You Broke Into the Wrong God-Damn Apartment!

My subject waves to the camera near the end of the session. Flash, 105mm



Fancy noisemakers on its rear legs. No flash, 105mm



My first ever 1:1 crop, showing detail on its back, just behind its head. Note it's not a smooth surface, but almost furry. No flash, 105mm



Top down shot showing the above 1:1 crop in context. No flash, 105mm



My victim in profile, shortly before the live release. Flash, 105mm

This guy picked the worst time to make an appearance on my bedroom floor. I'd just been thinking about how I had no photography plan for the evening, looked down, and the rest is macro history. Well, maybe not significant history, but history nonetheless.

I've been thinking about how to shoot bugs and get away with really good 1:1 shots. The hardest thing in the outdoors is to get them to stay still without killing them. Bugs naturally move around a lot when they're exposed, with a few exceptions, such as when they're mating. So when I caught this guy, I thought I had it made.

It was a challenge to get a shot set up where I could contain the cricket without obstructing the shot. The first few shots I took were of it in the bottom of a coffee mug, with the camera on a tripod pointing down over it. I got my best detail shots that way of its back, because it essentially 'fit' in the focal plane.

I switched to a drinking glass with saran wrap over it, placed on its side so the top was facing the camera. This was better than the mug because more ambient light hit the cricket. However, the cricket didn't like the smooth curved surface and moved around a lot more. I'm sure a better glass wear solution is out there for such a set up, but not in my kitchen.

Near the end of shoot I mounted the flash kit, with one remote unit on the end of the lens. I had to mess with it a bit and angle it in such a way to avoid the flash bouncing off the saran wrap. The plastic probably distorted the focus a bit, but there would have been no keeping the cricket pinned down without it (short of pinning it down, and I didn't want to do that).

I think the primary lesson learned was that a good macro shot of a bug is 80% luck, and the rest prep and fast reaction times. I shot the entire session with the camera on manual, as I found the camera had a hard time coping with the light, glass, saran wrap, moving bug, etc. The remote release was also very important in reducing camera shake. Doing this outdoors is going to be painful, but I can't wait.

The title of this post is an adjusted quote from the movie Tremors.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.