Beetle mania

[luenny]

Hi,
Just came back from FH not long ago. That place has lots of bugs and that is one of the rare place where sometimes I wish I have my 105mm macro with me instead of my 180mm. Anyway, I would like to present to you the fab four from FH. Sorry they're not John, Paul, Ringo and George.

First up - The Carpenter (aka wood eater)

D200, 180mm, ISO250, f16.0, 1/160s, flash

Killer mandibles

D200, 180mm, ISO250, f16.0, 15s, flash

Big red

D200, 180mm, ISO250, f16.0, 5s, flash, stack 10 pictures

And Rolly (aka ball guy)

D200, 180mm, ISO250, f16.0, 20s, flash

[ranmasatome]

woot.. nice shots bro!

[cannon_14595]

Excellent Macro Shots! Yeah I saw them on flickr too by the way.

[luenny]

Thanks ranma and cannon. I didn't know there were so many wildlife at Fraser too until this trip. Good place to go if you're searching for bugs (ranma, billy, simon) or birds (trident, mervin) or snakes (cannon)

[trident]

Luenny,
My favorite is #1, details is first class

[luenny]

Thanks Richard. See you this Sat. Time to test my new toys.

[cannon_14595]

Luenny, I tried photographing a small Praying Mantis with a Canon EOS 450D with
simple close-up mode. I don't know why but it didn't work out, when the camera
could not sense the mantis it wouldn't allow me to take a picture. Does this mean
that a macro-lens would be needed to take good macro shots like yours? Thanks.

[genes]

I like 1 too! Love the background also. All these taken with the 180mm macro? Did you crop the pictures?

[luenny]

Shawn,
I don't really know your setup so I can't really tell you what's right or wrong. When you say the camera could not sense the mantis, do you mean it cannot focus? It could be you are beyond the minimum focusing distance of your lens. Anyway, usually when I shoot macro, I go manual focusing to avoid focusing error.

Genes,
Most of them were crop a bit to get the presentation right. Not all things looks nice in a 3:2 (or 2:3) picture so sometimes a little cropping of the frame is needed. The 3rd one was crop a bit because stacking produce some artifact at the edge. But if you're asking do I need to crop alot to achieve this magnification, the answer is no. These bugs are so big that you don't even need 1:1 to achieve this. Sometimes my T180 is too long for them (especially when I want to shoot a full body shot) that I have to really move back to shoot.

[cannon_14595]

Luenny, the camera belongs to deathmatch. I'm not exactly sure
about the setup or anything though... Tried buying a macro lens
yesterday from Jurong Point but the cheapest is $109! We can't
afford that so easily... Luenny, anyway if you have any old macro
lenses to sell please tell. Thanks.

[benetay]

Nicely done! Do you have full body shot? I will like to see them! Thanks for sharing.

Macro lens are usually $500 & above, so i think you are referring to some close up filters like the raynox?

Cheers!

[luenny]

Here are 3 of the full body shots. Didn't shoot the red long horn beetle because it's really big. To get full body with 180mm, I have to be very far away.

Here's the scarab beetle: Is this a dung beetle??


Stag beetle:


Long horn (up up and away!!):

[trident]

Luenny,
The full body version also very swee.

Shawn,
I guess you are using the kit lens with the 450D. To shoot macro with that setup on a low budget you can get close-up filter.

[luenny]

Hi Shawn,
Like Richard and Benetay pointed out, there are more than 1 way to do macro. Low budget and costly method. Of course, you need to understand that if the low budget way is as good as the costly method, nobody would want to buy dedicated macro lens anymore. But once you understand your equipment well enough - be it low budget or expensive one - and know how to use it really well, just do the best with what you have and enjoy.

I find a lot of people (not in this forum) don't understand their equipments well enough and they go into buy buy buy mode thinking that the latest greatest model is the best-est model etc. But a camera or a lens or a flash or a closeup filter is just a tool. It's how you use it that made it worth buying (or not).

[cannon_14595]

Thanks a lot guys. I don't exactly know how to use all these equipments and I don't
know much about them either. But if anyone has any 2nd/3rd/4th/5th hand macro
lens or telelens for sale at a low price please notify me, Thanks.

[cannon_14595]

PS Luenny, Brilliant Shot of the Long Horn Beetle taking off.

[mervin]

WOW LAU !!!!!!

These are OUTSTANDING !!!!!!

Must teach me Marco SHooting hor !

[luenny]

Sure, you teach me birding and I teach you macro.