Summer is almost over, and I don't remember it ever starting. I walked over to Anndale Park in Waterloo to play with some new photo gear that lets me make images of very small objects: insects, bugs, and little critters. Lots of good, clean fun! I have no idea what kind of insects these are (and not all of them are insects: in the interest of etymological science, I should point out that Zell Miller is, technically, an arachnid). Here are some of the first results.
This insect appears to be giving birth to lots of little insects. Actually it was kind of eerie once I realized what I was looking at.
This is a close-up of one of the babies.
Now it looks like the mommy insect is eating the baby insect!
Mmmm, tasty.
This insect, possibly an ant, was busy eating its dinner when I showed up...
...but not too busy to pose for the camera. Say cheesy!
There were lots of bees, wasps, and other winged insects buzzing around as well. They flew from one flower to another, pollinating.
Well that was fun. For the technically inclined, the macro equipment used was the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM macro lens and the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X macro lens, on a Canon Digital Rebel body. I relied entirely on flash for lighting: in most cases a Canon MR-14EX macro flash for the main subject, and in some cases a Canon 550EX flash as a slave to illuminate the background. Since ambient light was not a real consideration, shutter speeds were all 1/200 sec and aperture ranged from f/8 to f/16.
