Tiger Beetle

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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Graham46
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:31 am
Location: Harford County, MD

Tiger Beetle

Post by Graham46 »

Heres a close up of a pretty neat tiger beetle. 5D Mark II, 65mm MP-E at 3x. ISO 125, 1/125 @ f/5.6. 44 frames stacked in ZS using PMax. Questions and comments welcome
Image
Thanks for looking.
Semper cogitatio
Graham

beetleman
Posts: 3578
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:19 am
Location: Southern New Hampshire USA

Post by beetleman »

Lean mean Killing machines. My favorite group of beetles. A beautiful Specimen & Stack.
Take Nothing but Pictures--Leave Nothing but Footprints.
Doug Breda

lauriek
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Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:57 am
Location: South East UK
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Post by lauriek »

Lovely specimen and looks technically like a good stack...

Personally I don't like the antennae chopped off like that, you've just lost the ends of them. I think I either would have gone for a marginally wider shot to get those in, or a portrait oriented shot, slightly closer on just the face, cropping off most of the antennae...

Do you know the specific species we're looking at here? This is not a colour I've seen before in a Tiger beetle... (The ones we get in the UK are either brown or green).

NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

Laurie: I don't know this species.

Here in North America there are 109 species that range in colour from black, green, brown, purple, orange banded, to white.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

Graham46
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:31 am
Location: Harford County, MD

Post by Graham46 »

Thanks beetleman! I would not want to tangle with a life-sized version of this guy.

Laurie,
You make some excellent points. I did have several poses in mind before I shot the stack you see. The antennae were so long and came so far forward, it made up more than half of the stack. I was mainly interested in the mouth parts, so I suppose I could have shot it at 4 or 5x instead of 3 and not worried about the little bit of the antennae that would have been sticking out in random directions. Even if the composition isnt always the best, I am learning and making improvements with each stack that I shoot. I would love to get my hands on many more specimens.
As for the species, I do not know. There are a ton on the internet with the same green/purple/blue colors but this one has a black velvet-like back with light orange spots, I cant find anything to match online.
Semper cogitatio
Graham

NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

I suspect that several viewers are interested in the names of species depicted on this site.
If you do not know a species name then the next best thing to do is at least tell us where the specimen came from.
If no lcation is given then by default one can assume it is a local species. But as we have no idea where you live (at the minimum in the broadest sense, e.g., UK, eastern NA, Timbuktu) trying to ID a species is next to impossible.
Of course, it's your choice.
(simply a response to your "... comments welcome")
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

Graham46
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:31 am
Location: Harford County, MD

Post by Graham46 »

I still have some basic requirements of being a member to take care of I suppose. I will do my best to ID species before posting them from now on. Some of the beetles Ive shot are part of a vast collection that belongs to the entomological sciences program that I work for. This collection of dead and pinned insects was mainly bought for decoration in the program's main building and did not come with names or descriptions of the specimens. I am borrowing and shooting these insects because I find them to be interesting and it is good practice in lighting, composition, stacking, and knowing the limits of a lens.
Semper cogitatio
Graham

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