Posted in Ants, Insects, Photography, Tricks of the Trade, tagged macrophotography, Nature on March 30, 2008 | 15 Comments »
If you’ve ever spent time photographing ants the above shot will look familiar: off-frame and out of focus. Because ants are small and speedy, they are among the most difficult insects to photograph. Just capturing an active ant somewhere in the frame can be regarded as an achievement, never mind the more aesthetic [...]
Posted in Insects, Photography, Science, Tricks of the Trade, tagged Biology, entomology, Evolution, genetics on February 22, 2008 | 8 Comments »
The smallest insect I’ve ever photographed made the cover of the scientific journal Genetics this week. Encarsia pergandiella, an aphelinid wasp not even a millimeter long, was the subject of a study by Perlmann, Kelly, and Hunter documenting the reproductive consequences of infection by bacterial parasite.
The wasp lab is downstairs from ours, so it wasn’t [...]
Posted in Insects, Photography, Tricks of the Trade, tagged macro, Nature, technique on February 2, 2008 | 7 Comments »
My early bug photos, the ones I don’t show anyone anymore, are poorly-exposed affairs that now sit hidden in my files. If I had to put my finger on the single biggest problem with these embarrassing first attempts, I’d say that I lacked an eye for composition. I was so intent on getting [...]
Posted in Photography, Tricks of the Trade, tagged copyright on January 28, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Last week I performed my semi-annual copyright registration ritual, and in the middle of the paperwork it occurred to me that this might make an absolutely scintillating blog post. So, here’s why copyright registration is important, and here’s how to do it.
U.S. law is generous towards photographers. Photographs are automatically copyrighted as soon [...]
Posted in Photography, Tricks of the Trade, tagged copyright, Creative Commons on January 9, 2008 | No Comments »
People occasionally ask why I don’t assign my photos a Creative Commons license. Dan Heller explains. And adds a horror story here.
The short of it is, while Creative Commons was established with the best of intentions it is easily abused in the photographic setting. Users unknowingly open themselves up to large legal risks, [...]
Posted in Ants, Insects, Photography, Tricks of the Trade, tagged macrophotography, photoshop on December 29, 2007 | 5 Comments »
Photos posted to myrmecos.net rarely go straight from the camera to the web. Through some combination of errors related to exposure and the innate properties of digital sensors, raw images can be a surprisingly poor match to what is seen through the viewfinder. Raw images are often relatively flat in appearance, with colors [...]
Posted in Insects, Photography, Tricks of the Trade, tagged Canon, flash, Insects, lighting, macro, macrophotography on December 9, 2007 | 7 Comments »
Flash is a necessary evil in insect photography. This necessity is due to two unfortunate traits shared by most insects: small size and stubborn unwillingness to sit still for the camera. These traits confound each other in a way that renders insect photography uniquely challenging. Small subjects need to be [...]
Posted in Insects, Photography, Tricks of the Trade, tagged lighting, macro, Photography on December 2, 2007 | 7 Comments »
A few months ago I started playing about with the placement of the flash unit, and almost immediately hit on a new favorite trick. When lit from behind, insects look even more zingy than usual. Their translucent bodies glow, they are ringed with little halos, and they stand out dramatically against the background. [...]
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