Some shots at the Insectarium...

[IzzieK]

I had a ball when we went to the Monsanto Insectarium last Saturday. Some descriptions apart from the last one...As you can imagine, Saturday, many people, kids running around like mad, talkies loud,etc...but it was fun, just not conducive to taking a tripod and shooting my life away...

1 House Flies maggots -- That white stuff you had always thought was some sort of seasoning your mother was cooking with might not be seasoning at all. YIKES!! Since many people don't have a clue what fly eggs look like, here is a photo I shot yesterday at the Insectarium's food preparation kitchen. Unless you firmly believe in the theory "What you don't know doesn't hurt you," you can stop reading now.

It seems they always know when we are eating, as they suddenly appear from nowhere, trying to taste whatever we are having. What's worst, these annoying pest have the audacity to lay their eggs on our food. The fly, a master at hiding its eggs, prefers to deposit them in the crevices of meat or whatever food it chooses to lay them on. You need a keen eye to find an egg deposit.


2 Silkworm -- 6.3 1/30 ISO 3200
Is the larva or caterpillar of a moth. The moth is important because it makes the silk and no longer lives in the wild. It is entirely dependent on humans. Native to Northern China.


3 Hide Beetle F6.3 1/90 ISO 3200
Dermestes maculatus DeGeer, feeds on carrion and dry animal products. These beetles form aggregations around resources where individuals will feed and mate, attracted by pheromones secreted by males. Aggregations can vary in size, but small sources of food usually have approximately one to 13 beetles (McNamara et al. 2008). The adult beetles have forensic significance in helping to estimate the post mortem interval in suicide or homicide cases.


4 Bag Worm
Bagworms pass the winter as eggs (300 or more) inside bags that served as cocoons for last year’s females. The eggs hatch in mid- to late May in central Kentucky and the tiny larvae crawl out to feed. Each uses silk and bits of plant material to make a small bag that protects and camouflages it as during feeding and growth. In early fall, the mature larvae attach their bags to twigs and transform into the pupa or resting stage before becoming an adult. Males emerge from their bags in early fall. They search for bags containing immobile females. After mating, the female lays several hundred eggs, leaves the bag and dies. The eggs remain in the bag until they hatch the following May.


5 And the new addition from last night's edit...no description, but I did got its name: Deaths Head Cockroach.


More coming...for C&C please...Will appreciate any short or long comments and thoughts. I know some of them are no good but interesting...Lighting is difficult when one is looking inside some man-made cave/structures trying to look for insects with people/kids sometimes bumping my behind....

[Shadowman]

Those shutter speeds aren't helping you either, are these images crops?

[NorthernFocus]

I'll hand it to you, you visit some interesting places with your camera. I need to re-gain that interest in photography for the sake of photography.

When we lived in Texas you could have shot all these and more in our garage. If you could stand the mosquitoes.

It's coming on bug season here and I'm not looking forward to it. Pretty much all our bugs up here bite you. I guess the season is so short the only thing they have time to digest is blood.

[rpcrowe]

I have found, from personal experience that Alaskan Mosquitoes are large enough to stand flat-footed and rape a turkey

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Izzie,

That white stuff you had always thought was some sort of seasoning your mother was cooking with might not be seasoning at all. YIKES!!

Hmmm, that stirs memories (but I survived it seems!)

First off, I appreciate the shooting conditions were far from ideal, but you did ask for C&C, so here goes ...

#1 - Rather too narrow Depth of Field for me on this one - although perhaps that's a blessing
... and at least you made in monochrome (thank you)

#2 - Same DoF problem, also focus isn't on the head (whichever end that is - I have no idea if this was coming or going)

#3 - It seems camera shake got this one

#4 - Probably my favourite of this series. I'm not sure if you have already applied a vignette to this, but if so, I'd increase it somewhat, or apply a gradient adjustment to darken the stuff on the left hand edge of frame. I'd also blur the sharp sprig of foliage on the right hand edge of frame.

#5 - Better light, but shooting through a too narrow gap, plus shallow DoF and subject movement issues prevail.

I get the feeling that your crop decisions were based on leaving space for the captions, rather than the scene content.

I have to say I'm not a fan of the in-image captions, perhaps as an experiment, you could add them within a wide-ish border if you wish to show us visible text information? Just a thought.

I'm not sure how helpful I have been, Dave

[IzzieK]

Those shutter speeds aren't helping you either, are these images crops?

Not much -- just to crop for sizing. I have used an extension tube on these shots so no need to crop too mucy from original.

[IzzieK]

And I am aiming to go back to shooting in my studio again. I just gave it a good clean up from top to bottom recently...

I thought Alaska will be bug-less even in the summer as it doesn't get that much hotter there than here...yeah...like I know...

I'll hand it to you, you visit some interesting places with your camera. I need to re-gain that interest in photography for the sake of photography.

When we lived in Texas you could have shot all these and more in our garage. If you could stand the mosquitoes.

It's coming on bug season here and I'm not looking forward to it. Pretty much all our bugs up here bite you. I guess the season is so short the only thing they have time to digest is blood.

[Shadowman]

Not much -- just to crop for sizing. I have used an extension tube on these shots so no need to crop too mucy from original.

Ah, that explains the effect, almost looks like they are miniaturized.

[IzzieK]

Thanks Dave...

Hi Izzie,

Hmmm, that stirs memories (but I survived it seems!)

First off, I appreciate the shooting conditions were far from ideal, but you did ask for C&C, so here goes ...

#1 - Rather too narrow Depth of Field for me on this one - although perhaps that's a blessing
... and at least you made in monochrome (thank you)

The real colour is not appetizing to say the least as it was beige in colour and the whole thing is located in the kitchen window of the Insectarium.

#2 - Same DoF problem, also focus isn't on the head (whichever end that is - I have no idea if this was coming or going)

It's a silkworm and it kept moving and moving. I don't even know which one is the head nor the end until I processed it. There were only three of them.

#3 - It seems camera shake got this one

Camera shake or someone bump me on the leg with a pram.

#4 - Probably my favourite of this series. I'm not sure if you have already applied a vignette to this, but if so, I'd increase it somewhat, or apply a gradient adjustment to darken the stuff on the left hand edge of frame. I'd also blur the sharp sprig of foliage on the right hand edge of frame.

I thought I will crop that RHS but it will make the frame too narrow so I left it. This is my favourite on this lot.

#5 - Better light, but shooting through a too narrow gap, plus shallow DoF and subject movement issues prevail.

I was trying to balance shooting wide open and shutter speed priority then accidentally pressed my ISO to auto in my blind adjustment...(adjusting while eye is positioned on that little dinky hole on camera...) the thing is that without the extension tube, I wouldn't have caught anything substantial.

I get the feeling that your crop decisions were based on leaving space for the captions, rather than the scene content.

I have to say I'm not a fan of the in-image captions, perhaps as an experiment, you could add them within a wide-ish border if you wish to show us visible text information? Just a thought.

Not really -- I just wanted to remember what the images are and started typing on the blurred side of the frame with the intention of removing it later on before I upload it but getting a word processor out to take note and make my story, then upload the talkies seems to be a lot of work on this particular post. In short laziness...

I'm not sure how helpful I have been, Dave

Thanks Dave...you super trooper!

[IzzieK]

Thank you all for taking the time to comment on my images here even if only one made the grade -- just. I really do appreciate it very much.

[mugge]

I have found, from personal experience that Alaskan Mosquitoes are large enough to stand flat-footed and rape a turkey

Whattt!!

[rudi]

Hi Izzie,

most 'things' have been said but allow me to add a few thoughts....

With slow shutter speeds one can expect motion blur. I usually set the focus manually, brace myself against a wall or something, ( you can also use a monopod for even better satbility) than slowly go forward or backwards with my setup while shooting. Mostly I end up with a few OK shots
I guess flash could not be used, otherwise this could also help freezing some action.

Noise is Obvious in some, maybe some denoising in PP ??

[IzzieK]

Thank you so much for reminding me...I was looking at a video awhile ago at PHLearn and it mentioned the shutter speed as against blurring or not the sharpest shots.

Hi Izzie,

most 'things' have been said but allow me to add a few thoughts....

With slow shutter speeds one can expect motion blur. I usually set the focus manually, brace myself against a wall or something, ( you can also use a monopod for even better satbility) than slowly go forward or backwards with my setup while shooting. Mostly I end up with a few OK shots
I guess flash could not be used, otherwise this could also help freezing some action.

No wall to brace myself against there...It was a smallist area and the caves are very small that on some of them I have to go down either on my knee or bend some more knee to peek on the little show window. It was inconvenient to say the least, add the kids out from school because it was a weekend...

Noise is Obvious in some, maybe some denoising in PP ??

I did some a few moments ago...thanks again for the educational reminder...I have to pound some in my brain and I hope you will look at my next insect postings. Some are quite good because I did not forget to up my SS and lower my ISO...

'Appreciate your comments and suggestions. Thanks again.