Insect Photography

[Satchmo]

Haha, Mark I think I may just try my hand at photographing Cattle, be much easier

Right, I'm going to get geeky tomorrow and take a pen and paper with me and note down how much zoom and the distance from the subject and hopefully I will be able to determine the optimum setting for macro photography.

Steve, I had thought about diving in today. The lake I was at has has heavy foliage in this particular area which it kept hiding behind so maybe I will brave the depths for that perfect shot. Saying that, I will try dry land first

I was trying to get a shot of a damselfly today and it was in such a position that it could see my every move. It was on the stem of a plant and every time I changed my position to get a shot it span around the stem positioning the stem between me and itself. It was hilarious. Outwitted by an insect! Haha!

[mh68]

I`ve had damselflies do that a lot too Simon and it never fails to amuse me, other insects do it aswell, and it can end up a battle of wills to get the perfect shot
Good luck tomorrow mate

Mark H

[Fourwings]

Good luck, I look forward to seeing the results.

A little tip - If a Damselfly is playing hide & seek with you round a stem of grass try holding the camera with one hand then move the other hand round the other side of the grass towards the Damselfly and "hey presto" it will shuffle back into the perfect position for a photo, I know what you mean though, they are very comical when they do this.

Steve.

[Satchmo]

Cheers for all your help guys and hopefully I will have something to show you tomorrow.

[Satchmo]

Originally Posted by mh68

Not a lot wrong with those shots Simon.Small insects like the flies you`ve photographed are difficult without proper macro lenses etc due to their small size.Focus is spot on, on all of them and the images are nice and sharp.That last shot in particular is very nice.Its just a matter of getting as close as you can ( looking online your camera can focus down to 3 inches or so from the subject)which just takes practice.Just out of curiosity,how far away were these from the camera roughly?

Mark H

Mark, can I ask where you got this info about my camera from please?? The manual doesn't let on too much.

Thanks

[mh68]

I just typed the camera model into google and found a review page with the camera spec.Sometimes with compact cameras like yours the manual is very lacking, especially when it comes to using macro etc.With my camera (panasonic fz20)it makes no mention in the manual about being able to use up to 2.5x zoom at the minimum macro focussing distance(3cm), which makes a big difference to closeup shots.The min focus distance stated in the manual at full zoom is innaccurate too (says 6ft in the manual - in reality its about 4ft)so it pays to experiment with your camera to find out its true capabilities.

Mark H