Overwintering European hornet (Vespa crabro) with Venus 60 m

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

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Henk Wallays
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Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:31 am
Location: Aalter, Belgium
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Overwintering European hornet (Vespa crabro) with Venus 60 m

Post by Henk Wallays »

Well during winter it's difficult to find live nature models overhere, but with some luck I actually stumbled upon this overwintering queen of the European hornet. She was residing underneath an old mosscovered log of wood. Just took some shots of here ( undercooled they are easier to photograph) and then put her back in the place where I found her...

This is a single shot, handheld with the Venus optics 60 mm macfro and twinflash. The location was somewhat photo unfriendly , as it was quite dark (under pinetrees) an rather moist too, so there I was flat on my belly taking shots of this otherwise less willing model.

The twinflash settings were set to 1/32 or 1/64 ( don't really recall anymore) , 1/160 sec and F8. As for ISO I had to push that a bit and went all up to 800 ISO. The heads of the twinflash are covered with white/oiled baking paper to offer some diffusion. As the animal was slightly wed I do tend to get some white reflection ... but still I preferrred being there half frozen over staying another day indoors ;-)



ImageVespa crabro by Henk Wallays, on Flickr

MarkSturtevant
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Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
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Post by MarkSturtevant »

Very good, and good story about how you got the picture.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

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