Pincher Bug

[dugfresh]

this thing landed on my window of my car when i parked today, i thought hey lets try that setting i just learned about on my camera!



and a close up

[lputman]

How big is that thing? Boy, I glad I didn't run into that, I would have freaked out.

[FocalFrenzy]

We have similar insects to this here in central Ohio. Ours are more of an orange color, with spots along the plates covering the wings. Ours are roughly 3/4 of an inch in length, and are called "Long Horn" beetles, for obvious reasons. I don't know the scientific name for them. Could you tell me the size and color of this one? I was born in Anchorage 47 years ago, and spent my first 7 years there. I wish I had owned a digital camera then. Thanks for sharing your shot, and I look forward to seeing more.

[daft_biker]

I think the mode on the camera has done a good job with the focus and overall exposure. Just a shame the shot was from below when the subject was backlit...the glass wouldn't have helped either!

Still, agree with the others...it's a longhorn beetle. We have them in the UK too but they come in all sorts of reds, browns and oranges and are often 20mm or more body length. They make a great noise when flying too....like a mini helicopter

They look pretty cool really close too

[FocalFrenzy]

Daft_biker,
That's a really good close-up. Would you mind sharing the EXIF data and lens info?

[daft_biker]

Originally Posted by FocalFrenzy

Daft_biker,
That's a really good close-up. Would you mind sharing the EXIF data and lens info?

Thanks....got lucky that day I think

The lens was a Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens. Can't remember aperture but magnification was about 4:1 (on APS-C) so probably f/40-something effective aperture (lens would be set to f/8 or so but you need to multiply that by 5 for the MP-E at 4:1). Lighting was from a Canon MR-14ex ringflash rotated so lights were top and bottom then set the lighting ratio to 8:1 so most of the light came from above.....and since I was able to light the background with the flash too I left the shutter at max sync speed (1/250th). ISO was probably 100 or 200 (I often use ISO 200 as the batteries in the flash last longer and recycle times shorter....ringflashes are power hungry!!).

I see from your wonderful Irridescent Bee shot you're using a Sony H1. Have you considered getting a close up filter? I believe Raynox do a popular one.

You might like to have a look at one of my Flickr friends camera and see his close up work as some of the bugs he manages to photograph are pretty tiny!
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