Good 'ol Christmas Beetle

[photobitz]

This one's an Aussie favorite... for obvious reasons. This was one of the worst shots I took lighting-wise, then with a bit of PP it became one of the best. Don't you just love resurrecting shots from the dead :)

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100% crop

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[JimCapaldi]

Great captures. I love the sharpness and detail. Do you know if that beetle is peculiar to Australia?

[LordV]

Wonderful shots- beautiful beetle. Any chance of seeing the before shot?
Brian V.

[Athena]

I love this! Beetles are just so darn cute. Well done with the resurrection. ;)

[zman]

Very nice! What lens did you use for this shot?

[photobitz]

Arrrr thanks mateys. Errrm... <snapping out of pirate mode>

I'll post the before later tonight. It really was awefully dull. I still don't think this shot does the little guy any justice. They really are quite attractive.

[photobitz]

The Genus is Anoplognathus, which I'm pretty sure is limited to Australia and I think Papua New Guinea. I haven't narrowed down the species yet, but it is either 'porosus' or 'montanus'. The beetles feed on eucalypt leaves and if in large numbers can cause severe de-foliation to patches of forest. They're still cute.

As far as equipment goes... I used an EF 35-70mm (seems to give the same quality as my EF 50mm) with about 20mm of extension (whatever the middle size Kenko one is). For some of the shots I was using my Sigma 500-DG ST flash mounted off-camera, but I found it was much to strong and washed out all the iridescence. Instead I used a flouro desk lamp and tried to shoot on just the right angle... the lamp isn't very strong so the shots came out very dull hence the need for PP.

[Master]

Great captures dan, I love the colours.

[dpastern]

Lovely capture Dan, good save as well. I'd also like to see the before shot ;) I haven't seen a Christmas Beetle with these colours [yet]. How big was it?

Dave

[photobitz]

Thanks guys ;) Here's the original. OK, so it isn't absolutely horrible, but of all the shot's I've done it took the most PP work to bring up to scratch. I think I used pretty much every adjustment available - colour balance, levels, brightness/contrast, HSL etc.

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Dave, these are pretty large beetles. Probably 35-40mm long. There are several scarabs of this size, but these ones are getting rarer, at least in my area. The ones I usually see are dull medium brown with darker brown wing covers (what's the technical term?). Not at all as nice looking.

[racketman]

shoot in RAW - much easier to adjust WB. This is a Chafer right? Excellent detail as shown in the crop.

[photobitz]

Yeah... I think they fall into the chafer bucket...