World Citizen (Bug macro! Beware!)

Digital Matt · Sep 8, 2004

I found this dead bee in my basement. I've been wanting to do some macro work with bugs, and dead ones cooperate the most, so this was a lucky find

He's sitting on top of my Citizen watch. I heard that sometimes insects get caught in the wind and swept high into the atmosphere. They freeze from the below zero temperatures, and can end up being blown half way around the world in the wind, and then eventually fall and thaw, and are still alive. Far out.

I shot this with my 50mm f/1.8 and all three Kenko extension tubes. I was about 2-3 inches away from the subject. I tried a shot at f22 for more dof, but it lacked the sharpness of the shot at f/11, so I stuck with that one.

Let me know what you think!

terri · Sep 8, 2004

I think this is a great shot! The little story and the fact he's on your watch notches it up in the Cool factor.

Love this DOF, and I believe I am detecting some color saturation here, too, which is just fine for this image. Very nice.

Digital Matt · Sep 8, 2004

Thanks Terri

Yeah, there's a bit of saturation going on there :blink:

pilgrim · Sep 8, 2004

very nice matt! and thats really cool about the bee's freezing :shock:
ooo, and I love the background of the photo, the watch looks great! and it looks like the extension tubes worked good, I might have to get some..

Harpper · Sep 9, 2004

Dead bugs are the best to work with aren't they. The live ones move too much from macro work.

I like the amount of DOF you use. I've also notice that it is a trade off with smaller aperture for more DOF or sharper pictures. I also like the background. It works really well for this picture. It's a cool shot you have here!

captain-spanky · Sep 9, 2004

LOVE it! the colours are gorgeous! and the focus on his/her head is really interesting...

Digital Matt · Sep 9, 2004

Thanks everyone!

You have to use dead bugs when you have extension tubes. It probably took me 5 minutes to get a good focus on this guy. With a wide open aperture and all 3 extension tubes, the dof is proably 1/16 of a inch, if that.