the minimum aperture' which is f64 for the Nikon D7000. The answer is that sharpness starts to degrade due to diffraction at about  f16 so one has to compromise between maximum depth of field and sharpness. I found that f18 - f22 is a good compromise.

Here is a tiny golden Damselfly about the size of a little lacewing. Unlike the Dragonflies that shout their presence with big bold movements, the delicate Damselflies often go unnoticed  unless one looks very carefully among the plants.

Unidentified Bluet Damselfly

And the more familiar Northern Bluet

Northern Bluet Damselfly

This was shot without the 500D closeup but keeping all of the settings the same

This Daddy Longlegs was shot a f25 and you can see the difference in depth of field that the smaller aperture makes.

Taking pictures of insects is a lot different than taking pictures of birds. Identification is also more difficult as there are 100 times as many species of insects and much fewer resources and experts to call upon. One benefit is that the insects increase in the mid summer at the same time that the birds are less accessible.

Despite some of our preconceived ideas about them, you must agree that looking close up, the colours and designs can rival those of birds in some respects.

In any case I am hooked so look for more insect posts on this blog in the future.

See my website www.photobirding.net for details on these insects.