insect – Orion's Cold Fire

June 26, 2021June 26, 2021 photog 2 Comments Photography Alaus oculatus, beetle, Eyed Click Beetle, focus stack, focus stacking, insect, macrophotography, photography, Sony 90mm f/2.8 macro lens, Sony A7 III

Continuing with my dead insect theme here is a large Eyed Click Beetle – Alaus oculatus who has joined my museum of dead bugs. No anthropomorphizing this insect with a name like Bob. I’ll call him Clicky because he used to click before he became dead. Camera Girl felt sad because he was going to meet his maker. But then I told her he was eating her vegetables. She said everybody’s got to eat but I think it put things in perspective.

25JUN2021 – Photography – Focus Stack – Bob’s Back

June 25, 2021June 25, 2021 photog 0 Comment Photography beetle, focus stacking, insect, macrophotography, photography, Sony 90mm f/2.8 macro lens, Sony A7 III

Bob’s Back! And I mean that in both ways. Bob the beetle returns and we’re going to get a look at Bob’s back or dorsal side. Last night I showed Camera Girl my photo of Bob and she confirmed that his legs were orangey. But examining Bob in the chiton she revealed to me that his back was green! Now having no visual sensors for green in my eyes this fact, as usual, slightly annoyed me but soldiering on I now give you Bob’s Back!

24JUN2021 – Photography – Focus Stack – Beetle

June 24, 2021June 24, 2021 photog 2 Comments Photography beetle, focus stacking, insect, macrophotography, photography, Sony 90mm f/2.8 macro lens, Sony A7 III

For today’s experiment in photographing dead bugs here’s a beetle with brightly colored legs.

Part of the craft is arranging the dead bug so that he doesn’t look quite so much like road kill. Also the other part of the deal is first post processing all the input files in terms of exposure and light balance. But right now I’m just adjusting the merged file which is less flexible than the raw input files. But this is as much a learning exercise for me as anything else. So I’m taking some short cuts. The main thing is the merge does create photos with enormously wider areas of sharp focus.

This beetle is less than a half inch in length. I named him Bob.