Pawpaw Sphinx, Dolba hyloeys

[Ken Ramos]

A most beautiful caterpillar, soon to be a Sphinx Moth I think




Pawpaw Sphinx
Canon PowerShot G7
Manual/macro mode, hand held
1/200 sec. @ f/3.5 ISO 100
Onboard flash @ 1/3, second curtain
NR Neat Image Demo
Post Process: Photo Impact 6

Where I work, it pays to get out and walk around the grounds during my lunch break, as most of you know.

[MacroLuv]

Another great looking caterpillar, Ken.
Peculiar appearance, almost fluorescent green and curved.
Excellently captured with G7.
Photo Impact? Must give it a try...

[Ken Ramos]

Nikola wrote:

Photo Impact? Must give it a try...

I am using a very old version of Photo Impact. I got it from a friend who was moving on to some new software from Olympus and that was about three years ago. I gave him $20.00US for the CD Program and the manual. Yes, it came with a manual, none of those tutorials you have to keep skipping back and forth to. You can still get PI 6 at Amazon for about $10.00US the last I looked. Photo Impact is now at Version 11, the last I noted, maybe a higher version now. Cost, I don't know off hand.

Thanks Nikola

[jmlphoto]

wow ken you have some great insects around you. the colors and shading on this one are top notch. i love the tail end of this one great shot.

[Ken Ramos]

Jordan wrote:

wow ken you have some great insects around you.

You know Jordan, before I took up macro photography about a little over a year ago now, I think, I did not know just how many beautiful and unusual creatures I had around me. One thing I have noticed though about nature photography, is that it really makes you sit up and take notice of what is all around you and you seem to unconsciously take note of the times and places of where you find your subjects. Thanks!

[rjlittlefield]

These are great pictures of a beautiful caterpillar.

I agree completely about the effect of macro photography on the photographer. It really gets you into the details! The only bad thing is, there's so much to shoot in just the average backyard, that it kind of cuts the impact of "I really need to go to the mountains!"

--Rik

[Ken Ramos]

Rik replied:

The only bad thing is, there's so much to shoot in just the average backyard, that it kind of cuts the impact of "I really need to go to the mountains!"

I wish that I could say that about my back or front yard even. The drought is leaving everything much like "Death Vally" around my place, though there are places, like in which I photographed this caterpillar, where things are still hanging on despite the lack of moisture. Thanks Rik

[beetleman]

Beautiful Pictures ken. The cat is such a beautiful color and your pictures look so clean, it makes them look surreal (Its hard to explain)....they look very professional.

[jaharris1001]

excellent Ken !! Youre really getting some great cat shots here,,, boy ,, the way that body looks on the last shot,,, almost somewhat transluscent very cool amd that G7 continues to impress !!

[Bruce Williams]

Difficult...no impossible to fault these Ken. Pic1 is an altogether beautiful composition in colour and form - there is a fractal-like elegance in those perfect folds and curves....living art!

Well done.

Bruce

[Ken Ramos]

Thanks Doug, Bruce, and Jim. I went back out today to see if it was still where I had left it and to my delight, it was. I was afraid that some bird might have grabbed it but to my relief, the cat was still there and its appetite had not demished either, for the leaves of the shrub it was on, were almost gone. As Bruce mentioned, it is and does appear as a work of art, a work that only nature can master.