Skipper

When photographing bugs and reptiles, you rarely get an opportunity to be creative (outside of the lab of course). You are limited to what the creature chooses to give you and so most shots are static and rather documentary. Occasionally you may catch the subject feeding or mating, that's about it, they don't do anything else!

We can make the shots more interesting by choosing more creative viewing angles or getting in close for a specific detail of the bug. Macros are always interesting because you get to see details that are missed in real life, like the hairs on a bluebottle fly or the extraordinary metallic colors of many beetles and flies. The compound eyes of many insects are fascinating as are the mouth parts.

But action shots are always going to be the winners. Examples of action shots would be: a butterfly feeding on a flower, a spider wrapping its prey, an ant carrying its food or egg, a dragonfly in flight.

Head on shots are also very interesting because it looks like the bug is interacting. This kind of shot does not work with all bugs, but a few really have the ability to stare, such as jumping spiders, preying mantis, wasps and lizards.

A few bugs can capture the viewers interest purely on their alien looks, like preying mantis, stag beetles, millipedes or the fear factor, wasps, spiders and snakes.

Multiple insect shots are always interesting too, but quite rare. Today's blip falls into this category. I was fortunate to find two identical butterflies on branches about two feet apart. I had to risk life and limb to climb through a spider infested bush and balance on the edge of a 20ft rocky ravine to line up the shot so that the background subject looked like a shadow (no PS going on here, I promise!). The third bug, an arachnid sitting in a point of light was a bonus that I did not see at the time, take enough shots and sometimes you just get lucky!

I have been doing a lot of experimenting with flare and points of light and I think this too makes the shot more interesting, you are allowed to disagree as this is just my humble opinion but what could have been a rather documentary shot has developed into one of my favorite images yet. I hope you like it.

I previously blipped this butterfly 18th April 2012.

Dave