Topanga residents and a flower for good measure

Here are some shots of local residents of Topanga State Park (the largest state park within the city limits of a major city in the US). I also tossed a flower in at the end for those of you who don't like bugs

Stilt Bug. This is a natural-light stack of a few shots (can't remember how many)

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wonderful series Ryan! for the stacks, did you find the bugs early morning while they are a sleep?

Also my question because even the antennas haven't moved during the time it took to take almost 40 shots.
Nice results! Good job.

Grtz,
Kurt

Great set of images!

Thanks, guys. Andres and Kurt, yes, natural-light stacks of more than a few shots are almost impossible unless the subject is asleep. In my limited experience, I find that you can only really do stacks like this between about 20 minutes before sunrise until about 1 hour after sunrise. After that, all but the laziest bugs are awake and moving around, and I must switch to flash photography for the remainder of the day (or be satisfied with natural-light images that are single shots rather than stacks). Occasionally you can find a cooperative subject at sunset, but as Kurt mentioned, if they are not totally and completely asleep, they will wiggle their antennae and ruin the shot. This problem is much more likely at sunset than sunrise.

Very nice set! What is your set up to get that much shots for stacking? Do you use focusing rails?

Thanks for the info Ryan!

excellent set ryan,and it proves that the early bird gets the worm,as evident from these large stacks.
love the plant hopper nymph the best!

definitely worth getting up early for these multi stack NL images. Did you use artificial backgrounds in 1,2,3 & 5 or was the natural BG that even?

Fabulous stacks, Ryan. The plant hopper nymph is absolutely great. Yup, the early bird sure does benefit!

Thanks again for the comments.

Pri wrote in post #15707673
Very nice set! What is your set up to get that much shots for stacking? Do you use focusing rails?

Yes, I currently use a Hejnar micro focusing rail that moves 1mm with each full rotation of a lead screw. For stacks with this many shots and natural light (i.e., slow shutter speeds), it is also critical to have a second tripod with multiple arms so you can clamp down the plant on which the subject sits. If you do not do this, even the tiniest breeze will spoil the stack. For example, the blade of grass on which the cricket sits is clamped with alligator clips on each side to keep it perfectly still.

racketman wrote in post #15708009
definitely worth getting up early for these multi stack NL images. Did you use artificial backgrounds in 1,2,3 & 5 or was the natural BG that even?

The backgrounds are 100% natural for all the shots except the flower. That shot has a white piece of paper behind the flower, and more importantly, it was taken indoors. Backgrounds can get pretty smooth when you're shooting at 3.5:1 and f/8.0.

Lovely series !
Brian v.

Perfect Detail... Like This..

Great set and amazing stack work.

Thanks again, folks. In case anyone is curious, here is a photo of the habitat and my dual-tripod setup from the day I did the first three stacks.

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