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I heard a squeal and a scream come from our bedroom, I rushed to Bel's scream to see her in the other corner of the room from this little fellow...after making sure she (Bel) was ok my first thoughts were 'hmm...photo shoot' and I still have him/her captured...this was/is my first effort. Now I am not a macro photographer and the only lens I could grab at the time was the 50mm 1.4. I know only his head/feelers are in focus..I have a lot to learn I think...critiquing very welcomed...We've bonded and he is modelling well - I don't want to release him for a while yet!


 PS - Any tips on how to mildly sedate a creature like this ?

Just did a few things in PS (solarized):



Then (glowing edges) - I personally think this looks VERY cool

Nicely caught Geoff especially with the 50mm. Don’t experiment too much or you will end up having dreams about giant glowing edged Mantii

Looks like you are in for a late one Geoff some interesting PS work there

Hehehe...I wish I knew more about PS - the only thing I can do is practice right?

The shot looks okay to me, Geoff. The lighting appears to be that it wouldn't allow you to stop down much. Even then, the mantis is so large, you're not likely to get him all in DOF when you're close. You might try adding a little contrast, to see if that helps.

Dunno about sedation. Perhaps a few drops of scotch?

Geoff,

These look amazingly sharp and beautiful.

Alex

What have we descended to.

mic has poor Eric modelling for him even though he's lost half a leg (eric, not mic) and now another mantis is imprisoned so we can satisfy our lusts at the expense of these poor creatures.

Maybe you could freeze him to slow him down - works with crabs

I think the third shot's pretty neat too Geoff. How was it done?

Oh my god....Pink Glowing Grasshopper (inverted for Mic) on purple background with serious unsharpmask............where will this end?



Goeff how did you achieve the glowing edges and rainbow colour image?

I had one of these crawl up my pants a few years ago.

Scared the hell out of me.

And hurt like hell.

Nnnnsic wrote:I had one of these crawl up my pants a few years ago.

Scared the hell out of me.

And hurt like hell.

That was Michael Jackson!

I knew there was a reason why I was so screwed up.

And here I was thinking (yes, I know) that it came from being your son.

marcus wrote:Oh my god....Pink Glowing Grasshopper (inverted for Mic) on purple background with serious unsharpmask............where will this end?

Geoff how did you achieve the glowing edges and rainbow colour image?

Hi Marcus,
It wasn't hard at all, a few clicks of the mouse! After I solarized the image (2nd shot) I simply chose 'glowing edges' and played around with the broadness and settings there...and voila!

The pink inverted shot looks funky too!

Geoff.

cool capture of the critter ... i think obviously without macro lens its not going to have too much punch ... can you get a frontal shot where he's clearly looking at you? Personally i always like it when i think the bug is looking at me (though bit hard to tell when they have 900 eyeballs behind a sphere, but you know ... one of them must be ! )

Good first shot of a Mantis Geoff, they take a bit of practise with DOF and Focus, I agree with Darb, it's good to get head on shots.

Cheers,

Mic. ( Fellow Mantis Stalker )

That last one looks like a radio-active mutant!

Either that or acid All he (or she) needs now is some Russell Morris in the background (I am the real thing....)