Portrait session with a sprintail

Lord Vetinari

This springtail wanted it's portrait taken so I happily obliged
I thought pooing on the set was a bit much though.
But just under 2.0mm body length

Brian V.

Vivax

WOW she sure is a stunner! brilliant coat and a nice bit of lippy.
Shame about the facial hair and the po problem though

Brilliant Shots! love the "sunny day" feel with the backgound and lighting.

garyt

Great shots Brian. Too bad about the pooh. Really like the BG in these. Makes the springtail stand out nicely. Assume this is your plastic creature again?

Aussieroo

what was it standing on Brian?

It might be just me but I find the bright light spots in the back ground a little distracting, might be better cloned out do you think? This really is in the macro world, the size of the little fella. Amazing how quick the DOF drops off at this level. I like the angle of the first shot the best and the "Poo" well it adds to the reality of the situation. At least we know it is alive and not been sprayed with hair spray!!

PhilH

Little else to be said other than WOW!!!

Vycor

Did you glue him to the set??? He looks like hes stuck

Lord Vetinari

Thanks for the comments everyone - much appreciated

GaryT- yes the blue plastic lizard strikes again

Aussieroo - It's standing on the shoulder of an aged plastic water barrel. I'm pretty certain they hide under the lid when it's dry but come out when there is a nice dew all over the surface of the barrel to feed. Have to admit I was not too bothered about the bright spots in the BG - It makes a change from the dull gey/black BG I normally get from the lid of the water barrel. The DOF effect is a bit of a cheat. I hand focus stacked from these using around 5 shots each but only stacked the bug not the substrate or BG. Guess I've invented differential DOF photography

Vycor no not glued - it's standing in a film of dew - as long as you are not stupid with them, these bugs take very little notice of you

Brian V.

Skippy

Lord Vetinari wrote:

This springtail wanted it's portrait taken so I happily obliged
I thought pooing on the set was a bit much though.
But just under 2.0mm body length

Brian V.

So they poo on command then gloat about it ???
What a cheek hehehe, but I still think they're the darn cutest little bugs.

Do they bite? this one looks a bit mean.
Geez I wish I could find a couple of these to photograph.

Thanks for sharing Brian, amazing detail as you always do
.... Skippy
.

Lord Vetinari

Skippy wrote:

So they poo on command then gloat about it ???
What a cheek hehehe, but I still think they're the darn cutest little bugs.

Do they bite? this one looks a bit mean.
Geez I wish I could find a couple of these to photograph.

Thanks for sharing Brian, amazing detail as you always do
.... Skippy
.

Thanks Skippy

No they don't bite - you can't actually see the mouth in these shots, it's on the underside of the head. It's the rings of "tasting" hairs it has around the mouth you can see- looks like a set of gnashers
Brian V.

greenplasticdave

Nice!

I remember seeing these on the David Attenborough show "Life in the undergrowth" (or was it "Secret life of bugs"?) They shoot into the air when disturbed, hence the name I guess

Great deta in this shot

-Dave-

Lord Vetinari

greenplasticdave wrote:

Nice!

I remember seeing these on the David Attenborough show "Life in the undergrowth" (or was it "Secret life of bugs"?) They shoot into the air when disturbed, hence the name I guess

Great deta in this shot

-Dave-

Thanks Dave
Think you are right re the DA show
Brian V.

Awais Yaqub

Splendid !

puzzledpaul

Super shots, Brian and I like the bg col too.

Fav would prob be the 3rd ... for the 'ET-ish' ... 'I've just landed, take me to your leader' stance ... with the mother ship still throbbing away in the bg

Not always easy to get right down to eye level either, 'cos of the lens dia ...

pp

Lord Vetinari

Thanks for the kind comments Awais and PP

" Not always easy to get right down to eye level either, 'cos of the lens dia ..."
Thats one of the reasons these springtails are quite conveniant - they like living on one of my water barrels and feed around the shoulder of it, so I can use the curve of the shoulder to get low level shots of them
Brian V.