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This is what bugs look like when they get ready to fly at 6,000fps

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I follow quite a few YouTube channels. Some of them are purely for the visually stunning creations they post. Others are for the information they provide. Occasionally, though, you come across a channel that does both. That’s Ant Lab, the channel of Dr Adrian Smith at the Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Research Lab.

Dr Smith’s content focuses primarily on bugs, and we’ve featured him here on DIYP before. A few times, actually. His videos are as fascinating as they are beautiful and this one of various insects preparing for flight and taking off at 6,000fps is no exception.

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If you like bugs, macro and timelapse you’ll definitely want to watch “-N- Uprising ‘The Green Reapers'”

I see a lot of macro and timelapse scroll by my screen and when the two come together, they can produce something that’s just wonderful. When you add bugs into the mix as well, you get something that’s a little bit extra special, like this beautiful short film from Thomas Blanchard.

Despite describing this as an “experimental film”, Thomas combines both of these techniques masterfully to make this incredible creation. It took four months worth of patience to make and is comprised of 8K video of insects on the RED Helium 8K and 8K timelapse of carnivorous plants on the Canon EOS 5DS R DSLR.

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This slow-motion video of moths taking off is the most calming thing you’ll see today

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Dr. Adrian Smith of Ant Lab has shown us quite a few times how beautiful, unusual, and complex the world of insects is. His latest video is not only wonderful to watch, but it’s also the most calming thing you’ll see today. Well, unless you suffer from Lepidopterophobia.

Dr. Smith filmed seven gorgeous, colorful moths taking off in slow motion. Setting his camera to 6,000 fps, he has captured the movements in these creatures that we’re hardly aware of.

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These close-up portraits show that bees have “different personalities”

When looking from afar, all bees look the same. But just like they’re complex and intelligent creatures, they also look different from each other. Photographer and drone operator Josh Forwood wanted to show these differences, so he took a series of macro bee portraits. His photos let us meet bees up close (and I mean, really close) and see how different their little faces really are.

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Watch as NatGeo photographer Thomas Peschak keeps shooting while covered in bugs

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I’m not too afraid of bugs, but I know I couldn’t stay calm if they swarmed all over me while I was shooting. Heck, I couldn’t even stay calm while watching Thomas Peschak do it! In this video, the NatGeo photographer is calmly taking photos while huge armored katydids run all over his hand.

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Photographer captures magical images of fireflies in Japanese forest

I vividly remember the time when I first saw a swarm of fireflies. Their flickering completely enchanted me, and of course, I also tried taking some photos. However, they were quite… underwhelming, to say the least. But photographer Daniel Kordan has managed to capture the beauty and magic of fireflies. He turned them into a series of images he kindly shared with DIYP, along with his gear and settings that he used to create them.

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My process for creating insect portraits with macro photography

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Each print that I create is a composite of hundreds (sometimes thousands) of individual photos digitally stitched together. Using a method of macro photography called “photo stacking” it’s possible to create images with an incredible amount of detail, even when printed at a very large scale.

To show you the amount of work involved—often reaching 10 to 20 hours per image or more—I’ll walk you through my process using a giant stag beetle (Cyclommattus metallifer finae) from Indonesia. It is time-intensive and tedious, but worth it. Let’s get to it.

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2020 Bug Photographer of the Year winners will take your fear of bugs away

Most people I know are afraid of bugs or disgusted by them. However, insects are a magnificent subject for macro photography, and they can look gorgeous, elegant, even comical. This year’s Luminar Bug Photographer of the Year winners show all sides of insects that could make you stop fearing them. After all, even the contest winner overcame his fear of insects through photography!

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Watch these weird insects as they take off in super slow-motion

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Super slow-motion can show us a lot of things that we’ve never seen before. Dr. Adrian Smith of Ant Lab wanted to show us how some unusual insects take flight, so he filmed them at 3,200 fps. It’s amazing to reveal what techniques they use to take off, but it’s also interesting to see how much they differ.

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