Paper Airplanes

Following my adventure with bees, I put away the Speedlite, screwed on Canon’s dual macro flash (with diffusers), and haven’t looked back. The versatility of being able to so easily adjust the intensity (exposure compensation) and direction of light along an arc has opened up new possibilities for lighting and clarity in my macro images.

All of the accompanying images were shot with the dual flash. Other constants include: shaded, cloudy, or low to the horizon light; all were shot at ISO 100, 1/60 sec, f/16, using a 5D Mark II and Tamron 90mm macro lens with 32mm of extension tubes. The differences: about half were shot with a tripod (Manfrotto XPRO 155) and the rest were either hand-held or I braced my camera against a snowshoe pole (a makeshift monopod) when a tripod would have been impossible to use (i.e., easily spooked or hard to reach bugs).

Each and every one of these bugs was an unexpected discovery that emerged seemingly out of nowhere in my back yard or the local park. They are normal everyday bugs in everyone’s back yard around here, but when magnified and enhanced with a great camera, Lightroom 3 software, and amazingly versatile flash, the extraordinary beauty, mystery, and real-life drama is revealed.

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