Preying Mantis / Stick bug macros

Hi all
Here are some macros from a shoot I did yesterday of a stick bug / praying Mantis,
total length of this guy is 2in.
these are the first two pics for the series but I have more I'll post in just a little bit, after I PP.

CC welcome

Pic 1

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f5 has given a very narrow DOF but #2 isnt too bad.

Toby (RM)
Yeah I used the widest aperture on the main lens but I stopped down the aperture on the Reversed 50mm, it was set at f/8, I then manually actuate the the aperture lever on the FD reversed lens, via an extension I made with a coat hanger and wrapped with heat shrink.
I know I need to use the FD wide open and control aperture via the main lens, but I am so used to using the aperture lever on the reversed lens especially as I like to use just the 50mm reverses direct to camera.
But thanks for looking and the CC
it is very much appreciated.

Here are a couple more

Pic 3

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Nice #2 shot.

It is a Praying Mantis.
A Stick Insect is not a Praying Mantis.
Nor a Stick Bug.

Thanks for the heads up Deckham
I knew it was a Mantis of some sort, everyone who has seen the critter over here has said it is a stick insect.
Hence the reason why I put Stick bug / Mantis, it definitely looked like part of the Mantis family.

Great job with the eyes, they are gorgeous!

Also, just for the record, praying mantises are actually in their own order, Mantodea. Stick insects are also in their own order, Phasmatodea. Very little relation. Mantises are actually closer related to cockroaches than anything else.

Okay how do you get them not to move?

Mrvile
Thanks, I love the eyes myself, I think they came out a lot better than I expected.
Thanks for the comments

Click-it
I couldn't stop him from moving, for the 5 shots I have here I probably got 40 non keepers.
I had my tripod set-up for these shots, as I was close to 5X mag.
My Delta flip flash bracket was aggravating the crap out of me, just as I would get ready to take the shot, either the Mantis would move or the bracket would let go. (wish I had the MT24EX but I don't have a way to secure it to the reversed 50mm)
it was tough even tracking the subject with the tripod, but I was able to use part of the tripod to support the weight of the Flash.
Thanks for looking and enquiring.

Very nice series. Think I'll go with pic 4 as my favourite.

Like #4 & #5
As you know you need to control the aperture on the main lens and leave the reversed lens wide open.
Brian V.

Thanks Brian and Bernie
I appreciate you guys taking the time to look and comment.

Brian
Yeah I definitely need to use the set-up the other way, probably get slightly better DOF control and probably a higher keeper rate.

Nice! #3 composed beautifully. Without composition you have nothing. Cheers.

Wait, so did you use flash for these shots? Because the lighting looks PERFECT.

TerraForm
Thanks for looking and complimenting, I agree on your statement about composition, a lot of times it gets overlooked.

Eric
yeah I used flash for these, Thank you for the compliment, but thanks goes to Brian (LordV), Toby(Racketman), Mark(Bandit1), Dave(Dpastern), Artur (Zman) for the help with understanding the flash.
I usually keep the shutter speeds lower as I want to try and use flash for fill only and try and expose the background a little.

So flash and subject orientation is a big key here, the closer the subject is to it's environment the more chance you have of getting the flash to partly illuminate the background
If I used max shutter speed with the flash (1/250) then the backgrounds would usually be black.
Pic 5 is so dark in the background because the flash was directly above the subject and there was nothing directly behind,
If I remember rightly the Mantis had moved to the end of a branch in the plant it was in.
I like pic 5 as subject isolation is fairly good. Pic is somewhat Portrait-ish.

There a few hot spots noticeable on some of the other pics. They are not overwhelming though, because of the soft box diffusing the light evenly over a larger area, so there are no harsh hot spots
If you look at where the light is most prominent that is from the Flash with home made Soft box, noticeable on Pic 4 Flash was lower left.

WOW! Very nice series Allan. #2 & 4 are my favorites. The lighting on the fourth image looks like it's been shot by the window (without flash); I like it a lot!