Dragonfly

[DEAN01]

This dragonfly hangs out around our front door and I just decided to make a couple of quick shots. Trying to get into this insect shooting. As many of you know, I mainly take photos of people, but that has changed, at least for the next few months. My wife had spinal fusion surgery last week and will have limited mobility for the next few months. So, my options are to take photos of her--she promised I could anticipate a very slow death if I did--or work on the insect photography. Of course, C & C always welcome.

[Wavelength]

Excellent; now a chance to familiarize yourself with non human faces

[DanK]

Nicely done. Careful--if you can manage the frustration, bug shots are addictive. I got into it years ago for a similar reason: I injured a knee and spent a summer waiting for surgery and unable to do my normal hiking, etc. So, I thought: what is interesting within a radius of maybe 50 meters? There were lots of bugs where I was that summer, and so I got hooked.

[Ziggy]

Nice dragon.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[JohnRostron]

A great shot. Is the warped hexagon in its eye your lens shutter?

John

[bnnrcn]

Very nice shot

[deetheturk]

Nice capture Dean, and hope your wife has a speedy recovery!

[IzzieK]

I saw that hexagon too, Dean...and thought I had not seen that in any of Jim's or others' images...by the look of it, it looks like 3D that you can easily peel it off and everything will be normal looking. Good shot nevertheless.

Hope your wife feels better soon...

[DanK]

Looks like flash reflection to me.

[DEAN01]

Dan,
I think you are correct about the flash, 1/32 power flash used for this.

[Barbara Ponder]

Great shot! I to hope for a speedy recovery for your wife. Bugs are difficult, tried my hand at while on vacation. I will leave it to the experts and just dabble in it from time to time

[JBW]

I think our wives are related. Prayers for patience and a good healing. And by the way nice shot.

[James G]

Very nice Dragonfly, and I'm concentrating on insect macro for the present, because my wife is hoping for a lung transplant and needs to be 'close' to the hospital if called....

I use a Canon Ring flash (MR-14EX) when shooting macro. The drawback is I get 'doughnut' reflections particularly.... with subjects with 'mirror' eyes....

[DanK]

Dean and James,

Best wishes for your wives' quick and complete recovery.

Getting good flash illumination is difficult. Many macro photographers don't use ring lights because of the flat lighting, but some do. Most I know use a heavily diffused single flash held close to the end of the lens. Most of the rigs I have seen are home-made. The result is a heavy and awkwardly balanced rig, but it works, provided that you don't find yourself in a situation where you want the illumination from a different perspective.

I'll post below a few pictures of my current setup. It includes:
--a 430 EX II flash (any standard TTL flash should work), with the wide-angle diffuser in place
--a diffuser constructed out of two soda cans and a lot of gaffers tape (google "coke can diffuser" without the quotes)
--a diffusing surface. Currently, I am using two sheets of baking parchment paper. Paper towel also works well, and plastic can as well.
--a flat aluminum flash bracket, which I bought for $7. I knocked the cold shoe off and drilled it out.
--two mini-balls screwed to the bracket to allow me to reposition the flash.

It works well most of the time, but even with this, a really shiny bug will give me some reflection, and eyes are often a problem. In a thread I posted yesterday, A couple of wasps in our garden, you can see two shots where it worked fine and a third where there is some reflection, even after postprocessing.

If you search on macro forums, such as http://www.dgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23, you will find examples of a number of arrangements, some of which are a lot like mine. I got the idea for mine from that site, which is a great site for suggestions and macro tutorials.

I hope this is some help.

Dan

The arrangement I have been using recently:



Here is the whole cumbersome arrangement:



This is with a 100mm lens and a 36 mm extension tube, which is my most common bug-hunting arrangement. Note that the flash bracket takes up the socket on the bottom of the camera, so I attach the monopod to a tripod ring on the lens. The monopod has a tilt head set to rotate up and down, not to the side. The head is a Kirk, which is very good but heavy and expensive. If you can do without arca-swiss, there are much cheaper and lighter heads, e.g., by Benro.

[DEAN01]

Thanks to all for your kind words and support. Dan, I appreciate you taking the time to show your setup. This definitely gives ma a few idea.

James, I hope the call comes soon.

[James G]

Thanks Dan, I'll take a look at the site you mentioned... I've had the ringlite for a long time and it is relatively easy to use attached to my 100mm lens.
I've been considering using a speed light on a side arm but its a bit too clunky at present.

I hadn't actually considered a diffuser for the ringlight, but I have an idea of sorts that might just work if I can just get my 'Blue Peter' skills together,...... will post results if successful

Dean, thanks we've had one abortive run about two months back.. unfortunately the donor organ was deemed unsuitable at the last moment... but with a bit of luck... there will be another call... Janet asked her consultant what the record for calls was before a successful attempt at her last review meeting and he stopped, thought about it and said 5! Hasn't phased her one bit!

It also occurs to me that the reference to 'Blue Peter' skills may not be universally understood outside the UK... it refers to a childrens' TV magazine programme running here for the last 40 odd years or so. On it the presenters' often indulge in projects to make things using every day materials, cardboard boxes , detergent bottles, wire , sticky backed plastic, etc