Insect Macro Photography

Macro photography is something I've always been interested in but have done little exploring in this field. I rarely travel with my macro lens, and the one time I did I forgot it in Ethiopia, fortunately someone there was awesome enough to mail it back to the US for me! Anyway, I've always loved exploring the world of insects and wildlife that is generally too small for us to appreciate. With a macro lens I can see tiny objects appear as if they were life size. Macro photography is pretty difficult though, for one you need to get very close to the subject, and most bugs don't like this and fly away immediately. Two, even for the bugs that do lack the brain power to fly away when they see an object a million times their size approaching, they usually suffer from ADD and rarely stay still to pose for you. The most difficult part for me though, is getting good focus, there is little depth focus when using a macro lens, so the slightest movement with your hand or the even a tiny breeze on a leaf will throw your focus way off. There are a lot of things to learn, but now I at least have a basic understanding and hope to get better at this in the future.

Macro Links

This was my very first macro shot. I still have no idea what this bug was, but he was patient for me and the patterns on his back gave me something interesting to try to focus on, since they probably wouldn't really appear without a normal lens.

This was another one of my very first macro shots. This annoying fly was actually in my living room and had escaped several of my attempts to kill it or at least get it to fly outside. Later on the little spider did the job for me and caught the fly and immediately started to wrap him up. I'm not sure the species of the spider, but judging by his side compared to the spider I think he had caught a good meal that would last him the rest of the summer.

I was once proud of taking a macro shot of what I thought were these rare and unique bugs in Virginia. These guys actually are illegal immigrants from China, and about a year or two after I took this picture, these stink bugs had a population boom and are now one of the most annoying bugs in the states. It's difficult to go a day without seeing them in the summer time.

This large insect is known as the wheel bug, a member of the assassin family. Apparently it is a pretty mean bug and can cause a painful bite with its large beak and can even leave scaring. I actually saw him outside one spring while at work and took him in my car for a 45 minute ride home for photography purposes. I didn't realize how potentially evil he was until I googled him later, but fortunately he didn't fly around the car and stayed in the passenger seat.

This spider is called the two striped Telamonia spider, and he actually caught my attention because he walks on six legs and stretches his front two out in front of him. From a glance, these looked like giant fangs and I had never seen this type of spider before, and only after I took a macro shot did I realize his white beard and box shaped head.

I've seen these huge millipedes in all parts of Virginia growing up. This one here was a few inches long and I found him munching on something growing on some rocks.

This thing resembles a mosquito, but it's actually a crane fly and it doesn't bother humans. For those who hate mosquitos this bug is actually a good ally, since they normally prey on mosquitos and have even earned the name mosquito hawk.

This head shot is of a Mantis, one of my favorite insects. These large predators are famous for their folding arms which resembles a person praying, so they were giving the nickname Preying Mantis. There are several species living all over the world, and I've normally come the green species in North America and Asia. I did once see a preying mantis in Brunei that exactly resembled a leaf.

I think of all the bugs out there, dragon flys are among the most liked.

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