Wasp series

Dalantech · May 18, 2007

Yes that's a live wasp and yes it's guarding its nest. If my wife ever wants to declare me legally insane all she has to do is show this series to the judge...

All Canon gear: Xti in manual mode (F11, 1/200, ISO 200) + 100mm macro lens + 500D diopter (1.375x life size). MR-14EX ring flash set to a 4:1 ratio and -1/3 FEC.

All Canon gear: Xti in manual mode (F11, 1/200, ISO 200) + 37mm of extension tubes + 100mm macro lens + 500D diopter (2.2x life size). MR-14EX ring flash set to a 4:1 ratio and -1/3 FEC.

I don't recommend that anyone else try to shoot wasps when they are guarding a nest. There was only one, and I have a lot of practice getting close to aggressive subjects -and a few times I had to back off and give the wasp some space...

Skippy · May 18, 2007

Dalantech wrote:

Yes that's a live wasp and yes it's guarding its nest. If my wife ever wants to declare me legally insane all she has to do is show this series to the judge...
All Canon gear: Xti in manual mode (F11, 1/200, ISO 200) + 100mm macro lens + 500D diopter (1.375x life size). MR-14EX ring flash set to a 4:1 ratio and -1/3 FEC.
All Canon gear: Xti in manual mode (F11, 1/200, ISO 200) + 37mm of extension tubes + 100mm macro lens + 500D diopter (2.2x life size). MR-14EX ring flash set to a 4:1 ratio and -1/3 FEC.
I don't recommend that anyone else try to shoot wasps when they are guarding a nest. There was only one, and I have a lot of practice getting close to aggressive subjects -and a few times I had to back off and give the wasp some space...

The Ant series you posted had more detail than these Wasps.
Your working with an extremely shallow DOF.
I like the images, but feel you have posted better in previous posts

... Skippy
.

Dalantech · May 18, 2007

Skippy wrote:

The Ant series you posted had more detail than these Wasps.
Your working with an extremely shallow DOF.
I like the images, but feel you have posted better in previous posts
... Skippy
.

It's actually a difference in relative size Skippy. Ants are smaller, so there is going to be a larger surface area of them that's in focus than the wasps. Both series of shots were taken with almost the same gear (a little more extension on the ant shots) and at the same Fstop (F11). So there is actually less depth of field in the last ant series that I posted (since the magnification is higher). But since the ants are smaller than the wasps there seems to be more depth of field in the ants...

The other issue is with the angle of the shot: With the ants on a leaf that I've doped with sugar water I can easily move around them to get the best angles. With a wasp guarding a nest I'm lucky just to take the shot...

Lord Vetinari · May 18, 2007

Excellent series John- rather you than me

brian V.

Dalantech · May 18, 2007

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Excellent series John- rather you than me
brian V.

Thanks Brian!

GraphyFotoz · May 18, 2007

Given the fact that it's very hard to get much depth of field out of a macro lens I thought they were VERY good!!

The head detail is remarkable!!

BTW: That's one scary charater......lil closer than I'd wanna bee.

Awais Yaqub · May 18, 2007

Wow fancy bugs

great work my friend

Dalantech · May 18, 2007

GraphyFotoz wrote:

Given the fact that it's very hard to get much depth of field out of a macro lens I thought they were VERY good!!

The head detail is remarkable!!

BTW: That's one scary charater......lil closer than I'd wanna bee.

He made me nervous a couple of times... Thanks for the props! :cool

Dalantech · May 18, 2007

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Wow fancy bugs
great work my friend

Thanks Awais! :cool

tlee · May 19, 2007

I like the fact that it is guarding its' nest. Very cool to see the wasp and the nest too!

Bayer-Z28 · May 19, 2007

I was trying the same thing a while ago.. just worried about being stung...

Good series..

Dalantech · May 20, 2007

tlee wrote:

I like the fact that it is guarding its' nest. Very cool to see the wasp and the nest too!

Thanks tlee! :cool

Wasp series

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