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I don't know why a damn bug can be so interesting to me but I kind of enjoy these dragonflies.


This one on our son's thumb sort of started the interest in these bugs.









I've been looking for one of those big blue ones to try to get a few shots of, no luck so far.

Nice shots!

They're all good, but wow!

I like dragonflies and damselflies too Dave! Great macro subjects.

Here are a couple I found on the 'net and I use them as screensavers... They look impressive filling a 24 inch LCD screen!

A Sympetrum ambiguum:



A Pachydiplex longipennis:



Both these images are reduced in size by our board software, so right click and save them to disk to get a better look at them.

I sure wish I had the equipment and skills of this guy Thomas Shahan! Google his name and you will find a lot of other nice macro photos by him, including a lot of spider close ups like this one:

(a Phidippus cardinalis for any biologists in the crowd -- a type of jumping spider for the rest!

Hey Kamerad_Les -- you getting this last one?

John

Thanks.

The stupid bugs aren't nearly as interesting in person. But you snap a close pic and all the sudden it's kind of an interesting thing to look at lol!

Holy crap!!! Those are awesome!! Talk about color!! like a bag of damn skittles lol!!

We don't have a macro lens yet, these were shot with a T3i through a 24-105 as still as I could hold by hand at around 1.5'

Probably not the right lens for this but it's what we've got for now

Dave,
Awesome images. I can never get them to sit still long enough for me to get a shot.

Thanks, I felt like I had kind of a rainman/forest gump thing going on chasing these damn bugs around waiting for them to land lol!



We do have some really cool blue ones that I see from time to time, never when a person has a camera handy though.

Cool dragonflies, Dave!

Jpb - Holy crap on those macros!! [cracking up at Dave's skittles reference] LoL

Neat images and tough subjects. as they are not known for casually posing for extended periods. My favorite is the jumping spider.

That thing doesn't even look real lol!! That guy's got skeels... I mean where do you even find stuff like that to try and photograph? Those Shahan photos are really something, lets you see what it would be like to be face to face with those bugs at their scale.

Eric, 1minute and Dave:

I sure wish I could approach that Shahan guy's work -- he really nails the technical aspects (obviously!) but he has a real artist's eye as well.

This is him doing his thing:



Here are few more of his images.

If you are using Windows 7, just right click on the image and select "save as desktop background" -- or right click and save on your hard disk so that you can open them with a program that will show you the full resolution (our board resizes them down, and the images are WAY better than you would otherwise see!).





The "eyes" have it:





One last Odonata:


John

bonus points for duct tape, lots of duct tape

those are amazing photos.

Won't that blue tape on his watchband scare the spiders, bugs and insects away?

The patterns and colors of the compound eyes are cool.

Fantastic pics! I love the 3rd shot...it appears smiling. Lol

Wendy

Those are awesome!

lol! I had to go back and look but he does look like he's smiling, or she, or what ever.

Very cool images.

It seems the focal plane is off a bit in most of them though. Might want to increase the f-stop a bit.

Yes. I'm hoping the wife will get into the macro stuff. I got her a true 100 mm macro and a ring flash, but she's yet to exercise it.

One can safely bet his life though, that she will not be crawling around doing spiders. It gives her the shivers just to see one let alone get closer.


Northern Dave:
Think of his potential if he was to go with blue electricians tape.

blue tape with his skills... the possibilities are endless.

So you got a 100mm macro, I take it that's a "prime"? What's the aperture?

And what is it that makes a macro a macro lens?

canon?