Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
[the following is a repost from the Scienceblogs network] As an insect guy, the first question I ask about any camera is: Can I shoot bugs with it? To my great disappointment, the answer for most cell phones is no. Cell phone cameras are normally fixed to focus at distances useful for party pictures and [...]
As winter doesn’t have much insect activity, it’s the season I use to work on my equipment. Yesterday I tried out a new arrangement to diffuse the heads on my mt-24ex twin flash when the heads are mounted on long, moveable arms. Here’s a time-lapse video showing the construction, plus a short clip of the [...]
Earlier I listed my pick of the best insect photos of the year taken by other photographers. Now it’s my turn. In 2009, I snapped 8000 exposures to produce 805 processed, saleable images of live insects. Below are my favorites.
In 2009 the world’s macrophotographers- both amateur and professional- continued to capture breathtaking images of the arthropod microscape. I’ve been bookmarking insect photos from around the web that catch my eye, and after spending some time this week reviewing the candidates I’ve selected nine favorites. Wow. These are the images from fellow photographers that most [...]
This weekend we took a trip with some entomology students to the Vermillion River Observatory. The astronomical function of the observatory has long been abandoned, but the site remains as a lovely nature reserve and one of the closest patches of decent forest habitat to where we live in Champaign-Urbana. The acrobat ant Crematogaster lineolata [...]
Paratrechina longicornis Florida Their abdomens swollen with sugar water, two black crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis) share a moment. This species has traveled around the globe with human commerce and is now common in warmers regions worldwide. photo details: Canon mp-e 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D ISO 100, f/13, 1/200 sec, indirect [...]
I’ve created a set of desktop wallpapers to fit the newer 1680 x 1050 widescreen monitors. To put any of the following on your desktop, click on the image. Once the large version loads to your browser, right-click and select “Set as desktop background.”
Here’s a sharper version:
Dalantech over at the No Cropping Zone writes: From time to time I see people argue about the backgrounds in macro images, and about how dark backgrounds don’t look natural –whatever the heck that means. Seriously what’s natural about macro photography? Do you see all the detail in a bee’s compound eye or the tiny [...]
Why has a cantankerous retro lens become the glass of choice for macro?
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net; or follow @Myrmecos on Twitter.
