Remains of a brown lacewing

[rjlittlefield]

At least I think it was part of a brown lacewing.



I debated putting this one over in Nature Photography, just because I could make a case for it.

Of course you'd ordinarily see this sort of image here in Technical and Studio.

But honest-to-gosh, this one really does fit under "Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment".

How does that work, you ask? Like this:



Yep, sure enough, photographed using natural light, in situ, right where I found it --- stuck to the outside of a window!

I'm presuming that once upon a time this was part of a spider's meal, and now the wing is all that's left, flattened by weather against the glass.

Hope you enjoy!

--Rik

Technical: Canon 300D camera, 80 mm Olympus bellows lens at f/8, 1/10 second, one frame. Photographed through two panes of glass. The block of wood braces the front of the bellows rack against the window. Otherwise the bellows was overhung so far that tripod vibrations were like a flagpole swinging in the breeze.

[elf]

What's that cube shaped thing that looks like a sponge floating in front of the camera?

[rjlittlefield]

That's the "block of wood" mentioned in the fine print. It's there to stabilize the front of the bellows against the window. With it, rock solid. Without it, impossible even with mirror lockup.

--Rik

[Cyclops]

Very good,and original,shot Rik!
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Canon 10D | EOS 300 (Rebel-film) | Panasonic FZ-7 EB | Vivitar/Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro lens | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Vivitar Series 1 19-35 f3.5-4.5 | Slik 88 Tripod. | My macro shots:
http://stumm47.deviantart.com/gallery/#Macro-and-Close-up

[lauriek]

Nice brightfield system you have there! Good capture!
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http://www.laurieknight.net/

[Bruce Williams]

Interesting image Rik and good detail too considering it was taken through a double glazed window.

It looks to me as if the bottom edge of the wing (as we look at it) has been folded over. If I'm right and you mentally unfold it, the result is a relatively fat wing that would fit quite well with your Brown Lacewing id .....and of course the venation looks about right too.

Bruce:)

[Cyberspider]

nice shot Rik and a very good reproduction scale . As you wrote/show it is an image for "Nature Photography -- Macro and Close-up"... very nice details!

Something I'm not sure: Should I buy a bellows or should I buy he M-PE 65? A bellows would be cheaper
_________________
best regards
Markus

EOS 7D, EOS 3, EOS A2E, Canon 100mm 2,8 Makro USM, Sigma 150mm 2,8 Makro HSM, Canon 100-400L IS USM, Soligor Extention Tubes, Seagull Angle Finder

"Sorry, my English is not the best I will try to become better. Please, do not hesitate to correct me to avoid misunderstandings"

[lauriek]

[elf]

[Cyclops]

[rjlittlefield]

Thanks for the comments, folks!

Cyclops: Well, it was just sitting there, and this crazy idea came to me...

Laurie: "Brightfield"...hhmmm...suppose I should try a "darkfield" shot too?

Bruce: I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of problems shooting through the window. There must be some softening and loss of contrast. But even at actual pixels, the image looks pretty good in Photoshop. About the folding, I agree. I tried "virtually unfolding" the wing using Photoshop layers to do the mirror & align, then manually cloned out the duplicated veins. Here's what appeared.



Cyberspider: For studio work, bellows are better because you have more options. For field work, it seems like the MP-E 65 would have huge advantages. Bellows are fragile and fiddly, and something usually moves when you stop down to shoot. I don't own an MP-E 65, by the way. At this point, I can't imagine myself shooting enough high magnification in the field to justify the expense. But the high-mag field folks do seem to like it.

elf: Ah yes, the perils of "fine print". Some of us would argue it should be outlawed in legal documents too! But I suppose then all that would happen is they'd get bigger.

--Rik