Acrobatics of a Caterpillar

[Pappadi]

This is the caterpillar of a large butterfly - Birdwing. It eats the leaves of Aristalochia indica and soon will turn to a pupa. The butterfly comes out in another ten-thirteen days afterwards. It is very difficult to shoot one unless you are there at the moment it comes out.
This fellow eats a lot of leaves - always eating - to poison itself to escape predators.

[Donald]

Ramachandran - I couldn't see any EXIF data on this. What were the shooting details: Aperture, Shutter, ISO?

I am not a macro shooter and do not understand the issues of depth-of-field in such shooting. This seems a very narrow DoF. Was that your intention?

You have captured magnificent detail in the area that is sharply in focus.

[Pappadi]

Nikon D5100,AF Micro Nikkor - 105mm - 2.8D
Tripod - Manually focused (no AF function with D5100) - f/5.6, Shutter 1/125,auto white balance, ASA 200. Used a crumpled aluminium foil around a piece of hard board to serve as a fill in source. Built in flash worked but I had muffled it with a very thin pad of surgical cotton. Adjusted levels a bit and sharpened a little.

[Bobobird]

Excellent perspective. Well done. Would have been a tiptop image if the whole caterpillar was in focus in my humble opinion.

As for DOF I have gone from my usual BIF setting of 5.6 to f8 or f11 for bugs. ISO 200. Since they do not move much a slower speed will usually do but if necessary a diffused flash would come in. Normally the flash head is pointed towards the closet vegetation and bounced off that. Leaves are pretty good at throwing light back.

The below links will show a butterfly pic that was taken this summer hand held at f5.6, 300m, without an extension tube. Notice how narrow the DOF is at about 4 feet.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B...10806_6781.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6...10806_6773.jpg

Do not yet have a macro lens (yet) - waiting for a good copy of a Voigtlander 2.5 to become available.

So in the meantime the 70-300L is used at max. zoom and sometimes with either a 12mm or 20mm extension tube.

Happy macroing...

[Pappadi]

Thank you Bobo. Your shots of the butterfly are excellent examples for narrow dof.
In the case of the caterpillar, the fellow was swinging fast to get hold of a twig on its left side. I had to freeze him too. I could give more dof with a narrower aperture. But then some parts of the background would also be in focus. That means more work with GIMP with which I am not at ease fully. Layers, masks, brushes..you know!

[Bobobird]

Dont worry about it - it is still a very nice pic, actually pretty unique.