Canon

Ectatomma edentatum, Argentina Equipment details: Canon EOS 20D, using an MP-E 65mm 1-5x lens (at 5x), lit with an MT-24EX twin flash diffused through tracing paper. Several years ago, before I became serious about photography, I shot the same species in Paraguay with a little Nikon Coolpix 995. Here's the result:

A few years ago I needed to image some ants for a short taxonomic paper.  Lacking a decent specimen imaging system (like Entovision), I decided to snap the photos at home using my standard macro gear: a dSLR with the Canon MP-E lens.  The images turned out fine and were published in Zootaxa with the paper. Later, the Antweb team imaged the same species using their standard set-up: a high-res video camera on a Leica microscope, focus-stacking the images with specialized software.  I decided to compare the two.  Here they are (click on each to view the uncompressed file): Pachycondyla…

Only one lens can take this shot If you've paid attention to insect photography over the past decade, you'll likely have noticed that a single lens, Canon's MP-E 1-5x macro, has come to dominate the market.  Every professional insect photographer I know owns one, and many of the dedicated amateurs do as well.  Indeed, some photographers have even switched from Nikon to Canon just to be able to use it. Yet the lens is also a throwback, possessing few of the electronic features of modern camera technology.  It is largely manual, with no auto-focus or image stabilization, and is…

In an earlier post I listed my favorite insect images of the year taken by other photographers.  Now it's my turn.  Here is the best of my own work over the last 12 months. Laccophilus pictus, Arizona Dinoponera australis, Argentina Parasitic Cotesia wasp attacks a Manduca larva Polyrhachis schlueteri, South Africa Crematogaster tricolor, South Africa Weaver Ant (Oecophylla longinoda), South Africa Rose Aphids (Macrosiphum rosae), Arizona Thaumatomyrmex atrox, Venezuela Simopelta queen and workers, Venezuela Pheidole obtusospinosa, Arizona Harpegnathos saltator, India

As you may have noticed, for a photography blog I don't write much about camera gear.  Partly this is because I'm not the sort of person who chases the latest gadgets and gizmos, but partly because I think all the focus on equipment obscures the most important aspects of photography.  Good photography comes from the artistry of the photographer. Megapixel count has hardly anything to do with it. I bring this up because Canon has just announced the first bit of gear I've been excited about in years. The Canon 50D. Ignore the bits about the 15 megapixels (irrelevant for macro) and the 6.3…

Flash is a necessary evil in insect photography. This necessity is due to two unfortunate traits shared by most insects: small size and stubborn unwillingness to sit still for the camera. These traits confound each other in a way that renders insect photography uniquely challenging. Small subjects need to be close to the lens, placing them squarely in the zone where depth of field becomes razor-thin. Depth of field can be increased by using a small aperture, but that restricts the amount of light reaching the sensor. With so little light entering the camera, a proper exposure requires…

I have been reading reviews about digital cameras until I am ready to go blind, but I finally made a decision, as you can tell if you read below (and look to the right). First of all, my constraints were that I could choose any digital camera that was $300 or less, and I could spend up to $50 on a memory card. So I spent weeks looking at cameras and reading about them, and fell in love with two different models; the FujiFilm FinePix S5000 3.1MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Zoom and the Canon PowerShot SX100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom. I finally decided on…