Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
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.
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.
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.
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.
There’s so much beauty in the world, and so much of it we can’t see until we look through a macro lens. Physicist, biologist, and talented nature photographer Andreas Kay filmed an adorable little bug that looks like a walking piece of popcorn.
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.
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!
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.
The coronavirus has stopped us in our tracks and prevented us from traveling, exploring, and taking photos at new places. But hey, this is our chance to rediscover our own city, neighborhood, even our own backyard. International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) 2020 winners will inspire you to get out and find all the hidden beauty of your own backyard.
Some of us have had ants in the kitchen, or maybe we had to deal with these little creatures while camping. But have you ever had your camera swarmed by ants? Dakota McLearn was unpleasantly surprised recently when he saw that his Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K had become home to a colony of ants. He shared his experience in a video and it’s as fascinating as it is scary.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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