Sex in the grass

[Geoff F]

Going on from one of Brian's recent posts about the difficulties of getting good insect shots under challenging conditions. Her are some examples from my last bug hunt; with little success.



If only they had chosen a more photographic background . . .

Eventually I found an angle which enabled me to shoot for a merge of two focus points and without too much background problems. I think they are Yamatotipula marginata.

And with constantly changing light levels I over exposed this shot, but recovered what I could to attempt an identification. But so far I can't get that correct either! And it didn't wait around for me to get closer, or to have a rethink about my exposure.



Then an interesting Caddis Fly landed at my feet; right amongst the mud and under trees which were giving heavy shade which made shooting virtually impossible without flash. And of course, flash produced too many hot spots from water drops on the wet mud.



Probably Philopotamus montanus.

So with the sky clouding over, once again, I gave up and went home. A few species were identified but definitely no prize winning photos!

[deetheturk]

Geoff,I think you done well even seeing the first image your caddis fly is my favourite of the bunch,well done!

David

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Geoff F]

Thanks for positive comments on what I'm afraid are imperfect images. But the main purpose behind these shots is identification. So these have been successful in that respect and I have a few more entries on the list. That list becomes hundreds of sightings over the year because some organisations want full details of every sighting in order to work out the exact period when certain species are present. And whether the population is stable.

The recent interest by amateur entomologists has shown that many 'uncommon' species are due partially to a lack of recording. But care needs to be taken; otherwise we get strange effects like 'many species are more common at weekends and during school holidays'.

The majority of my insect photos get ditched once I have established the identity of my subject.

The Caddis Fly appears to be uncommon in this area so that one alone was worth the visit. Another shot, not shown here, was an Oil Beetle, which just refused to pose so I tried to shoot as it was running through the grass. Got enough to prove the identification.

That is another species which isn't common, but I thought they should be present at this site. So after 2 years of looking (not just for them) I now have the first sighting for this location!

There is a knack to looking amongst the foliage, David. Every odd shape or movement is worth inspection. And that also involves things like bird poo etc because some interesting species disguise themselves by looking like unpleasant substances!

[Stagecoach]

Interesting series Geoff, I suspect in No 1 the couple consider the background good privacy camouflage.

[ClaudioG]

I like them Geoff, very informative. I think in this genre we need to come to terms that sometimes we gonna get really good looking shots and other times we gonna get shots that teach us and others new things about certain insects.

Just on side note..if I go out and want to really have a great day to capture bugs, I take my wife, I dunno what it is, but damn it, she finds everything. Maybe we try to hard, maybe its true that us okes are more colour blind than women, but while I'm taking images of one, she's already find another 3 different insects!!!

[Geoff F]

Just on side note..if I go out and want to really have a great day to capture bugs, I take my wife, I dunno what it is, but damn it, she finds everything. Maybe we try to hard, maybe its true that us okes are more colour blind than women, but while I'm taking images of one, she's already find another 3 different insects!!!

But can see persuade them to sit there while you prepare to shoot?

Part of looking for anything like this is to avoid having any preconceptions of what you are going to see. For instance if you are searching for a specific shape or colour you can look straight at something which should be obvious, but you don't notice it because it was the 'wrong shape/colour'. Movement is often the best clue that there is an animal lurking amongst the background.

I used to have similar problems when I was a commercial fisherman and would be looking for marker buoys. Sometimes, depending on the light angle, they would be bright red or appear black. And if you had it in your mind that you were searching for an orange object you could look straight past the buoy, if it appeared to be a black shape.