Caddisfly Larva (Order Trichoptera)
Caddisfly larva in its case (note what looks like a piece of a pinecone to the left!).
This photo starts the begin of a new obsession for me - indoor photography of aquatic invertebrates.
I collected the invertebrates from a local pond and brought them home. Then, I set them up in a 2.5 gallon, glass aquarium that had water in it.
Some issues that I immediately had:
-there is too much space for the critters to swim around (and thus away from the glass). I need them close to the glass to get a clear shot.
-ANY dust or spots on the glass are very noticeable in photos
-I need better lighting. The camera's built-in flash is way too bright. Yet, it is not bright enough with a diffuser. For my photos today, I used a little bit of extra lighting with a headlamp that I moved around. But, still, it was mostly either too bright or not bright enough.
-It's really difficult to get the entire creature in focus when they are swimming.
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comments (9)
I'm highly curious what this journey will bring to you (and us here), I'm sure you'll be able to master these challenges over time.
How are you using the flash, straight on (on the camera)? One cheap thing to try is to use a tunnel diffuser. Which sounds fancy but it's basically a paper cup on your flash. It will still diffuse yet have some more direction.
I'd say it's a good idea to investigate continuous lights, maybe you can find a solution that is strong enough and flexible so that you don't need flash at all. Posted 5 years ago
I have a diffuser on my flash (it's just a floppy thing that plugs into the hot shoe and then folds forward over the flash). It works pretty good, but is not perfect. I do want to experiment with different materials though,like you suggest. I have white, cone-shaped coffee filters, which I think might work well. I want to try bubble wrap too. A paper cup, like you mentioned, is interesting! I have also been playing with the flash intensity settings on my camera.
Continuous lights is a great idea and I think will be really useful for my purposes.
I've also figured out a couple things that are fairly obvious....
-The water must be clear and clean. I added some pond debris to make the larvae feel more at home, but it's making the photos look dirty.
-I need to block out anything in the background (I'm probably going to experiment with this, but will start out with plain, white paper underneath and behind the tank)
-I am going to stick the glass aquarium cover in the tank to push the bugs closer to the glass when I'm trying to photograph them. Otherwise, they have way too much space to move around, making it nearly impossible to get a clear shot.
-Other issues are that they tend to stay at the bottom of the tank, which means that the black rim on the base of the tank gets on the photo. They also like to swim at the surface, which means the water line breaks up the photo. It is really difficult to get them to stay in the middle of the water column. Posted 5 years ago
I was also wondering if that lady that inspired you can be of help, are you in contact with her? Posted 5 years ago
I would share that as my next post for sure. Posted 5 years ago