Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

One of these days I’ll go on an insect safari, and will spend hour after hour photographing every kind of bug imaginable. It will be like swimming in a sea of champagne, and when I’m old and gray I’ll talk about it, like the Old Man who talked about seeing the lions on the beach in Africa.

But till then, I’ll have to settle on stealing an hour here and there. Like a shoplifter dropping trinkets into his pockets, I resign myself to small portions, tidbits taken now and then.

Today I managed to squeeze out about 45 minutes of shooting time. In part, it’s my own fault – I spent too much time in front of the computer screen, much of it tending to this website. Just fix a few broken links, correct the spelling here, upload this, download that, whack the router and try to coax the network back to life...

But some things are beyond my control. Today I visited the municipal park where I shot the Eastern Hog Nose Snake last week. Its a good site – about 800 acres, lots of wetlands, and path entwined around well fields and pumping stations. I got to the park late – about 4 p.m. – hoping the recent warm spell would finally release dragonflies and other interesting insects. Unfortunately, as soon as I arrived the skies turned dark, thunder rumbled, and the winds picked up.

When it comes to rain, I always experience a sense of certainty about when and where it will hit. I always know how long to wait, how far to hike out before turning back, and how to time my return to shelter. As a result of this certainty, I get drenched a lot. When I’m out photographing I always carry a plastic bag for my camera – protection against the inevitable dousing.

Today I was luckier than average. The sky was dark and the weather was heavy, thundered rumbled non-stop, but there was little rain. I wandered a half mile or so down the trail before a brief drizzle set in. I settled into a patch of heavy woods, and was fortunate to get a few shots of a black damselfly – an Ebony Jewelwing . This is one of the most difficult of damselflies to photograph, and I while I’m happy with today’s result, I’m not sure I really captured the subject. One of the great characteristics of this damselfly is that it combines a dark black – green color, with a tremendous iridescence. When flying in direct sunlight, these insects look like tiny bolts of green lighting. The shots I got today show the reflectivity in the wings – thanks to the flash - which creates a somewhat distorted perspective, since the wings are black except in direct light.

In my experience, these insects are difficult to stalk and shoot. They are wary, and fly off once you get within a few feet. The also tend to drift upwards, and while a promising subject may not stray far from its territory, it will continue to rise up to higher perches as you pursue it. Once the insects is above 5 feet up, its hard to get a decent shot.

Today things worked out pretty well. Although the heavy clouds resulted in increasingly dark lighting exposures, I managed to get a couple decent shots of blacked winged damselflies, plus a nice shot of a so far unidentified species.

After the sudden drizzle, and a flurry of activity on my part, the really dark clouds and loud thunder rolled in. Contrary to past experience, I timed things right, and as I pulled out of the parking lot after a mere 45 minutes of shooting, the sky opened up and torrents of rain fell., and the thunderstorms have continued these last several hours.

This will break the hot spell. Tomorrow I hang a show for a local exhibit, and follow with business meetings in the afternoon. So Thursday is my next chance to try for that insect safari – it will be cool by then, but maybe I'll find some dragons sleeping on the beach near Swan Creek. 

Technical details: all shots taken with Pentax *ist-D, A* 200mm macro, flash.

To paraphrase Will Rogers, ‘I never met a field guide I didn’t like.’

I guess its important to have the latest and the greatest field guide, but in truth nothing changes much from edition to edition. Range maps change – you won’t find house finches in the mid west in guides from 30 years ago – but the images and keys to identifying subjects stay the same.

So I’m a fan of picking up what ever field guides I can find. Used bookstores often have older editions at bargain prices, and the way I see it, the more pictures and descriptions you have of a subject, the more likely you are to figure out what it is.

As I’ve mentioned before, its usually pretty easy to identify mammals and plants from field guides. Unlike insects – where there are literally millions of species and many have different markings based on gender and age (not to mention the larval, nymph, and adult stages of development) – mmamals and plants shoudl be easy.

So why can’t I identify this flower?

I’m probably looking at a common species, but missing something obvious. For one thing, I don’t know if this is a wild flower or cultivated specimen. I found a patch of these in the Allegan Forest, in a location I described last week. In short, this is a place that has all the vestiges of past cultivation of decorative plants – there are patches of prickly pear cactus, iris, palm, European Lily of the Valley, and now wild strawberries. This is one of the few areas in the Allegan Forrest where there is a trace of a building foundation – now over grown (you really need to visit in the winter to find the slight remains of buildings uncluttered with overgrown underbrush.)

So – what is it? Beats me. The flowers were 1 to 2 inches across, and grew on grass like stalks. I’ll keep consulting the field guides – but perhaps this is truly the last of the spring wildflowers for 2006.

Technical details: shots taken with Pentax *ist-D and Kiron 105mm f2.8 macro lens.

So far the spring of 2006 has been disappointing for insect photography. After weeks of cold and wet weather, things are finally warming up. However, the insect population has yet to really burst onto the scene. My most recent trips out looking for insect subjects have been disappointing.

Yesterday I went to the Allegan Forest and visited several areas along 46th street. The lupine is out in full force, and crops up in several areas. I first visited some open fields, which in a few weeks will be full of coreopsis and vetch. These have been areas that have been fruitful in the past, and while I caught a few glimpses of Monarchs, Spicebush, and Tiger Swallowtail butterflies, I had no luck getting shots.

After hitting a few wooded areas that are usually (but not now) full of dragonflies, I settled on shooting along Swan Creek. I’ve always viewed this area with high expectations for Odonata. The creek spawls out and fills several acres in this area – with a deep channel and shallow flooded shelves on both sides. There is a levy about 30 to 50 feet across, that runs along the creek, and a small dam that regulates the flow of water both down stream and into a flooded, marshy wildlife refuge. I’ve seen wild otters in the creek here, and Osprey and Eagles nest in the refuge. A path runs along the top of the levy, ultimately rising into a mixed forest.

The mix of wetlands, the open trail, and forest all seem ideal for odonata. Yesterday, at least, there were a fair number of damselflies along the levy path. It was a cool and blustery day, and the insects hung low, usually lighting on grass stalks just a few inches above the ground. As is often the case with insect photography, I spent the time lying or crawling on the ground, trying to keep the camera down low enough to get a clear shot of the damselflies.

Today I again returned to the Allegan Forest, this time to work a large field along 48th street. This is one of the few areas in the preserve that shows traces of its past. There is a small corner of a building foundation visible in the field, but more significantly, the vegetation shows the influence of past cultivation. The open field has large areas of wild strawberries, huge patches of prickly pear cactus, and a few areas of iris, just starting to bloom. The woods are full of European Lily of the Valley, and spiky palms – the type used in potted plant arrangements - stick up out of the grass.

Here I found a few butterflies, a several caterpillars, tiger moths, lots of grasshoppers and lacewings.

And in the “eeeeew gross!’ department -- The high point of the day was the discovery of a few ticks, hanging onto grass blades, waiting for a host to come along (someone like me would do nicely!) Like anyone who spends a lot of time in the out of doors in the spring and early summer, I have had my share of encounters with wood ticks. Though I douse my clothes (and myself) with DEET, the sight of a tick creeping up my pant leg or shirt is all too common. I knew that these creatures waited for hosts on plant stalks, and have wanted to get a shot of them in this situation. So today I was actually happy when I caught sight of first one, and then another, Dog Tick doing exactly that – sitting at the end of a grass stalk, legs outstretched, waiting for a host.

 

I managed to get passable shots of both – which turned out to be a male and a female. I was interested to see that they waited with their heads down, opposite of what I had imagined. I had switched from the standard 200mm macro, to a 100 mm lens. Photographing the vey small ticks – they are about 1/4th of inch in size – was a challenge, especially given the blustery wind. Ultimately, I got the shots, and was happy to take the photos, and leave the ticks behind!

While the shots form today and yesterday are OK - and the tick shots in particular illustrate an interesting behavior - I'm still waiting for the first top notch shot of the season. Well - the weather is finally getting warm... Technical details: All shots, except the ticks, were taken with the insect photography setup, consistent of a Pentax *ist-D, SMC A * 200mm macro, and flash. Ticks were shot with the *ist-D and Kiron 105mm f2.8 macro, tripod mounted with no flash.

Here are a few more images from yesterday:

Here’s a passable shot of a Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta obsolete). It's a near miss - almost, could of been good, but not. That blinkity-blank blade of grass poking up in front of the snake's nose, ruins what otherwise would be a nice portrait. To my eye, that one blade of grass really tanks this shot.

 don’t often see Black Rat Snakes, so the chance to shoot them in the wild is pretty uncommon. This one was particularly nice, because it was so big. I’d estimate its overall length at approximately 6 feet. I was in the Allegan Forest, trying to photograph insects, and was stumbling around a Honeysuckle bush hoping to get a shot of a tiger swallowtail butterfly. I did not get the shot, and amazingly did not trample this snake who was just laying in the grass, watching me. The snake was incredibly docile, and I actually pushed aside some of the grass in order to get down to eye level with in, in hopes of getting a decent shot.

If only I had looked more closely at the LCD after shooting! Oh well… Since this follows on the heels of another snake shot, I dipped into the archives and pulled out one where I managed to do it right. This Red bellied Water snake was sunning itself on an early spring morning, and once again I got down to eye level (literally laying on the ground) to get a portrait. The water snake was not as docile as the Rat Snake – after a few blasts with the flash he came charging at the camera. Looking through the camera’s finder, there is something rather primal about the sight of an open mouthed snake striking out at the front of the lens!

The water snake was shot on slide film, the rat snake on a DSLR.

All of the snake shots (these plus the Hognose) were taken with the insect photography setup described elsewhere. With snakes, and other herpetological subjects, the reach of a 200mm macro lens certainly comes in handy!

….a.k.a. Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platyrhinos) Yesterday I managed to slip away for an hour or so of nature shooting.

I went to a nearby city park, hoping to get some insect shots. I only took my insect rig, since I knew that any more elaborate shooting would be out of the question due to the time constraint.

Well, the bugs were a bust. I followed a few Pearl Crescents around, but came up with no good shots. Aside form one or two female white tailed dragonflies, I saw no Odonata. I finally stepped a few feet off the trail, into the wild garlic mustard, in hopes of snagging a shot of a good sized fly on leaf. “Wow,” I thought, “that fly sure does have a loud hiss!” then I looked down and saw this fellow a few inches from my hand.

Michigan has only one venomous snake, and even that is fairly uncommon, so there is no need to worry about the snake you run into in the field. Odd are, they are more scared of you than you are of them. Since this was a more interesting subject, I stepped back and grabbed a few shots. The species is readily identifiable as an eastern Hognose snake, based on its upturned nose. This specimen is puffing up its head and neck area in threat display / bluff. I just grabbed a couple of shots, and being out of time anyhow, moved along.

Over the course of the last several weeks I’ve posted a few notes about photographing spring wildflowers. There are places that I visit only for the spring wildflowers, and these essays have tried in a small way to chronicle the succession of wildflowers that grace the springtime woods in Michigan. In late March, wild garlic emerges from the dry leaves that carpet the forest floor. Hepatica and trout lily leaves emerge early in the chill of late March and early April. The leafless tress let light down to the forest floor, and the early emerging plants soak up the direct rays, using their few brief weeks when they have emerged from the earth to store a year’s worth of energy from the spring sun. After the wild garlic (which never flowers but presents the first carpet of green) and the marvelous blue and white hepatica, the real heyday of the wildflowers begins. The hepatica are sprinkled across the forest floor, but soon spring beauty, trillium, rue and wood anemone carpet the ground. Skunk cabbage, tree seedlings, and other non-flowering foliage also emerges. The forest leaves begin to emerge at this time, resulting in a filtered, patterned light reaching the forest floor.

It is at this time that the diversity of spring wildflowers reaches its peak. Amid the hordes of trillium, spring beauty, and anemone, are flowering trout lilies, bloodroot, Dutchman’s britches, Squirrel Corn, and violets – both Canadian and Sweet. Wetland areas are covered with marsh marigold and swamp buttercup. This is when the red and nodding trilliums appear, bell wort, wild ginger, and jack in the pulpit. Later in the cycle, wild ginseng and blue eyed Mary emerges in patches. And then suddenly the corner is turned. The trillium fade from white to purple, and flowers collapse into rot. Anemone drop their petals, and spring beauty, after launching flower after flower, bend over with a chain of small seed pods, paving the way for the next season.

A few late comers appear on the scene – wild geranium manages to rise up and bloom in the now shady and dark woods. May apples – whose foliage have stood like umbrellas since early spring – finally bloom late in the cycle, with their large white petals often obscured under the large round leaves. Although many of the flowers have faded and gone, the foliage continues – drawing in energy until the next spring. When I visited the woods yesterday, the wild garlic leaves were finally fading away. Bloodroot leaves, on the other hand, are almost as large as baseball mitts. Hepatica leaves, tout Lilly, and trillium foliage abound. Skunk cabbages luxuriate in the wetlands, and for the next several weeks the forest will glow green, even without the adornment of wildflower blossoms. As the summer advances this undergrowth fades – only the small trees and brush preserving a green undergrowth as the forest canopy thickens and cuts off the light to the ground below.

This last visit showed many faded and ragged trillium blossoms. The trees have begun dropping seeds, and the remnants of their flowers, so the plants below were covered with this detritus. I took a few shots of wild geranium and the late blooming May Apple flowers – drawing upon Karl Blossfeldt’s work for inspiration, in particularly in regards to the marvelous detail and structure in the May Apple flowers. But ultimately, all things must end. I expect that this will be the last post of this subject until next spring. Of course, the climate changes a lot in a short distance, and if I traveled north or closer to Lake Michigan, I could probably find areas where the wildflowers are weeks back in the cycle. But its time to look for some new subject matter – in particular to find some decent insect subjects – as so I’ll say goodbye to the spring flowers for now. 

The rain and cold broke briefly for a while yesterday, affording a fleeting opportunity to get out and pursue bugs for a while. A couple of the best shots came from my own back yard, where the Blue Bottle Flies were buzzing around on the leaves of the emerging garden perennials.

Later I managed to get out to the Allegan Forest, hoping to again track down an Olympia Marble – but this mission met with no success. I chased a few cabbage whites around until I confirm their identities, and then finally gave up hopes of finding the more butterfly and set my sites on pursuing the few damselflies that were hovering about the water’s edge. It was slim pickings, but a few shots came together. And the a brief session with a beetle on windswept grass, and a perhaps lucky shot of it walking on the wind tossed stalks.

I’ve had a hankering to do some fly portraits these last few days. Unfortunately, the cold and rain have kept even the flies at bay. Odonata – dragonflies and damselflies – are all magical and light. They are the emissaries from the spirit world, the messengers with word from beyond, the winged jewels that dance on the air. Diptera – flies – one the other hand, are all Beelzebub, filth, and mud. They are Caliban to the Odonata’s Ariel. Or so our culture tells us. But I like to photograph them all – and for a change in pace, the Windwalkers too. 

Another found object shot. This is a light bulb I pulled out of the socket a few days ago. I liked the pattern that the smoke left inside the bulb when the filament burned, so I set it aside to photograph as a rainy day project. Today it’s raining, so…

To ‘photograph’ this I simply set it on a flat bed scanner and scanned it. I used the transparency adapter, so the light was projected through the bulb to capture the luminosity that makes the bulb interesting. Only a small area of the light actually touches the scanner bed, so Newton Rings (ugly more’ patterns that appear when you try to scan transparent items laid directly on the scanner bed) weren’t a problem.

I’ve been surprised at how much ‘photography’ is done with flatbed scanners. I guess that scanners _are_ cameras of a sort – they are just cameras that cannot focus more than a half an inch or so away from the front of the ‘lens’. You can get pretty huge, high resolution images, though lighting options and portability are limited!

I actually had to touch this up a fair amount – apparently the burnt out filament left behind not only smoky residue, but ash as well. It was ugly as distracting, so I spent more than a little time cloning it out.

It’s been dark these last few days. Not in some metaphorical sense, but literally – dark in the daytime. Heavy clouds, steady rain, a good week of this… Not ideal for photographing outdoors. Not ideal for natural history photography – close ups of insects, shots of wildflowers. And you can more or less rule out a lot of toy camera photography – the fixed shutter speed and apertures are calibrated for sunshine, and there are limits to how far you can push film. Well, anyhow, I still try to carry a camera or two around with me and grab whatever incidental shots I can.

I recently was helping ot clean out a house that is about to be sold.  I took a Nikon Coolpix 990 with me, along with a Holga. “Bush and Pole” is the only Holga shot to make it to this blog – most of the negs were just too thin to scan, even with a hefty push to the development. I like the hypermodern feel to the image, even though it deviates from the theme a bit (I was running an errand at the superstore and stepped out of the car in the parking lot to snap this shot.) All of the close-ups are found object still life images. “Still life with Nails And Paper Wasp” just popped before my eyes as I dropped a wooden drawer full of nails and bits and bobs of other hardware into the back of my car. No arrangement of the nails was needed – I guess things like that just confirm the impeccable order of the universe. As Morgan says, “There are no misteaks." So I spent the day actually accomplishing some tasks – like cleaning and packing and loading – but also contemplating the light as it fell on the bare walls in the now empty house.

Technical details: Holga shot taken on Classic Pan 200, developed in HC110 Dilution H for 25 minutes (very low agitation.) Color shots taken with Nikon Coolpix 990.

 

A Primer on Insect Photography 

 

Several years ago I added a tutorial on insect photography to this website. Now, with the addition of this blog, it’s time for an updated version. Some things have changed in the past few years – for one thing I now photograph virtually all insect shots using a digital SLR, and for another improvements in TTL flash technology have simplified many aspects of the process. On the other hand, some things haven’t changed – I still use the same basic steup, the same flash bracket (though I have experimented with others) and the same lens. So here is a quick overview of the process I use to photograph insects in the field:

Mark’s Setup

Here’s a photo of my current insect photography setup:

The camera is a 6 megapixel Pentax *ist-D digital SLR. The lens is the optically outstanding manual focus Pentax 200mm f4 macro. The flash bracket is mounted on the lens’s tripod mount, which have be flip around so that the mounting plate is on the top of the lens. The flash is the Pentax AF360FGZ, hooked up to the camera with standard issue cables. To put things in perspective, I’ve included a small fishing fly in the shot, to represent the subject. The fishing fly is about one foot from the front the lens, and is at the closest point of focus for this lens. To clarify the scale a little more, here’s a full frame shot of the fly at maximum magnification:

And here is a shot with a snippet of a tape measure included:

As you can see, this setup easily focuses down to about 1 in along the long dimension of the frame – good enough to capture even fairly small insects. The working distance increases considerably as the camera is focused on larger subjects, with the result that for large butterflies or dragonflies the working distance is several feet. You have to look closely in the image, but I use a bounce card on the flash (in this shot the flash’s built in bounce card is deployed, I usually use a larger one, assuming I remember to bring it with me.) The flash in actually positioned to discharge above the subject, which throws light behind it and helps illuminate near background elements. This also helps to hide the subject’s shadow, by placing the shadow behind the insect. The bounce card pushes some light down onto the subject that is both directional and diffuse – which helps soften contrast and shadow, but also helps bring out surface detail on the insect.

 The one component not shown in this shot is the monopod that I now regularly use for all insect photography. It’s just a lightweight SILK monopod – sufficient to jab into the ground and get a more steady shot with. This setup is essentially the same as the film based setup discussed in the earlier essay. But, going digital has introduced some changes that can’t be shown in a photo.

Specifically –

• The excellent acutance of digital compared to film has resulted in my use of the monopod. It’s amazing that for years I got seemingly sharp shots on film just hand holding the camera. With digital, I get a ghost image if the camera isn’t rock steady – hence the monopod.

• The lowest ISO setting for the *ist-D is ISO 200, and I routinely shoot at ISO 400 with no ill effect. There just isn’t noticeable digital noise until ISO 800 or higher. Combined with the enhance flash system – that now synchs at any speed up to 1/6000th of a second – its much easier to balance the ambient light with the flash and still maintain a high shutter speed to freeze the action and minimize the effects of hand holding the camera. I very often shoot at 1/500th or even 1/750th of a second, at f16, ISO 400.

• The digital ‘crop factor’ results in more reach and more apparent magnification. The crop factor is the result of the digital sensor being smaller than the 35mm film frame it replaces. The 200mm lens on the *ist-D functions like a 300mm lens on a 35mm camera. The added reach and apparent magnification is nice, but the narrow angle of view, which allows better control over the background, is the real boon.

• I shoot in RAW mode exclusively. The ability to tweak color balance, sharpness, contrast, and saturation on a per-shot basis is invaluable. This basic setup will work for the vast majority of insect close-ups, since it allows for full frame shots of insects from 1 inch in size and larger. To get closer, I add a teleconverter to the lens. The teleconverter is paired to the lens. The front element of the teleconverter actually extends up into the lens to press against the rear element. Since the two optics are designed to integrate and work together, the optical quality is excellent

 Field Techniques

That’s the basic rig that I use. Here’s how it is used in the field. Of course, the key thing is getting out into the field and finding the subjects. Insects can be unpredictable – at least for me – so its a good idea to scout out several locations, representing different types of terrain and habitat. If one place comes up dry, you can move on to another, different location and hopefully have better results. Unlike a lot of nature photography, you don’t have to be an early bird to get good insect shots. Different species are active at different times of the day. The morning can be a good time to get dew covered subjects – dragonflies, bees, or spider webs – but even on the hottest summer activity insects are active. In my experience, insect activity tends to peak from mid morning to early afternoon, and then drops off a bit during the hottest part of the day (though several species remain active even then.) Things then pick up again in late afternoon and early evening. As with virtually all photography, the lighting of the subject is what distinguishes a good shot from a great shot.

Using the setup shown above, the subject is lit primarily by the flash. Having a camera system with an accurate TTL flash setup really simplifies things. Here are a few tips for lighting:

 • The ambient light needs to be balanced with the light from the flash. It’s important to realize that the insect is primarily lit by the flash – and that the flash is not being used only for fill. If you look closely at many of the insect photos – like this one: (Winged Wonder) You’ll see two highlights in the bug’s eyes. The top one is the sun, the bottom is the flash. I think that helps clarify how the two light sources interact.

• I leave the flash set to no compensation, and manually set the camera’s meter to be one stop under exposed. When the background is far away, it will drop down a zone in exposure (the flash won’t illuminate it). The insect is lit at the correct exposure, and so it ‘pops’ a bit in the photo – it’s just a little brighter than the background.

Here’s how this works out in practical terms: Lets saw the subject is a dragonfly lit by direct sunlight. The camera is set to ISO 400. The ‘sunny 16’ rule suggests that the correct exposure for the ambient light is 1/350th of a second at f 16. I often shoot at f16, for the depth of field. So in this case I’d set the camera to f16 and 1/750th of a second, and then rely on the flash to fully illuminate the insect in the image. The result is the “pop” effect mentioned above. This image is a good example of what I mean by that: Depth of field is a real challenge with any type of close up photography. Depth of field refers to the area that is in focus, or sharp, in an image. The more you magnify something, the less depth of field there is. The get more depth of field, the lens has to be stopped down. I routinely shoot at f 11 or even f16, depending on how big the subject is and how the background is working in the shot. However - stopping down too mcuh will degrade sharpness due to diffraction, so so if possible work at f8 to 11, f16 at a maximum.

It's also important to regularly use the depth of field preview function on your camera to assess how the background will look in the final shot. While this won't tell you precisely what will be in focus, you can spot distractions in the background and correct them if possible. Controlling the background is another challenge. As with most photos, a clean and uncluttered background can really contribute to the quality of the shot. Of course, you can’t always control what kind of background you can get, but getting the right background can mean the difference between a strong aesthetic image and one that is just a specimen shot. The ideal background isn’t just a blank green blur, but also include some elements that contribute to the shot.

Although the lens I use is manual focus, in a way I use autofocus for most of these shots. Pentax cameras support ‘tap focus’ with manual focus lens. In this mode, the lens is manually focused but the camera doesn’t fire until the autofocus sensor reads that things are in focus. With this technique you can just set the lens to the desired magnification and move in slowly, letting the shutter trip when the subject comes into focus. It doesn’t always work, and a quick flip to manual focus mode is often needed. I don’t use an autofocus setup, but I would expect a good autofocus setup to work well with insect close-ups. When it all comes together, it’s possible to get some interesting and even beautiful images of some of nature’s most interesting creatures. Aside from just straight close-ups of insects, shots that incorporate wild flowers or other elements can be the most compelling.

Alternative Setups:

The setup I described above is what I use for shooting insect shots. But there are lots of other alternatives. For a person jest getting started with insect photography, deciding what lens to use is significant question. A macro lens is the obvious solution, but the drawback is that they are relatively expensive, especially in the 180 to 200mm focal length. A 100mm macro is also a very effective focal length, and on a digital SLR where the ‘crop factor’ is present, a 100 mm macro gives you a very good working range at a good price. This would definitely be an option worth considering . Under any circumstance, I would not recommend a 50mm macro for insects – there is just not enough working room. When selecting a macro lens, be sure to get one that focuses down to life sized – 1:1 magnification. Some lenses only go to half life sized, and may not support shooting small subjects - like this fly.

Other than a macro lens, here are some other ways of getting high magnification, using a regular telephoto or even zoom lens:

• Close-up diopters: These are like filters that screw onto the front of the lens and enable it to focus more closely. Inexpensive close-up filters are available, but generally will not meet stringent quality standards. High quality, multi-element close up filters are also available – but at a significant price point. One advantage of close up filters is that they don’t affect exposure – both extension tubes and teleconverters (discussed below) affect the amount of light reaching the camera. While this isn't a big deal - the camera meter sould adjust for the light loss - it does make it harder to balance the ambient light to the flash while maintaining a worakble shutter speed. Close up filters are the best choice for getting close with a zoom lens.

• Extension Tubes: These basically are empty tubes that fit between the lens and the camera. The further the lens is from the camera, the closer you can focus. Since no optics are involved, extension tubes do not introduce any optical distortion (though the increase magnification may exaggerate existing distortions in your lenses.) Extension tubes can be a good option for prime (fixed focal length) lenses. One drawback with tubes is that the further out the lens is extended, the less rhe light that reaches the camera. The camera’s meter will automatically adjust for this, but you can loose up to a full stop in effective speed with tubes attached. (The same speed loss can also affect macro lenses, that may focus close through built in extension.)

 • Teleconverters are a third option. Both close up filters and extension tubes have the drawback of not allowing the lens to focus to infinity, so you are locked into shooting close ups while they are in place. A teleconverter fits between the camera and lens, and basically magnifies the center of the image. They allow you to focus closer, while still letting you focus to infinity. The drawbacks of teleconverters is that they can be expensive and also impact exposure, similar to extension tubes. Because teleconverters are themselves another lens, adding one to your existing lens can introduce more optical distortions. I use teleconverters specifically designed for use with my macro lens. Using a teleconverter designed for your lens is the best option. Otherwise, its something of a crap shoot in terms how a given converter will work with a particular lens.

Once you have a lens that lets you get up close, the next step is to put together a flash bracket to work with it. There are few opportunities for constructing do-it-yourself photographic equipment. The macro flash bracket is one exception to this. You can buy macro flash brackets, modify standard brackets, or jus cobble together a bracket out of stuff from the hardware store. The bracket I use was make from a few corner braces and metal rods put together with simple nuts and bolts. That covers the basics of photographing insects. There are many ways to do it, and finding the way that works best for your gear and style of shooting is part of the fun. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. To see more photos, please visit the Insect Gallery or Dragonfly Gallery.

A few weeks ago I posted a preliminary image from a new toy camera, found at the local Dollar Store. Since then I’ve taken another roll in the Special Moments Focus Free camera, and while most of the shots have been too underexposed to be a much use, I’ve been happy with a few of the images that have come out this camera. EB I94 is probably my favorite, taken while driving along the freeway during a pouring rainstorm. There’s just something about the line of water running off the wiper blade that appeals to me. Trillium field is another favorite from this batch. Obviously, it was taken while out shooting wildlfowers, and stands in a bit of a contrast to the straight forward, in focus, color digital shots from the same session. This camera displays the unusual characteristic of blurring light sources much more than shadows – which I guess makes some sense if you think about had a bad plastic lens would interact with bright light.

 For film I’ve been using Ilford SFX 200. This is a near-infrared film and was used for its epcial effects. Unfortunately, I bought an old, long expired lot off eBay over a year ago, and testing it out the IR effects seem to be gone. Last summer I used it as an ISO 200 B&W film, and it produce some fine images, though perhaps a bit on the grainy and contrasty side. But of the last several months the remaining rolls in this lot seem to have lost even more sensitivity, despite being stored in the deep freeze. Oddly enough, this old film fixes to be quite clear, and does not exhibit the fogging that you usually see with expired film. As with most toy cameras, it really is impossible to control the exposure. With only one shutter and aperture setting, there’s not much that you can do!

Knowing that the film was effectively quite slow, I decided to give it a serious development push, so I developed it in HC110 Dil B for 25minutes at 20 C. This should be enough to produce and effective ISO 800 with SFX, The result was still very thin negatives that required a lot of coaxing and adjusting to bring out any shadow detail (the leaves in Trillium Field are barely visible on the negative.) But with the right processing and adjustment, toy cameras like this one can really sing.... 

Yesterday I set up the insect photography rig, and made my first serious insect shooting trip of the season. May is still a chilly time of year in Michigan, and even though a sunny afternoon can be downright balmy, it’s not uncommon to have frosts or even hard freezes, especially early in the month. This tends to hold the insect population at bay, but a few hardy insects still manage to venture forth during this time of year. I decided to visit the Allegan Forest for this trip. This is a big (80 square miles) sprawling natural area, set aside and managed primarily for hunting. It features an interesting mix of woodlands, oak savannas, open fields, water and wetlands. The habitat diversity, along with the sheer size of the area, offers a lot of opportunities for tracking down interesting insects.

There are roughly a dozen areas that I visit, depending on the weather and time of year. For this trip I worked mostly areas near Swan Creek. I usually view the first few insect photography outings of the year as a sort of ‘spring training’ – a chance to get back in the groove and into practice. Insect photography can be extremely physically demanding. Positioning the camera and monopod low to the ground, in order to shoot upwards a bit in hopes of a clean background, means that you are constantly dropping to the ground (laying on the ground often) and then jumping back up on foot to chase the ever moving subject. Jumping up and down, crawling through fields to catch-up with the insect a few feet off, and moving quickly to frame up the shot and control exposure, makes for a fun but demanding afternoon. When I’m shooting insects, I try to get strong aesthetic shots, images that are really compelling and interesting at a design level.

But I also take straight documentary shots – looking for images that document the existence of certain species of insects or behaviors. Of course, it’s a lot easier to snag the documentary shot vs the outstanding composition. Yesterday’ shooting was a mixed bag. I managed to get a couple of shots of an Olympia Marble, a somewhat rare butterfly (and one that seems to be diminishing in the natural world.) Had I known how rare it was, I probably would of tried for a few more shots.

The two damselflies are the best of the day in terms of technical execution and composition. Identifying the subjects is another challenging aspect of insect photography. Birds and wildflowers can pose the occasional challenge, but ultimately they are pretty easy to sort out. However, with literally millions of species of insects, some with only slight variations between them, getting a reasonable ID can be a real challenge. When it comes to mis-identifying insects, I’ve made some major bloopers in the past (and will probably make more in the future.) Nonetheless, I keep a well stocked library of field guides, and have gotten a little basic training to help with the identification process. It’s important to try to match the subject to records that confirm its presence in the location where it was photographed.

Unfortunately, most field guides give fairly general distribution maps, and even those that go down to the county level are not precise enough to ensure accuracy. For example, a couple of summers ago I was excited by what I thought were my first sightings of Karner Blue butterflies – only to discover that they are found only south of the Kalamazoo River, and I had been looking along the northern bank. So, getting a reasonable ID can be a significant challenge – for example, I’m reasonably certain that the butterfly shown below is a Wild Indigo Duskywing, but the distribution maps I consulted showed only “unconfirmed or unreliable sources” reporting it as being in Allegan County. Maybe my sighting joins the ranks of the unreliable, or maybe a few dots in the pattern on the wing point to a different species all together.

But it’s an interesting an enjoyable exercise to work through the identification process. If you work the same areas for multiple years, you develop a feel for the natural rhythm and cycle of the locale, which is itself worthwile. Overall, I'm happy with the results of yesterdays shoot, and am looking foreward to the upcoming season. I really want to work at getting insect photography to the next level - and look at some of last seasons showts - shown below - as the starting point for this year's work.

Technical details: all shots taken with Pentax ist-D and A* 200mm macro lens, AF 360FGZ flash in home made bracket, monopod.