My Praying Mantis shots

Ok this time I have a live bug that I got some real closeups of. Please let me know what you think of these and what I may had done to improved the shots. Taken using my 100 macro and Kenko tubes
They were taken with a flash and shutter speeds were at 125 and above f/stops ranging from f/4-f/11 trying to get the correct exposures.

uncropped images

#1

Good series of shots.Not sure what camera mode you were using, but when using flash it's fairly normal to put the camera in manual mode, F8-F11,1/200th, ISO100-200. Flash in ETTL.

Brian V.

Brian,

Thanks, I had the mode in Manual and did have some shots up around F/8-F/11 for most part but all the shots were taken at ISO 400 The flash was set at ETTL and I had a slip on difuser as well to keep from overexposing the shots. I tried dropping my ISO down to 200 but then I had to slow the shutter speed way down and the pictures just weren't that good. Maybe if the Mantis had been a bit higher off the ground where I could had used my Tripod instead of hand held it's possible that I could (maybe) done some better. I'm trying to understand how to use the flash to be honest and also played around with the zoom mode on it.

Nice captures...I wish we had mantids here. I shoot in Av mode, with the custom function for flash sync set to 1/200th in Av mode, this allows me to shoot ISO 100 and adjust the FEC for the exposure I want while still getting a decent shutterspeed.

i used to really enjoy the praying mantis when i was a little kid. but over the years i have become terrified of most bugs. cant really tell you why. but those are lovely shots. amazing how sharp they are.
thank you for sharing them.
shannon

You can literally see that hair out of the top of his head...I NEVER knew was there before..

nice close up on your mantis. would like to see more full body shot though but that just me.

Bill