Category: photography

Insect Photography Workshop

At my U3A photography group on Wednesday we had an insect photography workshop run by Marlies Chell who, apparently, runs a number of these sessions for camera clubs. This was an interesting and informative afternoon.

I wanted to try two types of photography: Extreme macro and Ultra Violet fluorescence. The extreme macro didn’t work due to the fact that the hall had a sprung wooden floor that bounced a lot when people walked past causing image movement. The ultra violet partially worked because the hall was quite bright – I would have preferred to try this in a darker environment. Anyway, here are some of the results:

Malayan jungle nymph head shot
Malayan jungle nymph crop showing just the eye
Guadeloupe stick insect head and eye
Guadeloupe stick insect fluorescence under UV on the tail giving 2 ‘eyes’
Giant spiny stick insect showing fluorescence under UV on the body and leg joints
Giant spiny stick insect on a wooden stump

I don’t know if this next one was mis-labelled but it was only about 3 cm long – some giant!

Giant rainforest mantis

And finally a view showing a typical set-up:

A typical setup with camera, insect (on a stick!), background and lighting

Now I know what to expect, I would like to have another opportunity to try this again.