Too Close For Comfort

A couple of weeks ago, I took my camera gear out to my wildflower garden to photograph some caterpillars that were feeding on my wildflower plants. On the way to the garden, I ran across a large Robber Fly that was sitting on a large rock with a grasshopper. I carefully set up my tripod and started to capture some images. Unfortunately, the sound of the camera’s mirror slapping back down after the image was captured, frightened the fly and off he flew with the grasshopper. But I did manage to get one, and only one image:

Robber Fly with Grasshopper

Often when photographing insects in the macro mode, this will happen. It can be very difficult to shoot some insects at close range, without frightening them away. Fortunately, I had composed the shot and set the Aperture setting to a very large setting (to minimize the background clutter), and I captured the Robber Fly with his eyes in sharp focus. I wish I had used a slightly smaller Aperture so that I could have gotten more of the fly and part of the grasshopper in focus. But when shooting insects (or any animals), always be sure that the eyes are in focus.

By the way, being able to clearly see the small structures of an insect is one of the things that draws me to macro photography.  :o)

Photographic Equipment Used:

  • Canon 5D Mark 3 body
  • Canon EF180mm, f/3.5 macro lens
  • Bogen 3221 tripod with Graff Studioball SB-QR ballhead
  • ISO 400
  • Aperture f/4.5
  • Shutter 1/125 sec.

 

 

Posted in Insect Photography, Macro Photography, Nature Photography, Photography Tips
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