http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/ Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:16:16 -0800 Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:16:16 -0800 http://www.flickr.com/ http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8122/buddyicons/43147325@N08.jpg?1369129736#43147325@N08 http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/8519064377/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/8519064377/" title="Sunset Moth Scales"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8366/8519064377_609b9a920f_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Sunset Moth Scales" /></a></p> <p>The scales of the fabulous sunset moth, this time shot at 20:1 using a JML 20x/.30 objective with Raynox 150 supplementary as infinite (@210mm) tube lens and a quite potty 14cm between JML and Raynox. I also tried:<br /> <br /> - JML just as finite, no tube<br /> - JML as infinite @2cm separated<br /> - JML as infinite @5cm separated<br /> - JML as infinite @10cm separated<br /> - Zerene dMap method 30/15<br /> - dMap 20/10<br /> - dMap 10/5<br /> <br /> <br /> ... but of all of those, eventhough it shouldn't, I got the least yukky result with those distances and this method. Which all kind of surprised me but there you go. First joy I've had with 20x and I guess I'm quite lucky that the wing was very clean and there was little yuck on the sensor. <br /> <br /> Stack of 111 shots, Pmax method. The dmaps were subtler but actually the darks behind the scales was so subtle that they stopped showing any edges, which struck me as inaccurate, so I went with the Pmax version in the end. Maybe that's why it's a bit more garish than I'd like or maybe that garishness is because it was underexposed a bit as well (I had to otherwise the purples and pinks just went completely insane) but beyond that there's no saturation adjustment other than basic levels. The colours on these things are just insane - <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/8505186866/">on the previous one I desaturated them, you can tell the difference</a>. Different lens though, the Nikon has better colour correction I think. 3 flashes round poly chip cone diffuser, 3μm steps. Processed using noiseNinja, Photoshop 4 and Topaz Detail 2.<br /> <br /> <b>Explore #2 2/3/2013 - Thank you!</b></p> Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:16:16 -0800 2013-03-01T22:20:34-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/8519064377 51.190746 -0.411442 51.190746 -0.411442 23704 Sunset Moth Scales <p>The scales of the fabulous sunset moth, this time shot at 20:1 using a JML 20x/.30 objective with Raynox 150 supplementary as infinite (@210mm) tube lens and a quite potty 14cm between JML and Raynox. I also tried:<br /> <br /> - JML just as finite, no tube<br /> - JML as infinite @2cm separated<br /> - JML as infinite @5cm separated<br /> - JML as infinite @10cm separated<br /> - Zerene dMap method 30/15<br /> - dMap 20/10<br /> - dMap 10/5<br /> <br /> <br /> ... but of all of those, eventhough it shouldn't, I got the least yukky result with those distances and this method. Which all kind of surprised me but there you go. First joy I've had with 20x and I guess I'm quite lucky that the wing was very clean and there was little yuck on the sensor. <br /> <br /> Stack of 111 shots, Pmax method. The dmaps were subtler but actually the darks behind the scales was so subtle that they stopped showing any edges, which struck me as inaccurate, so I went with the Pmax version in the end. Maybe that's why it's a bit more garish than I'd like or maybe that garishness is because it was underexposed a bit as well (I had to otherwise the purples and pinks just went completely insane) but beyond that there's no saturation adjustment other than basic levels. The colours on these things are just insane - <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/8505186866/">on the previous one I desaturated them, you can tell the difference</a>. Different lens though, the Nikon has better colour correction I think. 3 flashes round poly chip cone diffuser, 3μm steps. Processed using noiseNinja, Photoshop 4 and Topaz Detail 2.<br /> <br /> <b>Explore #2 2/3/2013 - Thank you!</b></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel sunset macro moth lepidoptera scales micro raynox zerenestacker jml20x http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/8132911589/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/8132911589/" title="Mint Beetle"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8185/8132911589_a6c4753340_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Mint Beetle" /></a></p> <p>A beautiful shiny green mint beetle, one of the British jewels. Chrysolina menthastri. Photo didn't quite go as planned as the light from the smallHD field monitor posterised a bit round the back left of the specimen which is a shame! I Still, there's a bit of impact there so I posted it. I purposely kept the depth of field shallow to make sure that the front whiskers were set against an oof background (to give it a 3d feel) but the flipside of this is that the left antennae is out of focus towards the left. One of those compromises you have to make. One note of interest, I have to say that this photo really shows the value of a stereo microscope. I've always had a lot of problems preparing for photographs but it's easy under a scope - ditto with cleaning. I used a small paintbrush and I had virtually no detritus removal to do in post. Phew =)<br /> <br /> Technical: BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync 2s exposures; 64 photos with no sub stacks, Zerene Stacker Dmap and Pmax combined, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 55µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. Componon 28 f/4 reversed on slightly extended bellows so about 2:1 ish; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2 &amp;10 o'clock, @1/32 perpendicular @6 o'clock.<br /> <br /> On another note I was disappointed to discover that there seems to be a bug with a Metz-58II/Pentax K-5 combination regarding rear curtain sync. It doesn't work as intended or described by Metz - setting a 2s exposure on manual and firing the Metz 58 on rear sync on 1/32 gets you a totally dark screen. On the K-7 it works perfectly but Metz have not programmed the 58 correctly for the K5, even on latest Metz firmware V3. This is so frustrating as a consumer because there's just nothing you can do about it. Sigh, another technology letdown.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157623492127788/">More extreme macro shots here</a></p> Sun, 28 Oct 2012 16:22:40 -0700 2012-10-28T19:59:49-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/8132911589 51.1906 -0.411558 51.1906 -0.411558 23704 Mint Beetle <p>A beautiful shiny green mint beetle, one of the British jewels. Chrysolina menthastri. Photo didn't quite go as planned as the light from the smallHD field monitor posterised a bit round the back left of the specimen which is a shame! I Still, there's a bit of impact there so I posted it. I purposely kept the depth of field shallow to make sure that the front whiskers were set against an oof background (to give it a 3d feel) but the flipside of this is that the left antennae is out of focus towards the left. One of those compromises you have to make. One note of interest, I have to say that this photo really shows the value of a stereo microscope. I've always had a lot of problems preparing for photographs but it's easy under a scope - ditto with cleaning. I used a small paintbrush and I had virtually no detritus removal to do in post. Phew =)<br /> <br /> Technical: BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync 2s exposures; 64 photos with no sub stacks, Zerene Stacker Dmap and Pmax combined, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 55µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. Componon 28 f/4 reversed on slightly extended bellows so about 2:1 ish; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2 &amp;10 o'clock, @1/32 perpendicular @6 o'clock.<br /> <br /> On another note I was disappointed to discover that there seems to be a bug with a Metz-58II/Pentax K-5 combination regarding rear curtain sync. It doesn't work as intended or described by Metz - setting a 2s exposure on manual and firing the Metz 58 on rear sync on 1/32 gets you a totally dark screen. On the K-7 it works perfectly but Metz have not programmed the 58 correctly for the K5, even on latest Metz firmware V3. This is so frustrating as a consumer because there's just nothing you can do about it. Sigh, another technology letdown.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157623492127788/">More extreme macro shots here</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel chrysolinamenthastri mintbeetle metz58iirearcurtainsync http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/8109218766/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/8109218766/" title="Extreme Hoverfly"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8052/8109218766_2b1b5de41b_m.jpg" width="159" height="240" alt="Extreme Hoverfly" /></a></p> <p>Extreme macro of a lovely little hoverfly. Now that my equipment has come back from repairs, I'm able to stack again which is rather pleasing =).<br /> <br /> This is interesting because whilst my stuff was away, I made myself a new gadget that should let me be a bit more varied. Before, the stage that I had was a cheap eBay &quot;lab lifter&quot;, and the mounting stage was a Watkins &amp; Doncaster &quot;Insect Examination Stage&quot;. Between these it was very difficult to point insects at interesting directions into the camera, so it means I was always pretty limited in terms of the views and angles I could use. <br /> <br /> But, whilst my stuff was away, I made two things: a special lifter and a rotation stage thing. Between these it means that I can now make shots from more interesting angles, as it lets me do such things as 3/4 views like this (more below). This is a pleasure because whilst the headon shot is always good for impact, surely not every shot should be a headon shot =).<br /> <br /> Technical: BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync 2s exposures; 96 photos with no sub stacks, Zerene Stacker Dmap and Pmax combined, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 75µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized 50% to reduce noise. Componon 28 f/4 reversed on slightly extended bellows so about 2:1 ish; 3 flashes @1/16 perpendicular @2 &amp;10 o'clock, @1/32 perpendicular @6 o'clock.</p> Sun, 21 Oct 2012 09:45:21 -0700 2012-10-21T09:46:56-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/8109218766 51.190613 -0.411525 51.190613 -0.411525 23704 Extreme Hoverfly <p>Extreme macro of a lovely little hoverfly. Now that my equipment has come back from repairs, I'm able to stack again which is rather pleasing =).<br /> <br /> This is interesting because whilst my stuff was away, I made myself a new gadget that should let me be a bit more varied. Before, the stage that I had was a cheap eBay &quot;lab lifter&quot;, and the mounting stage was a Watkins &amp; Doncaster &quot;Insect Examination Stage&quot;. Between these it was very difficult to point insects at interesting directions into the camera, so it means I was always pretty limited in terms of the views and angles I could use. <br /> <br /> But, whilst my stuff was away, I made two things: a special lifter and a rotation stage thing. Between these it means that I can now make shots from more interesting angles, as it lets me do such things as 3/4 views like this (more below). This is a pleasure because whilst the headon shot is always good for impact, surely not every shot should be a headon shot =).<br /> <br /> Technical: BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync 2s exposures; 96 photos with no sub stacks, Zerene Stacker Dmap and Pmax combined, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 75µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized 50% to reduce noise. Componon 28 f/4 reversed on slightly extended bellows so about 2:1 ish; 3 flashes @1/16 perpendicular @2 &amp;10 o'clock, @1/32 perpendicular @6 o'clock.</p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel hoverfly extrememacro componon zerenestacker http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7980071930/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7980071930/" title="Speckled bush cricket"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8316/7980071930_5722dcd634_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Speckled bush cricket" /></a></p> <p>A Speckled Bush cricket after dark doing what bush crickets do. Being a working guy with a regular job during the week, it means you have to find creative ways of increasing your macro photography time. During the summer it's not so much of a problem because obviously it's still light after all the chores like cooking, putting children to bed &amp; washing up have been done, but as autumn approaches it starts to get dark earlier. So one of the things I do is go out in the dark and look on hedgerows, leaves and flowers for stuff to take macro photos of. It's a bit harder than daytime macro I think because focusing is a tad trickier, but certainly doable if like me you've put together a rig for the purpose. Which I have - it has a torch attached to the camera to be able to (almost) see what you're doing.<br /> <br /> Anyhow I got lucky because there was this cricket pottering about on the top of a sycamore 'bush' (should be a tree but it's in the hedge so it got lopped). And, with this photo's title of eek, you'd be forgiven for supposing that the cricket is looking straight at the camera thinking 'EEK'. Yet it's probably not... but it gives the appearance of doing so only because of the structure of its eyes. Like moths and crane flies their eyes basically have lots of tubes on the outer surface of the sphere leading down to a business end. So if you look at it straight on you can see down to the bottom (dark in this case) but where the angle doesn't let you see all the way down to the bottom you're just seeing the sides of the 'tubes'. Which means it makes it look as if its looking at you from any angle. Even when it's not. Good for photos =)<br /> <br /> On the other hand there's also a downside with trying to do a photo of a cricket, they have freaky long antenna. Bottom line it means there's always going to be some body part going out of focus and I don't know about you but that makes it a tricky composition decision for me.<br /> <br /> A 'win' from this photo was a first try of (yet another) diffuser tweak. Considering these can be somewhat shiny subjects I think the diffuser handled it rather well. The green one below had the potential for a lot of reflections and specularity but I think this handled it well. Fyi, I changed what I'm using, to two sheets of vellum paper. This is like double thickness tracing paper. Seems to let a lot of light through but still be diffused, better than tracing paper which I find still gives too much of a hotspot. I also cut 10cm off the diffuser end, V1 of this V shaped version was a little too long. Kept getting in the way. V shaped, with the thin end at the flash and the wide end out in front seems to be working for me -- if you look carefully you'll see that there's some information underneath the cricket which of course comes about because of the wide V at the front, the wide edge means light can get under. Still not quite perfect but pretty nice if you're a bit of a diffuser anorak like me.<br /> <br /> This is part of my little ghetto frankenlens <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/">mp-e 64 project</a>. For anyone following it, I hope you don't mind but I really don't want to go into any details as I'm still tinkering and I'd rather put up something that's vaguely decent and usable later than something half baked sooner. I seem to still be able to make marginal improvements to the output, once I've completely exhausted my ideas of course I'll go do a writeup. I hope I'm not getting people's hopes up too much though - it's just a bit of a bodge job which seems to work ok for me. It's not the most forgiving of magnification ranges and it's pretty tricky to work with, hence progress is slow. <br /> <br /> The diffuser for the mp-e 64 construct is actually the biggest deal at the moment. From what I gather, one of the biggest advantages that mp-e 65 with MT-24EX Twin Lite gives the photographer is that you can go from 1:1 to 5:1 without having to fiddle with settings or adjust flash position and strength... which together of course gives you speed of operation. But, on my thing, 1:2 is about 25cm away and 3:1 is about 10 cm away. So you're trying to find a single right shape and material diffuser to handle the differing amount of light thrown onto subjects. Harder than you might think because at the close end there's a load more light thrown on than the long end. I think I have some ideas but at the end of the day it's trial and error... which takes time.<br /> <br /> Biology: this is a Speckled Bush-cricket, Lectophyes punctatissima which is a common species in England. Turns out that seeing it after dark was no accident - that's what they do. Although they're not wingless their wings are a bit small and rubbish so they're flightless. Consequently they take to pootling about on bushes etc just after dark or twilight to go do their thing and hide in bushes during the day to avoid being eaten. The slightly askance pose is typical behaviour when startled. So I'd have to guess that he probably wasn't overly impressed with me taking photos. But a very mellow fellow, he didn't make much effort to jump away.<br /> <br /> Technical: single shot with diffused flash on top@1/16. Sharpened in post using MCP sharpening action, no other pp.<br /> <br /> Large: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8316/7980071930_20b910a959_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8316/7980071930_20b910a959_o.jpg</a></p> Wed, 12 Sep 2012 10:37:56 -0700 2012-09-11T22:30:42-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7980071930 51.190492 -0.411504 51.190492 -0.411504 23704 Speckled bush cricket <p>A Speckled Bush cricket after dark doing what bush crickets do. Being a working guy with a regular job during the week, it means you have to find creative ways of increasing your macro photography time. During the summer it's not so much of a problem because obviously it's still light after all the chores like cooking, putting children to bed &amp; washing up have been done, but as autumn approaches it starts to get dark earlier. So one of the things I do is go out in the dark and look on hedgerows, leaves and flowers for stuff to take macro photos of. It's a bit harder than daytime macro I think because focusing is a tad trickier, but certainly doable if like me you've put together a rig for the purpose. Which I have - it has a torch attached to the camera to be able to (almost) see what you're doing.<br /> <br /> Anyhow I got lucky because there was this cricket pottering about on the top of a sycamore 'bush' (should be a tree but it's in the hedge so it got lopped). And, with this photo's title of eek, you'd be forgiven for supposing that the cricket is looking straight at the camera thinking 'EEK'. Yet it's probably not... but it gives the appearance of doing so only because of the structure of its eyes. Like moths and crane flies their eyes basically have lots of tubes on the outer surface of the sphere leading down to a business end. So if you look at it straight on you can see down to the bottom (dark in this case) but where the angle doesn't let you see all the way down to the bottom you're just seeing the sides of the 'tubes'. Which means it makes it look as if its looking at you from any angle. Even when it's not. Good for photos =)<br /> <br /> On the other hand there's also a downside with trying to do a photo of a cricket, they have freaky long antenna. Bottom line it means there's always going to be some body part going out of focus and I don't know about you but that makes it a tricky composition decision for me.<br /> <br /> A 'win' from this photo was a first try of (yet another) diffuser tweak. Considering these can be somewhat shiny subjects I think the diffuser handled it rather well. The green one below had the potential for a lot of reflections and specularity but I think this handled it well. Fyi, I changed what I'm using, to two sheets of vellum paper. This is like double thickness tracing paper. Seems to let a lot of light through but still be diffused, better than tracing paper which I find still gives too much of a hotspot. I also cut 10cm off the diffuser end, V1 of this V shaped version was a little too long. Kept getting in the way. V shaped, with the thin end at the flash and the wide end out in front seems to be working for me -- if you look carefully you'll see that there's some information underneath the cricket which of course comes about because of the wide V at the front, the wide edge means light can get under. Still not quite perfect but pretty nice if you're a bit of a diffuser anorak like me.<br /> <br /> This is part of my little ghetto frankenlens <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/">mp-e 64 project</a>. For anyone following it, I hope you don't mind but I really don't want to go into any details as I'm still tinkering and I'd rather put up something that's vaguely decent and usable later than something half baked sooner. I seem to still be able to make marginal improvements to the output, once I've completely exhausted my ideas of course I'll go do a writeup. I hope I'm not getting people's hopes up too much though - it's just a bit of a bodge job which seems to work ok for me. It's not the most forgiving of magnification ranges and it's pretty tricky to work with, hence progress is slow. <br /> <br /> The diffuser for the mp-e 64 construct is actually the biggest deal at the moment. From what I gather, one of the biggest advantages that mp-e 65 with MT-24EX Twin Lite gives the photographer is that you can go from 1:1 to 5:1 without having to fiddle with settings or adjust flash position and strength... which together of course gives you speed of operation. But, on my thing, 1:2 is about 25cm away and 3:1 is about 10 cm away. So you're trying to find a single right shape and material diffuser to handle the differing amount of light thrown onto subjects. Harder than you might think because at the close end there's a load more light thrown on than the long end. I think I have some ideas but at the end of the day it's trial and error... which takes time.<br /> <br /> Biology: this is a Speckled Bush-cricket, Lectophyes punctatissima which is a common species in England. Turns out that seeing it after dark was no accident - that's what they do. Although they're not wingless their wings are a bit small and rubbish so they're flightless. Consequently they take to pootling about on bushes etc just after dark or twilight to go do their thing and hide in bushes during the day to avoid being eaten. The slightly askance pose is typical behaviour when startled. So I'd have to guess that he probably wasn't overly impressed with me taking photos. But a very mellow fellow, he didn't make much effort to jump away.<br /> <br /> Technical: single shot with diffused flash on top@1/16. Sharpened in post using MCP sharpening action, no other pp.<br /> <br /> Large: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8316/7980071930_20b910a959_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8316/7980071930_20b910a959_o.jpg</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel extrememacro speckledbushcricket mpe64 lectophyespunctatissima http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7951607586/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7951607586/" title="Independence Day Alien"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8309/7951607586_03b2fb98c5_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Independence Day Alien" /></a></p> <p>The shape of the head made me think of the nasties in Independence day, especially with the large flat edge at the top =) Not that this was my intention, just a happy accident and well, these things can look pretty freaky closeup!<br /> <br /> In fact it's Nicrophorus vespillo, a burying beetle (also known as sexton beetle), the undertakers of the beetle world. They are attracted to the corpses of small mammals and birds by sulphur chemicals given off during decay. Once a pair of beetles have taken possession of a body - sometimes fighting off other pairs to do so - they will bury it, by digging away at the soil underneath. They then use the buried body as both home and food for their larvae.<br /> <br /> Anyhow, this is a little stack (only 55 shots combined) that I shot and literally put together in under an hour start to finish which really is a record for me, I'm getting faster. On the other hand I'm also perfectly aware that there are areas for improvement =). 120µm was a bit of a muppet choice for step size, it should have been more like 50µm. But I wanted to do this as a demonstration of principle rather than a supergreat slabbed stack, but my weekend is horribly full so kind of rushed it. ooops.<br /> <br /> But, what's the interesting bit, is that this isn't shot using the usual bought-for-purpose reversed enlarger lenses, but part of my bodge job homemade <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/">mp-e 64 project</a>, using this thing at its <u>maximum magnification</u>. Anyone following it, I'm sure you're aware that &quot;at maximum magnification&quot; was the end I had real trouble with but, I've found a setting that I think can work. Which makes me happy =)<br /> <br /> Technical: BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync 2s exposures; 55 photos just pMax, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 120µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. Mp-e 64 at about 3:1; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2,6 &amp;10 o clock. First stack using my shiny new Pentax K5, and I must say what a lovely thing it is too.<br /> <br /> May I take this opportunity to make an observation. The camera that I just bought and this is taken with, the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/pentax/k-5/">Pentax K5</a>, is nearing its end of sale and with a shiny new model coming up from Pentax the price is really competetive right now. If you're looking for a new cam, you could really do a lot worse, especially at its price of $600 or so. Just a thought.<br /> <br /> <b>Nice, thank you!</b> #2 Explore, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2012/09/07/">7 September 2012</a></p> Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:15:36 -0700 2012-09-07T21:32:08-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7951607586 51.190573 -0.411611 51.190573 -0.411611 23704 Independence Day Alien <p>The shape of the head made me think of the nasties in Independence day, especially with the large flat edge at the top =) Not that this was my intention, just a happy accident and well, these things can look pretty freaky closeup!<br /> <br /> In fact it's Nicrophorus vespillo, a burying beetle (also known as sexton beetle), the undertakers of the beetle world. They are attracted to the corpses of small mammals and birds by sulphur chemicals given off during decay. Once a pair of beetles have taken possession of a body - sometimes fighting off other pairs to do so - they will bury it, by digging away at the soil underneath. They then use the buried body as both home and food for their larvae.<br /> <br /> Anyhow, this is a little stack (only 55 shots combined) that I shot and literally put together in under an hour start to finish which really is a record for me, I'm getting faster. On the other hand I'm also perfectly aware that there are areas for improvement =). 120µm was a bit of a muppet choice for step size, it should have been more like 50µm. But I wanted to do this as a demonstration of principle rather than a supergreat slabbed stack, but my weekend is horribly full so kind of rushed it. ooops.<br /> <br /> But, what's the interesting bit, is that this isn't shot using the usual bought-for-purpose reversed enlarger lenses, but part of my bodge job homemade <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/">mp-e 64 project</a>, using this thing at its <u>maximum magnification</u>. Anyone following it, I'm sure you're aware that &quot;at maximum magnification&quot; was the end I had real trouble with but, I've found a setting that I think can work. Which makes me happy =)<br /> <br /> Technical: BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync 2s exposures; 55 photos just pMax, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 120µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. Mp-e 64 at about 3:1; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2,6 &amp;10 o clock. First stack using my shiny new Pentax K5, and I must say what a lovely thing it is too.<br /> <br /> May I take this opportunity to make an observation. The camera that I just bought and this is taken with, the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/pentax/k-5/">Pentax K5</a>, is nearing its end of sale and with a shiny new model coming up from Pentax the price is really competetive right now. If you're looking for a new cam, you could really do a lot worse, especially at its price of $600 or so. Just a thought.<br /> <br /> <b>Nice, thank you!</b> #2 Explore, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2012/09/07/">7 September 2012</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel alien extrememacro sextonbeetle buryingbeetle nicrophorusvespillo zerenestacker http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7931544198/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7931544198/" title="Jumping Spider"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8446/7931544198_4948f39ffe_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Jumping Spider" /></a></p> <p>Obviously the focus is a bit off on the eye but I couldn't resist as it's such a crowd pleaser in ultra macro photography. Fun to do but these little guys sure like to make life difficult for photographers! I have to have another go at this I think. <br /> <br /> Doing some research on these wolf spiders, it turns out that there are 36 salticidae in the UK which might appear quite a lot but many of them are restricted to specific areas. On top of that, their colouration is generally pretty drab, unlike the spectacular ones found in the southern US. Not that I'm especially knowledgable about jumping spiders, but by the looks of things this may be Heliophanus flavipes<br /> <br /> Lit with flash from above, part of my ongoing <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/with/7924882940/">mp-e 64</a> project. This is a project to make an ultramacro zoom lens which works like the legendary Canon mp-e 65, but can be used on any mount, for under 100US. Stay tuned if that's your cup of tea!<br /> <br /> <b>Nice, thank you!</b> #5 Explore, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2012/09/04/">4 September 2012</a></p> Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:43:04 -0700 2012-09-03T10:09:25-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7931544198 51.190492 -0.411483 51.190492 -0.411483 23704 Jumping Spider <p>Obviously the focus is a bit off on the eye but I couldn't resist as it's such a crowd pleaser in ultra macro photography. Fun to do but these little guys sure like to make life difficult for photographers! I have to have another go at this I think. <br /> <br /> Doing some research on these wolf spiders, it turns out that there are 36 salticidae in the UK which might appear quite a lot but many of them are restricted to specific areas. On top of that, their colouration is generally pretty drab, unlike the spectacular ones found in the southern US. Not that I'm especially knowledgable about jumping spiders, but by the looks of things this may be Heliophanus flavipes<br /> <br /> Lit with flash from above, part of my ongoing <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/with/7924882940/">mp-e 64</a> project. This is a project to make an ultramacro zoom lens which works like the legendary Canon mp-e 65, but can be used on any mount, for under 100US. Stay tuned if that's your cup of tea!<br /> <br /> <b>Nice, thank you!</b> #5 Explore, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2012/09/04/">4 September 2012</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel spider jumpingspider wolfspider extrememacro salticidae heliophanusflavipes mpe64 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7924882940/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7924882940/" title="Angle shades moth"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8454/7924882940_edf5f65c0e_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Angle shades moth" /></a></p> <p>Angle shades is a very common moth at this time of year (and most of spring/summer really), readily identified by its leaf like shape (which this does not show, boo!).<br /> <br /> Shot with my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/">MP-E-64 effort</a>, which is starting to show its limitations as I'm finding it hard work getting images I actually like out of it at the 3:1 end. But then I'm quite fussy so maybe it's just me being me, I'll keep plodding on.<br /> <br /> Of interest, this was actually shot at night in the dark - the moth was resting on a eucryphia x nymansensis leaf which is this 10m tree we planted in the garden when we bought the house 15 years ago. It is awesome at attracting insects during August/September, better than all the usual suspects. Seriously. Not sure what it's doing lolling its tongue out like this.<br /> <br /> I have quite a nifty DIY setup for doing night macro which I must do a post about one of these days. It involves a mini maglite focused where the lens focuses with flash on top, all fastened together with goPro bits. <br /> <br /> <b>Nice, thank you!</b> #5 Explore, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2012/09/03/">3 September 2012</a></p> Mon, 03 Sep 2012 14:49:32 -0700 2012-09-02T21:33:37-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7924882940 51.190492 -0.41144 51.190492 -0.41144 23704 Angle shades moth <p>Angle shades is a very common moth at this time of year (and most of spring/summer really), readily identified by its leaf like shape (which this does not show, boo!).<br /> <br /> Shot with my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/">MP-E-64 effort</a>, which is starting to show its limitations as I'm finding it hard work getting images I actually like out of it at the 3:1 end. But then I'm quite fussy so maybe it's just me being me, I'll keep plodding on.<br /> <br /> Of interest, this was actually shot at night in the dark - the moth was resting on a eucryphia x nymansensis leaf which is this 10m tree we planted in the garden when we bought the house 15 years ago. It is awesome at attracting insects during August/September, better than all the usual suspects. Seriously. Not sure what it's doing lolling its tongue out like this.<br /> <br /> I have quite a nifty DIY setup for doing night macro which I must do a post about one of these days. It involves a mini maglite focused where the lens focuses with flash on top, all fastened together with goPro bits. <br /> <br /> <b>Nice, thank you!</b> #5 Explore, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2012/09/03/">3 September 2012</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel ngc moth lepidoptera extrememacro angleshades mpe64 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7915032846/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7915032846/" title="Honey Bee"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8455/7915032846_ee0beab24a_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Honey Bee" /></a></p> <p>Quick refresher stack of a honey bee head after a 2 month absence away from stacking. Slightly experimental insofar that instead of using the 4 star JPG save setting on my camera, I used the 3 star (to speed up the processing). Am trying to work out if it makes a lot of difference in eventual quality... let me know... thx!<br /> <br /> Technical, preserved specimen, rear curtain sync; 72 photos into 8 sub stacks using zerene stacker, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 120µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. El-Nikkor 50mm f/2.8 enlarger lens reversed on slightly more than flat bellows so about 1:1 ish, @ f/5.6. 4 (!) flashes @1/32 perpendicular @12, 2,6 &amp;10 o clock. Took me about 6 hrs or so start to finish, very rusty remembering all the steps and getting all the stuff set up again!<br /> <br /> Full size: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8455/7915032846_259c5fc5cd_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8455/7915032846_259c5fc5cd_o.jpg</a><br /> <br /> <b>Nice, thank you!</b> #51 Explore, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2012/09/02/">2 September 2012</a></p> Sun, 02 Sep 2012 10:37:12 -0700 2012-09-02T13:04:28-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7915032846 51.191124 -0.410828 51.191124 -0.410828 23704 Honey Bee <p>Quick refresher stack of a honey bee head after a 2 month absence away from stacking. Slightly experimental insofar that instead of using the 4 star JPG save setting on my camera, I used the 3 star (to speed up the processing). Am trying to work out if it makes a lot of difference in eventual quality... let me know... thx!<br /> <br /> Technical, preserved specimen, rear curtain sync; 72 photos into 8 sub stacks using zerene stacker, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 120µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. El-Nikkor 50mm f/2.8 enlarger lens reversed on slightly more than flat bellows so about 1:1 ish, @ f/5.6. 4 (!) flashes @1/32 perpendicular @12, 2,6 &amp;10 o clock. Took me about 6 hrs or so start to finish, very rusty remembering all the steps and getting all the stuff set up again!<br /> <br /> Full size: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8455/7915032846_259c5fc5cd_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8455/7915032846_259c5fc5cd_o.jpg</a><br /> <br /> <b>Nice, thank you!</b> #51 Explore, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2012/09/02/">2 September 2012</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel honeybee extrememacro componon zerenestacker http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7661497266/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7661497266/" title="Bradley Wiggins Olympics London2012"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7129/7661497266_d27ff4ba49_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Bradley Wiggins Olympics London2012" /></a></p> <p>Bradley Wiggins, winner of the Tour de France, leads the peleton chase in the men's road race of the London 2012 Olympics as it makes its way through rural Surrey this morning. This is about 2 minutes up the road from where I live, on the A25 leading towards Dorking where the gruelling 9 circuits of Box Hill await.<br /> <br /> Bradley Wiggins would go on to win the individual time trial gold later in the week, becoming Britain's most decorated olympian in the process. In the subsequent interview he stated that this was the highlight of his career, and that it couldn't get any better. Quite the inspiration, the man is very down to earth: 'sound as a pound' as we say in Britain.</p> Sat, 28 Jul 2012 05:13:22 -0700 2012-07-28T11:35:27-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7661497266 51.214868 -0.400378 51.214868 -0.400378 10296 Bradley Wiggins Olympics London2012 <p>Bradley Wiggins, winner of the Tour de France, leads the peleton chase in the men's road race of the London 2012 Olympics as it makes its way through rural Surrey this morning. This is about 2 minutes up the road from where I live, on the A25 leading towards Dorking where the gruelling 9 circuits of Box Hill await.<br /> <br /> Bradley Wiggins would go on to win the individual time trial gold later in the week, becoming Britain's most decorated olympian in the process. In the subsequent interview he stated that this was the highlight of his career, and that it couldn't get any better. Quite the inspiration, the man is very down to earth: 'sound as a pound' as we say in Britain.</p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel cycling olympic olympics london2012 wiggins bradleywiggins mensroadrace http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7652652410/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7652652410/" title="Lunar thorn"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7652652410_bd44e1b752_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Lunar thorn" /></a></p> <p>Thorns are a family of moths that are unusual in that at rest, they tend to have their wings upright, much like this little fella. Finding this at the end of July is a little but strange as they're usually on the wing in May and June, but on the other hand it may be a good thing. We've had such a miserable spring here in the UK (literally 5 months of solid rain, seriously dreary) that maybe this represents a late brood (rather than no broods at all because of the spring). Thorns are also interesting because there's another member of the family that I especially like, the yellow canary shouldered thorn - later in the year.<br /> <br /> This was shot with a single flash with wide diffuser from above, and is part of the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/with/7652652410/">MP-E 64 project</a>. I did try some handheld shots at 3:1 tonight but they were disastrous, so that'll have to be another time.<br /> <br /> Larger: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7652652410_9bb8b85a42_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7652652410_9bb8b85a42_o.jpg</a></p> Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:42:17 -0700 2012-07-24T21:25:56-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7652652410 51.190318 -0.411858 51.190318 -0.411858 23704 Lunar thorn <p>Thorns are a family of moths that are unusual in that at rest, they tend to have their wings upright, much like this little fella. Finding this at the end of July is a little but strange as they're usually on the wing in May and June, but on the other hand it may be a good thing. We've had such a miserable spring here in the UK (literally 5 months of solid rain, seriously dreary) that maybe this represents a late brood (rather than no broods at all because of the spring). Thorns are also interesting because there's another member of the family that I especially like, the yellow canary shouldered thorn - later in the year.<br /> <br /> This was shot with a single flash with wide diffuser from above, and is part of the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/with/7652652410/">MP-E 64 project</a>. I did try some handheld shots at 3:1 tonight but they were disastrous, so that'll have to be another time.<br /> <br /> Larger: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7652652410_9bb8b85a42_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7652652410_9bb8b85a42_o.jpg</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel moth lepidoptera extrememacro lunarthorn mpe64 johanjingleslenobel http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7624663580/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7624663580/" title="On My Thumb!"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8151/7624663580_5a270c59c0_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="On My Thumb!" /></a></p> <p>Just a quickie from this evening, a lovely Poplar Hawkmoth (Laothoe populi) sitting on the tip of my thumb. This is one of Britain's largest moths, and whenever I have an MV moth trap running my kids always love these because they're relatively untwitchy and have very 'grippy' legs - usually when we empty the trap they put these on their tshirts and they usually happily sit there for 10 minutes or so warming up their wings before flying off! (Being large, I think it takes them a bit longer to vibrate their wings to warm them up enough to allow them to fly away into the night).<br /> <br /> Actually the reason for posting isn't so much this photo but more to give an update on what I'm doing. I've just finished shooting the cover for part I of a new comprehensive guide to British Beetles that's being written by Andrew Duff. But my other project has been to build myself a substitute MP-E 65, Canon's legendary 1:1-5:1 extreme macro lens, which I'm calling the MP-E 64. <br /> <br /> The good news is that I've succeeded, and I'm about 90% of the way with a lens that is 90% of the MP-E 65: it goes from 1:2 to 3:1 (great range for insects), V1 was acceptable (just), this photo is with V2 (not too bad at all) with a successful build of a decent diffuser for it, and all the bits for V3 are coming in the post next week. Once I'm done and I've field tested it a bit I'll put out a post about how to make it. <br /> <br /> The handy thing is that my MP-E 64 lens can actually be made for any brand, gives you enough light to use 1/16 power at 100 ISO (ie machinegunning possible, no waiting for flash to recharge) and most importantly, you can control the aperture through the camera (ie no need to have lens set at dark f/8 like reversing). It also costs about 100US at most!<br /> <br /> If you're an extreme macro nut like me, it's exciting =)<br /> <br /> Technical: 1/90s, rear curtain Metz-58II flash wide @24deg @1/32 on top with long oiled 120gm premium paper diffuser. MP-E 64 lens @1:2 @f/13. Oiling (ie wd40) a piece of premium paper makes it much more like tracing paper, ie cuts reflection and increases transmission. Makes for fantastic (and cheap) diffusion material, I kid you not. The highest quality paper is bleached so a little bit on the blue side too, double win. By long I mean the diffuser is about 25cm long and 25 wide at the front, a triangle. Good for general diffused light cutting out the central hotspot without killing the other light too much, as you can (hopefully!) see. Ie I think the diffusion on the eyes isn't crazily specular and really looks quite consistent over its area. Larger size: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8151/7624663580_e4fd088df0_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8151/7624663580_e4fd088df0_o.jpg</a></p> Sun, 22 Jul 2012 13:54:08 -0700 2012-07-22T20:21:35-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7624663580 51.18978 -0.412545 51.18978 -0.412545 23704 On My Thumb! <p>Just a quickie from this evening, a lovely Poplar Hawkmoth (Laothoe populi) sitting on the tip of my thumb. This is one of Britain's largest moths, and whenever I have an MV moth trap running my kids always love these because they're relatively untwitchy and have very 'grippy' legs - usually when we empty the trap they put these on their tshirts and they usually happily sit there for 10 minutes or so warming up their wings before flying off! (Being large, I think it takes them a bit longer to vibrate their wings to warm them up enough to allow them to fly away into the night).<br /> <br /> Actually the reason for posting isn't so much this photo but more to give an update on what I'm doing. I've just finished shooting the cover for part I of a new comprehensive guide to British Beetles that's being written by Andrew Duff. But my other project has been to build myself a substitute MP-E 65, Canon's legendary 1:1-5:1 extreme macro lens, which I'm calling the MP-E 64. <br /> <br /> The good news is that I've succeeded, and I'm about 90% of the way with a lens that is 90% of the MP-E 65: it goes from 1:2 to 3:1 (great range for insects), V1 was acceptable (just), this photo is with V2 (not too bad at all) with a successful build of a decent diffuser for it, and all the bits for V3 are coming in the post next week. Once I'm done and I've field tested it a bit I'll put out a post about how to make it. <br /> <br /> The handy thing is that my MP-E 64 lens can actually be made for any brand, gives you enough light to use 1/16 power at 100 ISO (ie machinegunning possible, no waiting for flash to recharge) and most importantly, you can control the aperture through the camera (ie no need to have lens set at dark f/8 like reversing). It also costs about 100US at most!<br /> <br /> If you're an extreme macro nut like me, it's exciting =)<br /> <br /> Technical: 1/90s, rear curtain Metz-58II flash wide @24deg @1/32 on top with long oiled 120gm premium paper diffuser. MP-E 64 lens @1:2 @f/13. Oiling (ie wd40) a piece of premium paper makes it much more like tracing paper, ie cuts reflection and increases transmission. Makes for fantastic (and cheap) diffusion material, I kid you not. The highest quality paper is bleached so a little bit on the blue side too, double win. By long I mean the diffuser is about 25cm long and 25 wide at the front, a triangle. Good for general diffused light cutting out the central hotspot without killing the other light too much, as you can (hopefully!) see. Ie I think the diffusion on the eyes isn't crazily specular and really looks quite consistent over its area. Larger size: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8151/7624663580_e4fd088df0_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8151/7624663580_e4fd088df0_o.jpg</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel lepidoptera extrememacro poplarhawkmoth laothoepopuli canonmpe65 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7509916888/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7509916888/" title="The Robberfly"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7278/7509916888_ccc531234f_m.jpg" width="180" height="240" alt="The Robberfly" /></a></p> <p>The robberfly (diptera family asilidae) is one of the carnivores of the insect world that preys on other insects: exceedingly common throughout the world, it can reach up to an inch in length. The short, strong proboscis you can see at the front of the photo is used to stab and inject victims with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze and digest the insides; the fly then sucks the liquefied meal through the proboscis. Nature isn't a sentimental place! While dragonflies typically chase down their prey, robberflies sit on a leaf waiting, in order to anticipate their prey's flight path and intercept the prey in mid-flight. They pounce, clasp their prey in their strong legs, inject their venom then take it to a leaf to do the business. <br /> <br /> As an evolutionary aid, robber flies have developed characteristically hairy faces -- which helps protect their eyes from the prey that they catch. As with other aerial predators, robberflies have excellent vision, characterized by two conspicuous compound eyes. But, the worst a robber fly could do to a man is administer a pinch with its sharp beak, and then only the largest could! In fact they are almost beneficial as they kill pests: the larvae do not harm crops nor infect plants with disease. That said some consider robber flies a pest as they can feed on bees one by one until they decimate the entire colony! However, they also handle plant pests the same way and are thus also referred to as assassin flies.<br /> <br /> Note for the men amongst us, the girls are no walkover! With this insect, the predatory nature of the girls is so dominant that when a males tries to court a female robber fly, if he is not careful, she will fly out, stab him with her proboscis and eat him! It's not the only arthropod that has such behaviour... we've got it relatively easy =).<br /> <br /> Technical, preserved specimen, BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync .8s exposures; 210 photos into 26 sub stacks using zerene stacker, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 40µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. 40 year old Schneider Componon 35 f/4 enlarger lens reversed on slightly more than flat bellows so about 1.5:1 ish; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2,6 &amp;10 o clock. Took me about 6 hrs or so. As a stack this only gets about a 7/10 from me, boo. I can do better. The eyes could be nicer, and I'm not really convinced by this blue in the background, it's a touch too dark for my personal taste. I wanted to make it a bit menacing but it's sort of in between. Maybe a warm medium brown next time, dunno!<br /> <br /> Link to large version: <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7278/7509916888_a48ca1f16d_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm8.staticflickr.com/7278/7509916888_a48ca1f16d_o.jpg</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157623492127788/">More extreme macro shots here</a></p> Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:35:33 -0700 2012-07-04T21:09:03-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7509916888 51.190761 -0.411257 51.190761 -0.411257 23704 The Robberfly <p>The robberfly (diptera family asilidae) is one of the carnivores of the insect world that preys on other insects: exceedingly common throughout the world, it can reach up to an inch in length. The short, strong proboscis you can see at the front of the photo is used to stab and inject victims with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze and digest the insides; the fly then sucks the liquefied meal through the proboscis. Nature isn't a sentimental place! While dragonflies typically chase down their prey, robberflies sit on a leaf waiting, in order to anticipate their prey's flight path and intercept the prey in mid-flight. They pounce, clasp their prey in their strong legs, inject their venom then take it to a leaf to do the business. <br /> <br /> As an evolutionary aid, robber flies have developed characteristically hairy faces -- which helps protect their eyes from the prey that they catch. As with other aerial predators, robberflies have excellent vision, characterized by two conspicuous compound eyes. But, the worst a robber fly could do to a man is administer a pinch with its sharp beak, and then only the largest could! In fact they are almost beneficial as they kill pests: the larvae do not harm crops nor infect plants with disease. That said some consider robber flies a pest as they can feed on bees one by one until they decimate the entire colony! However, they also handle plant pests the same way and are thus also referred to as assassin flies.<br /> <br /> Note for the men amongst us, the girls are no walkover! With this insect, the predatory nature of the girls is so dominant that when a males tries to court a female robber fly, if he is not careful, she will fly out, stab him with her proboscis and eat him! It's not the only arthropod that has such behaviour... we've got it relatively easy =).<br /> <br /> Technical, preserved specimen, BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync .8s exposures; 210 photos into 26 sub stacks using zerene stacker, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 40µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. 40 year old Schneider Componon 35 f/4 enlarger lens reversed on slightly more than flat bellows so about 1.5:1 ish; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2,6 &amp;10 o clock. Took me about 6 hrs or so. As a stack this only gets about a 7/10 from me, boo. I can do better. The eyes could be nicer, and I'm not really convinced by this blue in the background, it's a touch too dark for my personal taste. I wanted to make it a bit menacing but it's sort of in between. Maybe a warm medium brown next time, dunno!<br /> <br /> Link to large version: <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7278/7509916888_a48ca1f16d_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm8.staticflickr.com/7278/7509916888_a48ca1f16d_o.jpg</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157623492127788/">More extreme macro shots here</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel robberfly asilidae extrememacro assassinfly componon zerenestacker http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7381349864/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7381349864/" title="Sawfly"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7218/7381349864_dda1bd8458_m.jpg" width="240" height="162" alt="Sawfly" /></a></p> <p>If you have ever seen leaves on bushes and trees that become skeletonised or transparent with just their veins remaining, this tends to be the work of <b>Sawfly</b> larvae, which eat through the tissue of the leaf until it has almost completely disappeared. At least 400 different species of sawfly have been recorded on plants in Britain. Two or three adult generations may develop during the growing season with the third generation overwintering as pupae that emerge in the spring. This is a &quot;Green Sawfly&quot;, Rhogogaster viridis, a common species found on woodland rides, hedgerows and scrub, often on flowers, during the summer months throughout the UK. I found this little guy on the nettles surrounding the allotments in Holmbury St.Mary, England - of all the places I visit and potter this has 3x as many insect types as the rest put together!<br /> <br /> Sawflies are related to wasps and bees. These primitive wasps are not flies (Diptera), because they have two pairs of wings; flies have one. Their name is derived from the saw-like ovipositor the adult female uses to lay eggs. Adult sawflies are inconspicuous wasp-like insects that cannot sting and cannot eat! In fact they are one of the few insects in the wasp family that feed on plants; The adult resembles a fly or a wasp but without the constricted waist. The larval or immature stage of sawflies are plant feeders and look like hairless caterpillars and can often be seen around the edges of the leaves and most curl up into an S-shape when disturbed. Larvae will also bore into developing fruits causing them to become scarred and exude sticky liquid.<br /> <br /> Technical: this only took 8 hrs or so so I must be getting faster, yay! BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync .8s exposures; 213 photos into 27 sub stacks, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 30μm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. Componon 35 f/4 reversed on flat bellows so about 1:1; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2,6 &amp;10 o clock.<br /> <br /> Large version: <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7218/7381349864_377a60a798_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm8.staticflickr.com/7218/7381349864_377a60a798_o.jpg</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157623492127788/">More extreme macro shots here</a></p> Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:18:56 -0700 2012-06-16T14:08:55-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7381349864 51.190856 -0.411279 51.190856 -0.411279 23704 Sawfly <p>If you have ever seen leaves on bushes and trees that become skeletonised or transparent with just their veins remaining, this tends to be the work of <b>Sawfly</b> larvae, which eat through the tissue of the leaf until it has almost completely disappeared. At least 400 different species of sawfly have been recorded on plants in Britain. Two or three adult generations may develop during the growing season with the third generation overwintering as pupae that emerge in the spring. This is a &quot;Green Sawfly&quot;, Rhogogaster viridis, a common species found on woodland rides, hedgerows and scrub, often on flowers, during the summer months throughout the UK. I found this little guy on the nettles surrounding the allotments in Holmbury St.Mary, England - of all the places I visit and potter this has 3x as many insect types as the rest put together!<br /> <br /> Sawflies are related to wasps and bees. These primitive wasps are not flies (Diptera), because they have two pairs of wings; flies have one. Their name is derived from the saw-like ovipositor the adult female uses to lay eggs. Adult sawflies are inconspicuous wasp-like insects that cannot sting and cannot eat! In fact they are one of the few insects in the wasp family that feed on plants; The adult resembles a fly or a wasp but without the constricted waist. The larval or immature stage of sawflies are plant feeders and look like hairless caterpillars and can often be seen around the edges of the leaves and most curl up into an S-shape when disturbed. Larvae will also bore into developing fruits causing them to become scarred and exude sticky liquid.<br /> <br /> Technical: this only took 8 hrs or so so I must be getting faster, yay! BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync .8s exposures; 213 photos into 27 sub stacks, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 30μm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise. Componon 35 f/4 reversed on flat bellows so about 1:1; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2,6 &amp;10 o clock.<br /> <br /> Large version: <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7218/7381349864_377a60a798_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm8.staticflickr.com/7218/7381349864_377a60a798_o.jpg</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157623492127788/">More extreme macro shots here</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel extrememacro sawfly rhogogasterviridis zerenestacker johanjingleslenobel http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7371464950/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7371464950/" title="Evil Weevil"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8026/7371464950_d046e11b8b_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Evil Weevil" /></a></p> <p><b>Weevil</b> is the common name for certain beetles of the snout beetle family (Curculionidae) -- small, usually dull-colored, hard-bodied insects, very common.The mouthparts of snout beetles are modified into down-curved snouts, or beaks, adapted for boring into plants; the jaws are at the end of the snout. I always think they look like a mini elephant myself. The bent antennae usually project from the middle of the snout. The largest weevils are about 3 in. (7.6 cm) long, with the average length being about 1/4 in. (0.6 cm). This one was about 4mm in length so you're looking at between half and 1 mm worth of weevil. Weevils come in an assortment of bright colors but are remarkably small and hard to see. The snout varies greatly in length among the different species; in the curculios, or nut weevils, it may be longer than the body. <br /> <br /> Many weevils are damaging to crops. The grain or wheat weevil (Sitophilus granarius) damages stored grain. Weevils can be found in dry foods including nuts and seeds, cereal and grain products, such as pancake mix. In the domestic setting, they are most likely to be observed when a bag of flour is opened. Their presence is often indicated by the granules of the infested item sticking together in strings, as if caught in a cobweb. But, all in all, weevils are a rare occurrence in the British home. They can be removed and the area sanitised with ease. Weevils in the garden, however, can cause serious damage, especially in the early summer months when grubs are hungry and seeking food. They can become a problem if left untreated. Weevils are harmless to humans. In fact the weevil family has more species in it than any other group of organisms: about 50,000 species. You can find weevils almost everywhere but especially by looking underneath leaves in the springtime evening or by noticing signs of damage to plants. Or, as was the case with us, old birdseed at the bottom of a container in the piggery outside (shed), it was crawling with these.<br /> <br /> Technical: Technical: BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync .8s exposures; 304 photos into 37 sub stacks, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 5μm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise, cropped to 4:3 for emphasis. Shot made using Nikon microscope CFI BE 10X NA 0.25 ∞ Plan objective, in front of Pentax SMC-M 100m &amp; Pz-AF 1.5 TC combo == ~ 7.5:1; 3 flashes @1/64 perpendicular @3,6 &amp;6 o clock. I should have of course used a 200mm tube but I don't happen to have one so had to settle for a TC instead. The original stack had the bottom legs in focus too but I retouched from another frame to take them out of focus and bring the entennae into sharper visibility. Worked ok but a tricker exercise than I expected... needs some work I think. You will also notice that this is as usual, and as usually annoying, marginally off centre, a fraction of a degree or so. One day I will find time to complete the universal stage that I almost have the parts for. Using a hacked off microscope to move up and down is ok but doesn't give me that 7 axis posing contraption that would really help me..<br /> <br /> Link to large version. Not so big as usual to try and reduce noise, not sure how well this works really. I may need to cough up for a Pentax K5 which isn't as noisy in the darks, it's still a bit of an issue on the Pentax K7 I think. Annoying. Anyone have a used one without sensor stain they want to sell? <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8026/7371464950_eb659cbc4c_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8026/7371464950_eb659cbc4c_o.jpg</a></p> Thu, 14 Jun 2012 04:27:08 -0700 2012-06-13T18:22:31-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7371464950 51.19108 -0.411324 51.19108 -0.411324 23704 Evil Weevil <p><b>Weevil</b> is the common name for certain beetles of the snout beetle family (Curculionidae) -- small, usually dull-colored, hard-bodied insects, very common.The mouthparts of snout beetles are modified into down-curved snouts, or beaks, adapted for boring into plants; the jaws are at the end of the snout. I always think they look like a mini elephant myself. The bent antennae usually project from the middle of the snout. The largest weevils are about 3 in. (7.6 cm) long, with the average length being about 1/4 in. (0.6 cm). This one was about 4mm in length so you're looking at between half and 1 mm worth of weevil. Weevils come in an assortment of bright colors but are remarkably small and hard to see. The snout varies greatly in length among the different species; in the curculios, or nut weevils, it may be longer than the body. <br /> <br /> Many weevils are damaging to crops. The grain or wheat weevil (Sitophilus granarius) damages stored grain. Weevils can be found in dry foods including nuts and seeds, cereal and grain products, such as pancake mix. In the domestic setting, they are most likely to be observed when a bag of flour is opened. Their presence is often indicated by the granules of the infested item sticking together in strings, as if caught in a cobweb. But, all in all, weevils are a rare occurrence in the British home. They can be removed and the area sanitised with ease. Weevils in the garden, however, can cause serious damage, especially in the early summer months when grubs are hungry and seeking food. They can become a problem if left untreated. Weevils are harmless to humans. In fact the weevil family has more species in it than any other group of organisms: about 50,000 species. You can find weevils almost everywhere but especially by looking underneath leaves in the springtime evening or by noticing signs of damage to plants. Or, as was the case with us, old birdseed at the bottom of a container in the piggery outside (shed), it was crawling with these.<br /> <br /> Technical: Technical: BG output onto SmallHD via HDMI matrix used as background; rear curtain sync .8s exposures; 304 photos into 37 sub stacks, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 5μm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized to reduce noise, cropped to 4:3 for emphasis. Shot made using Nikon microscope CFI BE 10X NA 0.25 ∞ Plan objective, in front of Pentax SMC-M 100m &amp; Pz-AF 1.5 TC combo == ~ 7.5:1; 3 flashes @1/64 perpendicular @3,6 &amp;6 o clock. I should have of course used a 200mm tube but I don't happen to have one so had to settle for a TC instead. The original stack had the bottom legs in focus too but I retouched from another frame to take them out of focus and bring the entennae into sharper visibility. Worked ok but a tricker exercise than I expected... needs some work I think. You will also notice that this is as usual, and as usually annoying, marginally off centre, a fraction of a degree or so. One day I will find time to complete the universal stage that I almost have the parts for. Using a hacked off microscope to move up and down is ok but doesn't give me that 7 axis posing contraption that would really help me..<br /> <br /> Link to large version. Not so big as usual to try and reduce noise, not sure how well this works really. I may need to cough up for a Pentax K5 which isn't as noisy in the darks, it's still a bit of an issue on the Pentax K7 I think. Annoying. Anyone have a used one without sensor stain they want to sell? <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8026/7371464950_eb659cbc4c_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8026/7371464950_eb659cbc4c_o.jpg</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel weevil extrememacro curculionidae snoutbeetle zerenestacker johanjingleslenobel http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7646174830/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7646174830/" title="Elephant Hawkmoth"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8020/7646174830_e72ac4fa62_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Elephant Hawkmoth" /></a></p> <p>One of the more colourful moths in the UK, the elephant hawkmoth closely resembles its smaller cousin the small elephant hawkmoth. Most people arn't aware of just how stunning the stuff that flies around our gardens at night actually is... and I know moths give some people the creeps but if you think of this as a harmless fat furry butterfly then basically that's all it is. Did you know, for example, that there are 100s and 100s of moth types in the UK, but only 50 or so butterfly types? Moths is where it's at =)<br /> <br /> Moth traps are a tremendously worthwhile way to both engender a love of nature into children and to simply observe moths for yourself. On a timer they're very convenient - put one out half an hour before dusk and let the light run until just before dawn. Then open it up and see what surprises are in there that night. There are various types available but I'd recommend the round Robinson trap having built and used all types. They're not all that hard to build but you can also buy one at ALS - <a href="http://www.angleps.com/mothtraps.php" rel="nofollow">www.angleps.com/mothtraps.php</a><br /> <br /> Technical: this was taken from a moth trap using my homemade <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/">MP-E 65</a> project, flash@1/32 from above using oiled paper diffuser. Not too awful a result, you can at least see some texture in the creature. I would like to know people's opinion regarding the resolution/pic IQ please, for a macro lens doing 2:3. Acceptable? And on a slightly different note, this is also the first photo uploaded with the new Pentax K-5 that I now have, only 2 years late, but rather splendid it is too =).<br /> <br /> Large @2000px: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8020/7646174830_202d6e629f_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8020/7646174830_202d6e629f_o.jpg</a></p> Wed, 13 Jun 2012 15:23:26 -0700 2012-06-13T23:23:23-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7646174830 51.190533 -0.411429 51.190533 -0.411429 23704 Elephant Hawkmoth <p>One of the more colourful moths in the UK, the elephant hawkmoth closely resembles its smaller cousin the small elephant hawkmoth. Most people arn't aware of just how stunning the stuff that flies around our gardens at night actually is... and I know moths give some people the creeps but if you think of this as a harmless fat furry butterfly then basically that's all it is. Did you know, for example, that there are 100s and 100s of moth types in the UK, but only 50 or so butterfly types? Moths is where it's at =)<br /> <br /> Moth traps are a tremendously worthwhile way to both engender a love of nature into children and to simply observe moths for yourself. On a timer they're very convenient - put one out half an hour before dusk and let the light run until just before dawn. Then open it up and see what surprises are in there that night. There are various types available but I'd recommend the round Robinson trap having built and used all types. They're not all that hard to build but you can also buy one at ALS - <a href="http://www.angleps.com/mothtraps.php" rel="nofollow">www.angleps.com/mothtraps.php</a><br /> <br /> Technical: this was taken from a moth trap using my homemade <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157630726382944/">MP-E 65</a> project, flash@1/32 from above using oiled paper diffuser. Not too awful a result, you can at least see some texture in the creature. I would like to know people's opinion regarding the resolution/pic IQ please, for a macro lens doing 2:3. Acceptable? And on a slightly different note, this is also the first photo uploaded with the new Pentax K-5 that I now have, only 2 years late, but rather splendid it is too =).<br /> <br /> Large @2000px: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8020/7646174830_202d6e629f_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8020/7646174830_202d6e629f_o.jpg</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel moth lepidoptera extrememacro elephanthawkmoth mpe65 mothtrap mpe64 johanjingleslenobel photoofthedaynwf12 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7160700597/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7160700597/" title="Harrison's Photo"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8142/7160700597_7417889ea9_m.jpg" width="240" height="148" alt="Harrison's Photo" /></a></p> <p>This photo is made for a boy called Harrison, the son of a friend of Nini, my lovely (and incredibly tolerant of my photo habit) wife. Harrison had a tough operation last week but he's been a very brave boy and has come through with flying colours! As a treat, and I'm totally bowled over by this, Harrison's parents asked to give him a little montage of some of my insect stuff, because he loves nature and bugs. I hope Harrison grows up to appreciate all the beautiful things that are out there in the wild, especially the not so very big things!<br /> <br /> So for Harrison... this is a <b>Rose Chafer</b> (Cetonia aurata), a 2cm long beetle, one of the British 'flying jewels', which believe it or not is actually relatively common! These rose chafers can be seen sitting in flowerheads between May and July on warm sunny days amidst nectar and pollen, and in particular on roses, from where they get their name. Chafers are one of the closest relatives to the scarab beetles deified in Egyptian history (chafers are the 'other' branch of the Scarabaeidae family) and this one is part of a subfamily that can fly with closed forewings. This is apparently possible due to a tiny slit at the sides and an especially unusual form of forewing articulation. In terms of its spread, rose chafer beetles are somewhat localised in the southern half of the UK, but widespread over southern and central Europe. The adults are variable in colour from dark green to a more golden-green sheen. There is even a nearly black variant down in Cornwall. Rose chafer larvae are the insect equivalent of earth worms and help make very good compost where they are often found in great numbers. They move on their backs, which is a very quick way to identify them. They are considered very beneficial compost makers, unlike many other chafers which have large and unwelcome grubs that feed on the roots of crops.<br /> <br /> In terms of appearance rose chafers are commonly confused with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhallmen/5915713438/">noble chafers</a>, but these lack the prominent V in the centre of the body. Another key diagnostic is the white wrinkles on the back - clearly visible in this photo (no it's not dust!). Nobles do not have such prominent wrinkles. Please, if you find a noble chafer in Britain, take a decent closeup photo for ID, record the grid reference and mail People’s Trust for Endangered Species, 15 Cloisters House, 8 Battersea Park Road, London SW8 4BG, as these are critically endangered here!. See <a href="http://www.ptes.org/index.php?page=174" rel="nofollow">www.ptes.org/index.php?page=174</a> . Now, just to make things even more complicated there is another almost identical beetle in the UK but it is very localised: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/daddysaurus/6981476243/">Protaetia metallica</a>. Protaetia metallica is localised in Scotland, and the elytra (wing coverings) narrow towards the rear on that, whereas on the rose chafer the elytra are parallel sided. Small but important difference. Yet another possible source of confusion is the name - our transatlantic cousins in the US use &quot;rose chafer&quot; as the name for a different insect, (Macrodactylus subspinosus), which believe it or not is also a beetle of the family Scarabaeidae but a different one. Yes it's all a bit confusing. Americans call this the &quot;European Rose chafer&quot;.<br /> <br /> The colouring on rose chafer beetles is, well, nothing short of phenomenal. As you can see the upper surfaces are an shiny metallic emerald green and bronze, and the underneath surface is actually metallic orange (maybe a photo for a winter day). Web sources are slightly unclear about why and how - whether this is irridescence (also known as 'goniochromism' - a property of certain surfaces that appear to change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes) or whether this is the &quot;reflection of mostly circularly polarised light, typically left circularly polarized light...&quot;. Maybe it is both? It does seem from googling that very things in nature are known to produce circularly polarized light but that this rose chafer is one of them. But, interesting, from my own experience the colour definitely does change as the angle of light changes. Perhaps someone who is more experienced with colouration in nature might be able to comment...?<br /> <br /> Technical: my first try at this beetle was with a reversed 80mm Componon enlarger lens because it gives me a 4cm width in focus and this is quite a big object by my standards. That went ok when I used bellows to add length and reduced the width of focus to 2cm, but in fact I decided to redo it to improve the lighting and show the shell a bit better. So this photo uses el-nikkor 50 f/2.8 enlarger lens reversed on minimal bellows extension which gets about 1.5cm width in focus; I only just managed to fit it in (for goodness sake Pentax do a full frame DSLR) and I eventually had to extend the background to the left a bit in post (the left whisker was only about 20px from the edge). I didn't feel a need to supplement the background with a colour because it seems to me the beetle is colourful enough and any more might well end up being 'kitsch'. Of interest - the background is in fact more of a dark grey than the black you would expect but that's because in the second version I extended the diffuser to way behind the beetle in order to be able to reflect light off the top. Maybe there is some light spillage and the homemade baffles inside my bellows arn't as effective as I'd like! In all a focus stack of 191 photos stacked &gt; 57 sub stacks &gt; then retouched from zerene stacker dmap substack composite of the substacks, all finished off with Adobe CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Smaller than neccessary step size of 40ｵm just because I felt like it, double length polystyrene chip cone wraparound diffuser over lens, image resized to reduce noise. Lighting is 3 flashes on rear synced with manual: @1/64 perpendicular @ 10 &amp; 6 o'clock and 1/32 @ 2 o'clock. Workflow, start, about 4 hrs combined prep (washing, degreasing, relaxing, mounting, cleaning - this stage is the hardest bit for me by miles), 2 hrs shooting 191 images, 10 hrs combined comp processing combining substacks etc, 3 hrs final pp.<br /> <br /> In terms of the angle and final photo aesthetics - I am absolutely convinced that there is a much better extreme macro dramatic &quot;portrait&quot; to be done for this creature. But I wanted to show some of the ID characteristics and the colouring on its back. This is a common conflict of interests (for me). I think maybe though a statue type photo standing straight up could work well either on front or back, both are interesting, perhaps another time. One thing that I think failed badly on is that some of those hairs on its jaw do seem to be clumping together in bunches which happened when I washed it, and although I did afterwards degrease it, perhaps I didn't do this well. I did then spend some time trying to brush them out with dissection needles but they were determined to stick together and I don't have a brush thing that's small enough. Your suggestions how to handle this effectively in the future would of course be very much appreciated, thank you!<br /> <br /> 100% img: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8142/7160700597_8e2ac43de0_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8142/7160700597_8e2ac43de0_o.jpg</a></p> Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:05:34 -0700 2012-06-06T19:50:30-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7160700597 51.334821 -0.763506 51.334821 -0.763506 14973 Harrison's Photo <p>This photo is made for a boy called Harrison, the son of a friend of Nini, my lovely (and incredibly tolerant of my photo habit) wife. Harrison had a tough operation last week but he's been a very brave boy and has come through with flying colours! As a treat, and I'm totally bowled over by this, Harrison's parents asked to give him a little montage of some of my insect stuff, because he loves nature and bugs. I hope Harrison grows up to appreciate all the beautiful things that are out there in the wild, especially the not so very big things!<br /> <br /> So for Harrison... this is a <b>Rose Chafer</b> (Cetonia aurata), a 2cm long beetle, one of the British 'flying jewels', which believe it or not is actually relatively common! These rose chafers can be seen sitting in flowerheads between May and July on warm sunny days amidst nectar and pollen, and in particular on roses, from where they get their name. Chafers are one of the closest relatives to the scarab beetles deified in Egyptian history (chafers are the 'other' branch of the Scarabaeidae family) and this one is part of a subfamily that can fly with closed forewings. This is apparently possible due to a tiny slit at the sides and an especially unusual form of forewing articulation. In terms of its spread, rose chafer beetles are somewhat localised in the southern half of the UK, but widespread over southern and central Europe. The adults are variable in colour from dark green to a more golden-green sheen. There is even a nearly black variant down in Cornwall. Rose chafer larvae are the insect equivalent of earth worms and help make very good compost where they are often found in great numbers. They move on their backs, which is a very quick way to identify them. They are considered very beneficial compost makers, unlike many other chafers which have large and unwelcome grubs that feed on the roots of crops.<br /> <br /> In terms of appearance rose chafers are commonly confused with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhallmen/5915713438/">noble chafers</a>, but these lack the prominent V in the centre of the body. Another key diagnostic is the white wrinkles on the back - clearly visible in this photo (no it's not dust!). Nobles do not have such prominent wrinkles. Please, if you find a noble chafer in Britain, take a decent closeup photo for ID, record the grid reference and mail People’s Trust for Endangered Species, 15 Cloisters House, 8 Battersea Park Road, London SW8 4BG, as these are critically endangered here!. See <a href="http://www.ptes.org/index.php?page=174" rel="nofollow">www.ptes.org/index.php?page=174</a> . Now, just to make things even more complicated there is another almost identical beetle in the UK but it is very localised: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/daddysaurus/6981476243/">Protaetia metallica</a>. Protaetia metallica is localised in Scotland, and the elytra (wing coverings) narrow towards the rear on that, whereas on the rose chafer the elytra are parallel sided. Small but important difference. Yet another possible source of confusion is the name - our transatlantic cousins in the US use &quot;rose chafer&quot; as the name for a different insect, (Macrodactylus subspinosus), which believe it or not is also a beetle of the family Scarabaeidae but a different one. Yes it's all a bit confusing. Americans call this the &quot;European Rose chafer&quot;.<br /> <br /> The colouring on rose chafer beetles is, well, nothing short of phenomenal. As you can see the upper surfaces are an shiny metallic emerald green and bronze, and the underneath surface is actually metallic orange (maybe a photo for a winter day). Web sources are slightly unclear about why and how - whether this is irridescence (also known as 'goniochromism' - a property of certain surfaces that appear to change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes) or whether this is the &quot;reflection of mostly circularly polarised light, typically left circularly polarized light...&quot;. Maybe it is both? It does seem from googling that very things in nature are known to produce circularly polarized light but that this rose chafer is one of them. But, interesting, from my own experience the colour definitely does change as the angle of light changes. Perhaps someone who is more experienced with colouration in nature might be able to comment...?<br /> <br /> Technical: my first try at this beetle was with a reversed 80mm Componon enlarger lens because it gives me a 4cm width in focus and this is quite a big object by my standards. That went ok when I used bellows to add length and reduced the width of focus to 2cm, but in fact I decided to redo it to improve the lighting and show the shell a bit better. So this photo uses el-nikkor 50 f/2.8 enlarger lens reversed on minimal bellows extension which gets about 1.5cm width in focus; I only just managed to fit it in (for goodness sake Pentax do a full frame DSLR) and I eventually had to extend the background to the left a bit in post (the left whisker was only about 20px from the edge). I didn't feel a need to supplement the background with a colour because it seems to me the beetle is colourful enough and any more might well end up being 'kitsch'. Of interest - the background is in fact more of a dark grey than the black you would expect but that's because in the second version I extended the diffuser to way behind the beetle in order to be able to reflect light off the top. Maybe there is some light spillage and the homemade baffles inside my bellows arn't as effective as I'd like! In all a focus stack of 191 photos stacked &gt; 57 sub stacks &gt; then retouched from zerene stacker dmap substack composite of the substacks, all finished off with Adobe CS4, NoiseNinja &amp; Topaz Detail. Smaller than neccessary step size of 40ｵm just because I felt like it, double length polystyrene chip cone wraparound diffuser over lens, image resized to reduce noise. Lighting is 3 flashes on rear synced with manual: @1/64 perpendicular @ 10 &amp; 6 o'clock and 1/32 @ 2 o'clock. Workflow, start, about 4 hrs combined prep (washing, degreasing, relaxing, mounting, cleaning - this stage is the hardest bit for me by miles), 2 hrs shooting 191 images, 10 hrs combined comp processing combining substacks etc, 3 hrs final pp.<br /> <br /> In terms of the angle and final photo aesthetics - I am absolutely convinced that there is a much better extreme macro dramatic &quot;portrait&quot; to be done for this creature. But I wanted to show some of the ID characteristics and the colouring on its back. This is a common conflict of interests (for me). I think maybe though a statue type photo standing straight up could work well either on front or back, both are interesting, perhaps another time. One thing that I think failed badly on is that some of those hairs on its jaw do seem to be clumping together in bunches which happened when I washed it, and although I did afterwards degrease it, perhaps I didn't do this well. I did then spend some time trying to brush them out with dissection needles but they were determined to stick together and I don't have a brush thing that's small enough. Your suggestions how to handle this effectively in the future would of course be very much appreciated, thank you!<br /> <br /> 100% img: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8142/7160700597_8e2ac43de0_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8142/7160700597_8e2ac43de0_o.jpg</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel beetle coleoptera extrememacro rosechafer cetoniaaurata scarabaeidae zerenestacker europeanrosechafer johanjingleslenobel peoplestrustforendangeredspecies harrisonsphoto http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7178341348/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7178341348/" title="Beardy Fly"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5451/7178341348_58f1891915_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Beardy Fly" /></a></p> <p>I had a goodie arrive in the post courtesy of eBay this week and I was desperate to try it out - a Componon 35mm f/4 enlarger lens. This covers the gap I had between a 28 Componon and an el Nikkor 50 beautifully and well I' very happy with it. I like doing moths and this lens should be the right mm for that. If you ever get into using reversed enlarging lenses, the lenses to look for are 6 element lenses, they can be had relatively cheaply nowadays with the declining use of enlargers and the results can be really nice.<br /> <br /> I did a blue background for 2 reasons one of which was that a very nice fellow <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/goin_bald/">goin_bald</a> kindly suggested it as an alternative on my last shot., I'm glad I listened. Also, I wanted something to show off the orange beard and blue and orange can sometimes be quite striking together. Another option I'd like to try on another similar fly would be gray - which bizarrely comes from looking at the kindle for iPad colour scheme. The orange certainly stands out - grey might be too flat though. Decisions decisions. hm.<br /> <br /> I would have liked to have done a different insect but unfortunately I'm much better at photography than I am at entomology. Learning what's where, when and what's pretty is something that's going to take me a little longer - feel more than welcome to comment with links to decent books or websites. Help appreciated =).<br /> <br /> <b>Technical:</b> SmallHD background; rear curtain sync 1s exposures; 146 photos into 48 sub stacks, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS3, noiseninja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 35µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized 10% to lose noise. Componon 30 f/4 reversed on flat bellows so about 1:1; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2,6 &amp;10 o clock.<br /> <br /> Link to 100% jpg: <a href="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5451/7178341348_268475b834_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm6.staticflickr.com/5451/7178341348_268475b834_o.jpg</a></p> Fri, 11 May 2012 13:34:21 -0700 2012-05-11T21:32:51-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7178341348 51.190593 -0.411713 51.190593 -0.411713 23704 Beardy Fly <p>I had a goodie arrive in the post courtesy of eBay this week and I was desperate to try it out - a Componon 35mm f/4 enlarger lens. This covers the gap I had between a 28 Componon and an el Nikkor 50 beautifully and well I' very happy with it. I like doing moths and this lens should be the right mm for that. If you ever get into using reversed enlarging lenses, the lenses to look for are 6 element lenses, they can be had relatively cheaply nowadays with the declining use of enlargers and the results can be really nice.<br /> <br /> I did a blue background for 2 reasons one of which was that a very nice fellow <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/goin_bald/">goin_bald</a> kindly suggested it as an alternative on my last shot., I'm glad I listened. Also, I wanted something to show off the orange beard and blue and orange can sometimes be quite striking together. Another option I'd like to try on another similar fly would be gray - which bizarrely comes from looking at the kindle for iPad colour scheme. The orange certainly stands out - grey might be too flat though. Decisions decisions. hm.<br /> <br /> I would have liked to have done a different insect but unfortunately I'm much better at photography than I am at entomology. Learning what's where, when and what's pretty is something that's going to take me a little longer - feel more than welcome to comment with links to decent books or websites. Help appreciated =).<br /> <br /> <b>Technical:</b> SmallHD background; rear curtain sync 1s exposures; 146 photos into 48 sub stacks, retouched from Dmap composite, finished off with CS3, noiseninja &amp; Topaz Detail. Step size of 35µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser. Resized 10% to lose noise. Componon 30 f/4 reversed on flat bellows so about 1:1; 3 flashes @1/32 perpendicular @2,6 &amp;10 o clock.<br /> <br /> Link to 100% jpg: <a href="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5451/7178341348_268475b834_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm6.staticflickr.com/5451/7178341348_268475b834_o.jpg</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel orange beard fly extrememacro photostack macrostack zerenestacker johanjingleslenobel http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7006280180/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7006280180/" title="Pond Skater"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7006280180_2e687e3674_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" alt="Pond Skater" /></a></p> <p>Probably a creature that only its mother could love, this is a pondskater -- also known as water striders, water bugs, magic bugs, skaters, skimmers, water scooters, water skaters, water skeeters, water skimmers, water skippers, water spiders or Jesus bugs. These bugs are actually pretty nasty, if you ever sit down by a pond towards the height of the summer, and see a fly fall in that water, a whole bunch of these race across and in a mad feeding frenzy suck the life out of the fly using that nasty long proboscis.<br /> <br /> This (female) pondskater has some interesting phenomena worth noticing. Firstly, we all know that these things walk on water - they're extremily light and the water surface tension keeps them up. But, they've also adapted to this life in a couple of interesting ways - their covering and their colours. They're covered by something called hydrofuge hairs: &quot;There are several thousand hairs per square millimeter, providing the water strider with a hydrofuge body that prevents wetting from waves, rain, or spray, which could inhibit their ability to keep their entire body above the water surface if the water stuck and weighed down the body&quot;. Now it seems to me that they actually have several different types of hairs: the sequence below starts at the top and goes down to the bottom. They're much denser at the bottom. I wonder if their functions are slightly different, maybe the top ones are designed to specifically make the water roll off (ie keep them as light as possible so they don't sink), but the bottom ones designed like ducks feather to actually repel water and keep it off? Don't know, perhaps someone knows. Secondly, the colouring is pretty interesting from a biology point of view. Dark at the top and light at the bottom - camouflage in action. Looking down they're quite hard to see (that dark colouring), but looking up they blend in against the sky. Good biology stuff.<br /> <br /> Technical: I did 2 things new for this picture. First of all I got hold of a 100mm non macro tube lens, which allows me to put my Nikon 10x/.25 ∞ plan objective in front and because of this thing's excellent optics, get a 5:1 ratio out of it. With the CSJ 135mm it was 6.25:1 which was just a little too big for my purposes currently. So a real win, and thanks to Algernon for supplying me the tube lens. It had to be the non macr 100mm because you want the entrance pupil to be close to the objective: on the 100mm macro I have it's just too darn far back. It will be interesting to see if this makes a difference on a reversed lens too.<br /> <br /> Secondly, I made myself work with substacks on this. So instead of just pressing the big shiny &quot;make me a pic with pMax&quot; button, I divided it up into 20 substacks and dmapped those together. Significant difference, glad I tried it, and thank you to Elf for making ZereneVS. Doing photos like this with substacks makes a shot like this into a 2 evening exercise rather than 1, but I think it's worth it.<br /> <br /> Lighting: 4 flashes, 3 at the top and 1 at the bottom with baffles to control spillage: polystyrene &quot;french fries cone&quot; from eBay: background is from a SmallHD DP7 CS3 output. I need to work a bit on background because I'm still not getting the crispest edges I'd like but that's more due to my lighting I think. 121 shots combined (not quite enough), step size of 22μm. Finished off using CS3, Topaz detail and NoiseNinja.<br /> <br /> Link to full pic: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7006280180_a7ea56f0b0_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7006280180_a7ea56f0b0_o.jpg</a></p> Thu, 10 May 2012 17:01:02 -0700 2012-03-11T01:01:01-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7006280180 51.190573 -0.41166 51.190573 -0.41166 23704 Pond Skater <p>Probably a creature that only its mother could love, this is a pondskater -- also known as water striders, water bugs, magic bugs, skaters, skimmers, water scooters, water skaters, water skeeters, water skimmers, water skippers, water spiders or Jesus bugs. These bugs are actually pretty nasty, if you ever sit down by a pond towards the height of the summer, and see a fly fall in that water, a whole bunch of these race across and in a mad feeding frenzy suck the life out of the fly using that nasty long proboscis.<br /> <br /> This (female) pondskater has some interesting phenomena worth noticing. Firstly, we all know that these things walk on water - they're extremily light and the water surface tension keeps them up. But, they've also adapted to this life in a couple of interesting ways - their covering and their colours. They're covered by something called hydrofuge hairs: &quot;There are several thousand hairs per square millimeter, providing the water strider with a hydrofuge body that prevents wetting from waves, rain, or spray, which could inhibit their ability to keep their entire body above the water surface if the water stuck and weighed down the body&quot;. Now it seems to me that they actually have several different types of hairs: the sequence below starts at the top and goes down to the bottom. They're much denser at the bottom. I wonder if their functions are slightly different, maybe the top ones are designed to specifically make the water roll off (ie keep them as light as possible so they don't sink), but the bottom ones designed like ducks feather to actually repel water and keep it off? Don't know, perhaps someone knows. Secondly, the colouring is pretty interesting from a biology point of view. Dark at the top and light at the bottom - camouflage in action. Looking down they're quite hard to see (that dark colouring), but looking up they blend in against the sky. Good biology stuff.<br /> <br /> Technical: I did 2 things new for this picture. First of all I got hold of a 100mm non macro tube lens, which allows me to put my Nikon 10x/.25 ∞ plan objective in front and because of this thing's excellent optics, get a 5:1 ratio out of it. With the CSJ 135mm it was 6.25:1 which was just a little too big for my purposes currently. So a real win, and thanks to Algernon for supplying me the tube lens. It had to be the non macr 100mm because you want the entrance pupil to be close to the objective: on the 100mm macro I have it's just too darn far back. It will be interesting to see if this makes a difference on a reversed lens too.<br /> <br /> Secondly, I made myself work with substacks on this. So instead of just pressing the big shiny &quot;make me a pic with pMax&quot; button, I divided it up into 20 substacks and dmapped those together. Significant difference, glad I tried it, and thank you to Elf for making ZereneVS. Doing photos like this with substacks makes a shot like this into a 2 evening exercise rather than 1, but I think it's worth it.<br /> <br /> Lighting: 4 flashes, 3 at the top and 1 at the bottom with baffles to control spillage: polystyrene &quot;french fries cone&quot; from eBay: background is from a SmallHD DP7 CS3 output. I need to work a bit on background because I'm still not getting the crispest edges I'd like but that's more due to my lighting I think. 121 shots combined (not quite enough), step size of 22μm. Finished off using CS3, Topaz detail and NoiseNinja.<br /> <br /> Link to full pic: <a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7006280180_a7ea56f0b0_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7006280180_a7ea56f0b0_o.jpg</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel pondskater extrememacro componon zerenestacker johanjingleslenobel http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7165916758/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/7165916758/" title="From the side..."><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7098/7165916758_b8eee211b0_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="From the side..." /></a></p> <p>I must be getting adventurous in my old age; instead of doing just full headon shots I actually forced myself to try something different with this tiny insect which I'm rather ashamed not to know what it is =(. Ento masters, do feel very free to please rescue this unnamed creature and give it an ident!<br /> <br /> Technically it's a little bit interesting insofar that it's the second shot that I tried substacking on. So 257 shots got divided into 65 or so variously sized substacks each with 25-50% overlap out of which 25 joins were made and the final image composited out of a combination of these (thank you Elf!). Then finished off using CS3, Topaz detail and NoiseNinja. 3 bulbs; polystyrene chip holder diffuser round the lens which was Pentax M 100mm f/4 wide open with Nikon 10x/.25 ∞ plan objective in front. Had to perform some emergency PP because I messed up in my actual photo. Crop and slightly reduced in size in order to remove noise.<br /> <br /> Question for people - the yellow background. does it get a yay or a nae from you?<br /> <br /> <b>Update, thank you to Conny for a likely ident: wood gnat or Anisopodidae. </b>If you havent already, I'd strongly recommend you <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conkar/">have a look at Conny's stream</a>, really really excellent stuff.<br /> <br /> Link to full pic: <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7098/7165916758_080a15ba76_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm8.staticflickr.com/7098/7165916758_080a15ba76_o.jpg</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157623492127788/">More extreme macro shots here</a></p> Wed, 09 May 2012 10:41:44 -0700 2012-05-09T18:40:02-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/7165916758 51.190597 -0.411702 51.190597 -0.411702 23704 From the side... <p>I must be getting adventurous in my old age; instead of doing just full headon shots I actually forced myself to try something different with this tiny insect which I'm rather ashamed not to know what it is =(. Ento masters, do feel very free to please rescue this unnamed creature and give it an ident!<br /> <br /> Technically it's a little bit interesting insofar that it's the second shot that I tried substacking on. So 257 shots got divided into 65 or so variously sized substacks each with 25-50% overlap out of which 25 joins were made and the final image composited out of a combination of these (thank you Elf!). Then finished off using CS3, Topaz detail and NoiseNinja. 3 bulbs; polystyrene chip holder diffuser round the lens which was Pentax M 100mm f/4 wide open with Nikon 10x/.25 ∞ plan objective in front. Had to perform some emergency PP because I messed up in my actual photo. Crop and slightly reduced in size in order to remove noise.<br /> <br /> Question for people - the yellow background. does it get a yay or a nae from you?<br /> <br /> <b>Update, thank you to Conny for a likely ident: wood gnat or Anisopodidae. </b>If you havent already, I'd strongly recommend you <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conkar/">have a look at Conny's stream</a>, really really excellent stuff.<br /> <br /> Link to full pic: <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7098/7165916758_080a15ba76_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm8.staticflickr.com/7098/7165916758_080a15ba76_o.jpg</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/sets/72157623492127788/">More extreme macro shots here</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel yellow gnat extrememacro componon zerenestacker johanjingleslenobel http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/6965912612/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jingleslenobel/">Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jingleslenobel/6965912612/" title="Fly"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/6965912612_61cd36324b_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Fly" /></a></p> <p>First test of my new setup, having invested in an extra flash in order to be able to use rear curtain sync. No sign of the flash ghosting anymore, yay!<br /> <br /> Technical: slight crop of full image, using 1xmetz 58, 2x540s top, left and centre, smallhd monitor with red-&gt;orange gradient showing for background, images shot at 1.6s, 204 shots stacked with a step size of 7µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser cut out to fit over a Nikon 10x/.25 ∞ plan objective in front of a CSJ 135mm.<br /> <br /> Link to full image: <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/6965912612_cfd594ddbb_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/6965912612_cfd594ddbb_o.jpg</a></p> Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:12:33 -0700 2012-04-25T08:11:37-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/6965912612 51.190607 -0.41166 51.190607 -0.41166 23704 Fly <p>First test of my new setup, having invested in an extra flash in order to be able to use rear curtain sync. No sign of the flash ghosting anymore, yay!<br /> <br /> Technical: slight crop of full image, using 1xmetz 58, 2x540s top, left and centre, smallhd monitor with red-&gt;orange gradient showing for background, images shot at 1.6s, 204 shots stacked with a step size of 7µm, polystyrene chip cone diffuser cut out to fit over a Nikon 10x/.25 ∞ plan objective in front of a CSJ 135mm.<br /> <br /> Link to full image: <a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/6965912612_cfd594ddbb_o.jpg" rel="nofollow">farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/6965912612_cfd594ddbb_o.jpg</a></p> Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel pink fly extrememacro zerenestacker johanjingleslenobel http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en