Koorosh, Thanks for your help with identification. I supposed something in that surrounding but I am aware of the great number of species and difficulties with this group of wasps. I am happy to get it down to subfamily. This is my first attempt on mounting such a tiny insect. I must admit that afte...

Very impressive details.

It looks like a pupae from a ladybug with remenants of the old larvae skin.
Is that true?

Troels

Yes, simplyfied you can divide dragonflies in two groups based on their hunting technique. Members of one group are in the air all time flying at high speed (and sometimes at several meters height) and catching what they pass on their way. They hunt like a sparrow hawk. Members of the other group ch...

In the analog age everything was simpler. With my 90 mm Vivitar going stepless from infinity to 1:1 it was only a question of trying to fill the frame. If the animal was 7 cm I adjusted the focus ring to 1:2 and moved forward until it was in focus. If the animal was 3.5 cm I adjusted the lens to 1:1...

Macrero, I understand you very well. I should perhaps have chosen an other term than "natural". It might be more precise to say "naturalistic". Like in "naturalistic painters". Neither the situation nor the tools you use need to be natural (if anything is) to make a naturalistic picture. It is just ...

The next is just a matter of taste and personal opinion. I don't think you should always go for eliminating every trace of glare just because you can do it. I guess I belong to the "naturalist" school because I find it satisfying to reproduce a hint of the natural glare you see on the live animal in...

Very nice lightning, background and framing!

Troels

On a walk saturday I found this Ammophila (Hymenoptera) pulling a big fat larvae up a sandy slope to its prepared nest hole. http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/userpix/5507_Ammophila_sabulosa_564_J_RZ_1.jpg I observed it while it pulled the larvae inside, covered the hole and compressed the sand ...

It likes you obviously.
A stack of a living fly is not something we see very often.
Dead heads are more common.

Thanks
Troels

You have made it difficult for yourself by choosing an object with such a high contrast. It is impossible to hit an exposure with visible structures in both black scales and the (almost) white wing surface underneath unless you use of some kind of high dynamic range technique (HDR), which makes ever...

Yes, Johan offers an astonishing amount of knowledge of every thinkable aspect of macro photography.

More than once I have thought I was through every one of his pages just to discover new exciting hidden gems later on. And it is frequently updated.

Troels

An guide to insect eye restoration can be found at the very informative website extreme-macro by Johan J. Ingles-Le Nobel.

Troels

Yes, there are developed methods for restoring the shape and surface of compound eyes, more or less. I don't have the reciepts near me for the moment.

But I am pretty shure that the nice colors in some insect eyes after some time will be gone for ever.

Troels

I agree!

Fabio, You have started learning in a field with lots of difficult questions and challenges. Luckily I have some time to try to help you a little. Just looking around in this forum might be rather confusing and frustrating in the beginning. I have not been here for long time but have worked with mac...