Stinkbug
This is the same common ground beetle we saw last week. Thanks are due to Tim Eisele for pointing out that this is probably genus Eleodes, which is in the darkling family, Family Tenebrionidae. I really like this photo because it’s got “the human factor” in it.
I find two things about this photo particularly interesting.
First, taking the photo. Several people have written to ask how I take bug photos. A small part of it is having an eye for composition, but don’t mistake this for talent: this is a skill that can be learned. The biggest part is knowing my equipment. I know about how close I can get before the autofocus will stop working, and how far away I can be and still get a composition that shows the insect clearly. But sometimes it’s just dumb luck, which is the case with this photo. The bug was moving too fast for the autofocus to follow, and the laps it was making around my hand made it hard for me to even look through the viewfinder. I knew at that point that it was a matter of luck, so I decided to make it a numbers game and take lots of shots. I set the focus distance manually and then just followed the beetle around my hand, hovering the camera about where I thought the focus distance was.
The second thing is about the bug itself. If you try to pick up a stinkbug by pinching its sides, you will discover that it is amazingly strong. It lifts its legs up and back and actually shrugs itself out of your grasp. I have yet to be able to pick up one of these bugs and keep hold of it in this fashion. I fear that gripping it any harder than I already do will result in crushing the bug.
Anyway, I got really lucky with the numbers game, so today is a twofer. Enjoy!
Slowly getting the site back onto an even keel. It's nice to get back into the old posting rhythm.
tceisele said,
April 23, 2008 @ 9:45 am
According to the manual, my Canon A95 has a “burst mode” where it will keep taking pictures at about 1.5 second intervals for as long as the shutter button is depressed (and faster if the pictures are taken at lower resolution). While this sounds like it would help a lot when tracking a scurrying bug and trying for a good chance shot, I haven’t actually gotten the burst mode to *work*. I dunno, maybe I’m reading the manual wrong, and it doesn’t actually mean what I think it means, or maybe my camera is partly busted - I did get it cheap because it was a refurb job, after all. But anyway. Does your camera have a function like that, and can you get it to work? And if so, does it help?
JFargo said,
April 23, 2008 @ 9:52 am
I have a burst mode, and it works, but the focus always comes out extremely blurry, so I don’t know that it’s worth it. I mean, in extremely bright and sunny conditions it’s okay, but you really need BRIGHT light for it to work well at all.
Scott said,
April 23, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
I like the second one. Bug in profile always strike me as cooler.
Thanks to our little email exchanges I’v been playing with manual focus a but more. It doesn’t always work well so I too have to play the numbers, but it usually works better than autofocus for close work.
Scott said,
April 23, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
And in other news, I can’t type.
SamWibatt said,
May 3, 2008 @ 8:39 am
Cool! You know I’m a big fan of the bug-on-hand shots.