Nastiest Majoris

Day 176 of 365

"Nastiest Majoris"

 

There are not many things that make me squeamish, but for some reason I am.....irritated by the sound of a scurrying cockroach when one enters a room. Granted, it was the garage, but it was still rather unsavory. True, I did partake in a fried waterbug in Thailand.....but who didn't? Am I right? I will forget neither the crunch, nor the remaining moisture inside the surprisingly large treat. I actually had to share it with a friend. I digress. Having no intentions of fabricating a cockroach lasso, I knew I would have to wrangle our subject in some manner. Fortunately, I recently purchased some petri dishes, so one of them became his home during the shoot. Because there is a cover on our friend, I knew that would effect our lighting. Simply put, if I were to see a direct reflection of my light (a strip bank, low and close at camera-right), the image would be washed out, and even focusing would be difficult. With that in mind, I simply lowered the light, and had it sort of rake across our little friend. I also knew that I did not want his left side to vanish in the shadows, so I snooted a speedlight, turned it all the way down to 1/128th power, and created the specular highlight on his side. I didn't want this portrait to be TOO pretty. Lastly, I converted it to black and white. For the record, I decided to not remove the remnants of the petri dish at the lower-right edge. It is almost imperceptible, but if seen, it gives some reference to his location. Thanks for scuttling by!!

 

#cockroach #waterbug #pest #bug #exoskeleton #newyorkapartment #petridish #nasty #canon5dmarkIII #canon580exII #paulcbuffinc #paulcbuffeinstein #snoot

Done