Quenching the macro thirst!

Hadn't shot macro the whole month, managed a productive session with some interesting finds. Some images from exploring the Bangalore University area

A hairy Pentatomid


Adapted to both dry and green patches!


A cute looking Carrhotus female


Carrhotus male(?)


Shield bug, with the blue sky providing some contrast


9/10 times one would've walked right past this perfectly aligned caterpillar


Mating chafer beetles


An Ichneumonidae wasp with a stunning, long ovipositor


A handsome looking Tachinid fly


Stunning coloration on this nymph


Deaths head hawk moth, those wings surely hold many galaxies within!




Omega!



Got lucky with this find, they hadn't even darkened yet




Just as we were trudging back (was a rather humid day!), we found this fascinating scene - the Robberfly which is an apex predator of the aerial world falling prey to the super-agile Hyllus (Jumping spider) female..that meal will definitely help her with making her silken nest/egg sac


All shot on the Olympus OMD EM10 M2, 60mm macro and Godox TT 350O with DIY diffuser.

Thanks to Pavan, Naveen, Pradeep, Sushvin for the company. Amit was kind enough to share this diverse location and help us explore :)

Cheers!
Hayath

Revisiting Agumbe with Photowalk Bengaluru

Got an opportunity to go back to experience the monsoons at Agumbe, this time with Photowalk Bengaluru as a Macro mentor.
Always a pleasure returning to Hingaara, with the warm hospitality, amazing food and rich biodiversity.   

A quick compilation of select images for your viewing pleasure :)


Till the next ride!

Cheers!
Hayath

Springing back to life! The transition from Summer to Monsoon

Summer this time was particularly harsh. Also noticed a marked decrease in insect/activity.

The dry surroundings with their own adaptations

A gorgeous stick insect


The striking boxer mantis


Sleeping blue-banded bee


The ants rule the roost


This wonderful seed-pod of an Indian kino tree, the root-like structure within representative of the power and promise of life


An amazingly camouflaged Plataspidae nymph


An un-ID'ed Salticidae


The transition of summer to onset of monsoon..greens begin to emerge





A bark mantis



The first drops being lapped up by this Ichneumon wasp


Fireflies out in numbers!


Cicadas being their noisy best, after a long subterranean extistence


Leaf beetles seen in plenty


The mites not letting go of the opportunity


The rains also meant an increase in mosquito numbers, here's one sucking blood from my left hand. The proboscis and engorged abdomen turning red with blood.


With insect life bouncing back in good numbers, predators made the best of it

The two-tailed spider, Herisilia sp on the bark


This two-striped jumper, Telamonia sp female feasting on a blue bottlefly


A Lynx spider, Peucetia sp predating on a mantis


It's a spider-eat-spider world! A Rhene jumping spider predating on a Bomis sp crab spider


Robberflies rule the aerial space




Keeping the mosquitos/midges in check



Almost every perch/vantage point had a robberfly on it, truly the season!




The compound eyes which enables such high degree of precision



The forest floor with the Tmarus snacking on an ant


This season also brings out some spiders rarely seen

The oh-so-colorful Chrysilla


Asemonea sp


Cyrba sp, saw this striking little beauty for the very first time!


A curled-up millipede showing how nature works with classic design


A lot of arthropod life-cycle revolves around reproduction, fascinating to watch the life stages

Single egg of a common emigrant butterfly


A caterpillar ready to pupate


But nature had sinister plans, this was affected with a virus known as the "Black death". This caterpillar will not pupate successfully


A rarely seen caterpillar stage of the Double branded crow butterfly


A looper caterpillar of the Geometrid moth


Pupating ladybird larva


A weaver ant queen looking at expanding the colony


Owlfly larvae with those intimidating mandibles


An Ammophila sp wasp carrying back a paralyzed caterpillar to lay eggs inside and bury it. What a welcome gift to the progeny!


A Brettus sp jumping spider with her spiderlings


Got lucky with this full life-cycle of Coreidae (shield bugs)

Eggs




Freshly hatched nymphs




The multi hue/colors indicate how recently the nymph has moulted. Red is recent, green/yellow is older..how cool!


Hope you enjoyed these, it was fascinating and amazing to me, no matter how many times I experience this..oh, the wonders of nature!

Adios till the next one.

Cheers!
Hayath

Macro photography technique

Thankful to be getting a lot of great feedback from different fora on macros, a lot of this has been due to openly shared knowledge and techniques by selfless folks.

Thought it would be only fair to keep "paying this forward"

Will try breaking down technique (or the lack of it :D ) -

1. Magnification: The Zuik0 60mm on a MFT sensor provides decent magnification. However as needed I often add on an extension tube and Raynox DCR 250

2. Focusing : High magnification requires high precision. Most times the camera is set to the smallest focus area selector possible. Contrast on edges/wings/leaves is often used to lock on AF. In tricky situations, I will switch to MF (have configured the FN1 button for this) and sway the setup to bring things in focus.
Staying as perpendicular to the area of focus one's interested in helps make use of the razor thin DoF to it's max.

3. Exposure : Plays a critical role in showing detail and right colors/texture. The black background in most of my images is predominantly due to the overall exposure, I shoot what one would call "full flash photography" - if an image is taken at the native exposure, it would essentially go fully black, exposure is defined by the "reach and intensity" of flash. Plus, most of the insects I shoot are found under thick canopy/shade.
My settings generally are ISO 200, 1/160, f10-13, Flash on ETTL with FEC based on subject
External flash helps add microcontrast and also freeze motion to an extent. I also diffuse the light enough to make it soft, that way both highlights and shadows are decently exposed

Earlier thoughts on macro technique and lighting can be found here -
http://iridealone.blogspot.com/2018/04/high-magnification-macro-and-lighting.html

Thoughts on macro photography with lenses already present in your kit -
http://iridealone.blogspot.com/2012/06/macro-for-not-much.html

Link to the simple two stage diffuser -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hayath/44807796464/

Cheers!
Hayath

Back on the road again - for fish, food and friends :)

Had been almost 4 years since I'd been on a fishy trip. With vyas in town for a week, quick plans were made for a quick collection trip. Vyas would land from Manila into coimbatore, we'd pick him up and drop him back - some late night planning and came up with a probable routemap.

We ended up with the following -
Bangalore (amazing dinner at Ajay's) - coimbatore (lip smacking breakfast at Vyas') - Anaikatti - silent valley - kuntipuzha - Edappal (stop for the night) - angamaly - muvvatapuzha (stop for the night) - Thissur - Palakkad - coimbatore (Yummy biryani) - Bangalore

Quick list of species we spotted:
1. Dawkinsia filamentosus
2. Anabas
3. Xenentodon cancila
4. Puntius ticto
5. Mystus sp
6. Mesonoemacheilus sp
7. Pseudolaguvia sp
8. Pseudetrouplus maculatus
9. Rasbora sp
10. Garra sp
11. Devario sp
12. Salmostoma sp
13. Chanda / Parambassis sp
14. Carinotetraodon sp
15. Haludaria fasciata
16. Aplocheilus lineatus


Additional wildlife spotted -
A few crested serpent eagles hovering overhead
A few checked keelbacks in water
A stocky looking Tarantula

Here's a short video compilation of some sights and experiences

Adios till the next ride!

Cheers,
Hayath