Macrophotography of Insects and Spiders

Next to the birdphotography my favourite kind of nature-photography is the macrophotography of insects, beetles or spiders. When I began photographing nature I formerly phootgraphed almost only birds, but now I do macro-photography as often as bird-photography. I'm fascinated by these little creatures, especially if I can see every detail in my close-ups.

A dance fly photographed with 180mm f3,5 macro lens. To get a little closer than the minimum distance of the lens I used extension tubes. To have a little bit more natural light at the fly I used a little golden reflector. That looks much better than using the flash in most cases.
In almost every of my macro-photographies I used a tripod (in most cases a small wood tripod) and a cable release. In the camera menue I activate the mirrow lock to eliminate even the smallest kind of vibration of my system.

The macrophotography of nature is totally different from bird-photography or mammal-photography, where you have to be very fast with all your settings to get the shot. In the macro-photography you have time enough to arrange the motif in most situations. You can use a reflector, to get the light right, you can try to photograph your subject from different positions, and if necessary you can create an smooth background.
Even shutter speed isn't very important. Often I use shutter speeds from 1 second more. If the subject isn't moving and there's no heavy wind long shutter speeds are no problem. So you can go out even on cloudy days to do macro-photography. For most subjects with chitin bodies it is even better to photograph them in smooth light, cause their bodies will reflect sunlight heavily and you'll get outblown highlights then.

A red-headed cardinal beetle photographed with a 180mm f3.5 macro lens. Unfortunately the black bottom of the beetle don't gets enough light. I could have used a reflector, but I forgot to take one with me when photographing this beetle. Such little details can make the difference between a good and a not so good photograph.

When I lay down on the ground and compose the picture I'm relaxing from the daily hectic pace. I can observe these little insects or spiders for hours and it never becomes boring. If you search for a hobby to forget the daily stress, I recommend trying out macrophotography. And it almost can be done everywhere. You don't have to search for long for subjects, you just go out and open your eyes. That's all. Equal if you live at the countryside or in the city...
But now enough written text. In the box at the left you find a selection of some insects and spiders I photographed. Click at the names to view the galleries. I wish you much fun viewing my photos.

Gerd Rossen