This is one of my favourite bug shots, a lovely young adult cricket1 newly emerged in my garden. They seem to like my little patch of England and every year there seem to be more and more of them, just adorable.
This is not a macro shot as you might first think, but it is staged and uses only a standard lens, natural light, a tripod and a remote shutter release. Then, of course, I had to catch the fellow, which was done with care and using an insect collection pot.
For the scene, I made good use of the natural light coming from the window to the front right. I then placed a piece of black perspex (60 x 60 cm) under a fern frond from my garden, in a clamp holder I have made just for this kind of shot (the slightly noticeable reflection beneath the frond gives a deeper feel of perspective, as in the wild).
I did a test shot on the area where I wanted to capture Little Jimmy, checked the camera settings to make sure all was okay, and then slowly introduced my model into the scene. He moved around a little, but very slowly and it was just a matter of taking the shot, at the right moment.
Unfortunately, the camera I used is not registered in the EXIF2 and my brain being as it is, I can only think it was either the Sony NEX-6 or the Olympus EM1 Mk2, which I was using at the time. The original image was created on the 6th of September 2013, and I am unable to give the lens used or the specific settings, so sorry.
I do remember I was pretty chuffed3 at the time, which greatly encouraged me to try more of this type of DIY4 photography.
Peace be with you.
- Great green bush-cricket (Tettigonia viridissima), that somewhat resembles grasshoppers but has over 20 segments in their antennae and different ovipositors. Further information can be found here Wikipedia ↩︎
- Further information relating to EXIF Data can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif ↩︎
- An English term to describe excitement, happiness etc. ↩︎
- Acronym for “Do It Yourself” ↩︎
