Had a visitor this weekend

Higgmeister

And she asked me to photograph her, so I did. I took about 50 shots and enough of them came out that I'll give her a full gallery. Here are the first two that I processed.

Praying on Prey

Yes, that's a headless fly. After shooting the mantis, I wanted to reward her for a job well done. I went bug hunting and captured a fly after about 20 minutes of searching. Since these were shot indoors I didn't want the fly flying, so I stunned it. Well, in the process of stunning the fly, it's head fell off (talk about loosing ones head over such a small matter). The body was still animated and flew onto the stem where you see it here. I juxtaposed the Prey against the Pray. The mantis finally snatched the goods only after we prodded the fly to move (guess mantis' hunt by movement).

The Conductor


I am a sucker for backlighted subjects and this is no exception. I have a few macros that I need to process where the light is coming through the subject (spider and more of this lady).


Both of these shots have simple PP on the jpegs (all shot in RAW). Need to work on my RAW PP. Both were shot at f/9.5 at 1/250s using manual on camera as well as flash (1/2 power). All flash was done off camera. BTW, I love my new flash (Sigma 500 DG Super), works great on the 20D.

Hope you enjoy and comments are always welcome,
Chris

I'm hoping to increase my posting now that my system is back up and I have a little more time.

rahmonster

That 2nd shot is just lovely. The backlighting makes it so much more dramatic. I love praying mantis for some reason. Her pose is great too. Well done

Lord Vetinari

... and there's me thinking you'd found a new species of fly

Great shots- Love the second- looks like Andre Previn conducting.
Think the mantis in the first is a bit to OOF to really make out properly- (didn't notice it until I read the text).
Brian V.

Higgmeister

Thanks Monster and Brian,
I guess I missed on the first one. I think #2 is one of the best captures I have of her. Maybe I'll give her an orchestra background to round out the picture:D. These were my artsy attempts at bug macros which can be rather difficult to obtain.

One of the cool things with strong backlighting is that you can see some of their internal structures which I think are really cool/different. If you look closely, you will be able to see some blood vessels and skeletal build.

Thanks for the comments,
Chris

Netgarden

Great photos Chris. Amazing a fly without the head flying. :cry poor guy! The mantis looks almost like an alien doesn't it? The back light does lend a more whicked look him, eh? I bet it looks great full size. Good stuff One of my favorite bugs and have only been able to hatch them here in so. cal once. We sure enjoyed about 8 of them. They mate for life, so the 4 little couples had their corner of our garden.

Higgmeister wrote:

I guess I missed on the first one. I think #2 is one of the best captures I have of her. Maybe I'll give her an orchestra background to round out the picture:D. These were my artsy attempts at bug macros which can be rather difficult to obtain.

One of the cool things with strong backlighting is that you can see some of their internal structures which I think are really cool/different. If you look closely, you will be able to see some blood vessels and skeletal build.

Thanks for the comments,
Chris

Higgmeister

Netgarden wrote:

Great photos Chris. Amazing a fly without the head flying. :cry poor guy! The mantis looks almost like an alien doesn't it? The back light does lend a more whicked look him, eh? I bet it looks great full size. Good stuff One of my favorite bugs and have only been able to hatch them here in so. cal once. We sure enjoyed about 8 of them. They mate for life, so the 4 little couples had their corner of our garden.

Hi Linda,
Yeh, I felt bad for a moment when the fly lost it's head, but then I figured it wasn't feeling anything anymore (merciful). The flying took me by surprise as well. What was interesting is that the mantis didn't pay attention to the fly till there was movement, then it was a goner (lunch for the mantis).
Mantis' are fascinating creatures. The closeup in the other thread reminds me of the "Predator" movies (seems like they were modeled after the mantis).
I knew mantis' mated for life (male life), but I thought the male was consumed at the mating. Or is this just some species of mantis'.

Thanks for the comments and glad you enjoyed her,
Chris