beans_again?
Beetle drinking from water droplet 2022 10 cropped
Some drops of water sweating from a cold beverage pooled on a plastic housing. This animal strolled over and stuck its proboscis into the droplet. It was probably guzzling for over ten minutes, so I took the opportunity to shoot a few portraits.
This was shot with a manual focus 1970s Nikkor 55mm f3.5 macro. At first, I tried using a LED flashlight: no go. Years ago I bought this junk-grade LED ring light on the Internet for about US$40. It was used in this shot. The ring light makes this raspy, specular light. By taping a piece of paper over it, the light gets softened and diffused a little. The animal is black but the ring light blasts it rendering this odd gray/blue.
After drinking its fill, it walked away from the droplet. It was so full of water, it seemed to be having trouble walking. I picked it up and carried it outside.
Our religion asks that we give something back to nature in thanks for everything we use — the crops we grow and the birds and animals that share our world. For us, the Spirit and the commonplace are one.
— Gerald Baker, Mandan-Hidatsa
Journalism grade image.
Source: cropped from a 4200x2800 16-bit TIF file.
Please do not copy this image for any purpose.
Beetle drinking from water droplet 2022 10 cropped
Some drops of water sweating from a cold beverage pooled on a plastic housing. This animal strolled over and stuck its proboscis into the droplet. It was probably guzzling for over ten minutes, so I took the opportunity to shoot a few portraits.
This was shot with a manual focus 1970s Nikkor 55mm f3.5 macro. At first, I tried using a LED flashlight: no go. Years ago I bought this junk-grade LED ring light on the Internet for about US$40. It was used in this shot. The ring light makes this raspy, specular light. By taping a piece of paper over it, the light gets softened and diffused a little. The animal is black but the ring light blasts it rendering this odd gray/blue.
After drinking its fill, it walked away from the droplet. It was so full of water, it seemed to be having trouble walking. I picked it up and carried it outside.
Our religion asks that we give something back to nature in thanks for everything we use — the crops we grow and the birds and animals that share our world. For us, the Spirit and the commonplace are one.
— Gerald Baker, Mandan-Hidatsa
Journalism grade image.
Source: cropped from a 4200x2800 16-bit TIF file.
Please do not copy this image for any purpose.