Catch me if you can!

[Daniel]

Lately I started feeding my A. mavortium larvae with bloodworms and newly hatched micro-earthworms and I was lucky enough to do some snapshots.

 

[radtad]

Very nice pics

 

[jewett]

Those are some impressive pictures, Daniel! I always get a kick out of larvae eating - they can cram in so much food!

 

[Daniel]

I always get a kick out of larvae eating - they can cram in so much food!

Yes, sometimes it is hard to believe your own eyes (or photographs). These larvae eat earthworms that are longer than themselves.

 

[Abrahm]

Holy cow! They are really stuffing their faces! All belly and mouth

Very nice pictures, Daniel!

 

[coendeurloo]

Super pics Daniel, could you tell us more about how you shot these impressive photos?

 

[rust]

Very cool pics.

 

[Otterwoman]

These are great pics! In the first two, the larva looks like it has the longest tongue ever! And the third pic is beyond words!

 

[Daniel]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

@Coen: I can give you some technical details, maybe that helps. I hope that I do not mix up the right specifications in english...

Technical equipment (it's not cheap but I am using it for business-activities as well...so maybe I am a lucky one):

- Canon EOS 400D DSLR
- Canon Speedlite 580 EXII
- lens: EFS 60 mm f/2.8 USM
- additional background-light from a desk lamp

Settings:

- manual Settings and manual focus, free hand (you are way faster this way)
- ISO 100, max. 200 to avoid any unnecessary noise
- relatively small aperture (meaning a high number) between 11 and 22 to have a good depth of field (I personally like it better this way) - this needs much light, especially on a short distance, therefore the flashgun
- a relatively high shutter speed of about 1/20 to 1/80 seconds since the larvae are moving fast

You see, there is not one setting but I played around a little bit. If you are interested, I can send you the settings for the single photographs; I think they are not displayed in the photosection since I shoot my photographs in RAW mode and later save them with photoshop.

I use to photograph my animals in a small glass-tank since that has less contortion than an acrylic one. Additionally I installed a dark background.

The rest is kneeling on the ground, bending your back, swaying back and forth - a lot of patience, endurance and quite some luck to hit the button at the right moment.

With this settings I can shoot things down to the size of daphnia ar artemia (the later with a higher ISO because I needed a high shutter speed in very short distance, you can see the noise):

 

[coendeurloo]

That was a lot of useful info Daniel, thank you very much. I am currently trying to find addons like you already have for my Nikon D40. An external flash and a macro lens are on top of my wantlist!

 

[Kaysie]

Coen, I'm dying for a macro lens too. In its absence, I've found that a big magnifying glass works well (although is awkward). I was speaking to someone the other day about possibly mounting the magnifying glass to a screw-on filter, to ease the awkwardness of adjusting the lens while holding the magnifying glass.

 

[Mark]

The rest is kneeling on the ground, bending your back, swaying back and forth

That's the first sign of madness - either that or your lens doesn't focus fast enough in AF mode. I have the EFS 60 mm f/2.8 USM lens too and whilst the image quality is fantastic the USM focusing isn't as fast as it could be IMO. In the non-manual modes the field of depth is very shallow which make manual the only real option for animals that don't co-operate.

If I was to get another macro lens I'd probably go for EF rather than EFS. I wouldn't be surprised if Canon scrap EFS when budget DSLRS become full frame.

Those are great shots -worth all the back and neck ache!

 

[Daniel]

That's the first sign of madness

You may be right - I am used to kneeling, bending my back and swaying back and forth since I am married!

The lens is indeed rather slow with focusing, especially at short distance (which should be the main use for a macro-lens...). That's why I focus manually - the swaying just gives me more flexibility for the last necessary millimeters.