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Description
board of seeing bugs and cant get close enough to shoot?board of seeing a wonderful butterfly get 1 foot close to you then when you walk closer it flys off?so was i,so it was time to get somthing sorted as i dont have the money to be buying a 500£ 150mm lens..i only have a canon 60mm macro for this type of work..so any way,This is what i do....

I go out with a big tub..its a 2pint cup with plastic lid..i go out and catch the bugs..butterflioes..damseflies..not dragonflies yet but i intend to as summer progresses..any way i catch the bug in the plastic cup and bring it home which is only a 2 minute walk ..i then release them in my 2FT X 1FT net cage..i leave it in my hall way till about 11 pm when it starts to get cold..i then take the net cage out side and leave it there all night..i make sure i put a type of lid of plastic screen over part of the net cage so they can go under cover if it rains hard..well..you can imagine how cold they are when i go out there at 6am in the morning..there so cold all they want to do is get on your hand as its nice and warm..But dont do this yet..as its only going to take around 30 seconds for the insect to warm up on your hand then it will fly off.

so i go out at 6am..i unzipped the net cage and put the stick in front of the butterfly untill it walked on it..i think i remember having to nudge the butterfly to do so..soon as its on the stick i took it out the net cage and stuck the stick in the grass,this way i didnt have to hold it any more..if you have been keeping updated on johns blog your see the thing he uses to do this. link here [link] which i intend to get in the next few days.

so the cold butterfly was sat on the stick..very very cold as its been out all night,,this was 6am remember in uk..it was around 11c(52F) and at that temp they cant fly or move much.i took the images i needed to take then around 5 minutes later the sun comes out,it started to warm up then 5 minutes later it flew off but that didt matter to me..i had all ready got my mpe-65 shots before i ever set it up on a stick for my 60mm full body shots..

i go out every morning early but its very hard to find subjects in the morning as there all hiding trying to stay warm..dont get me wrong thos this is a last resort.i have spent a hole 1 year trying to get close to this wonderful butterfly and i had no luck..so trapping it was the only option to get the shot i needed.

what you have to understand is when your shooting certain subjects the only time your going to be able to get close enough is if there cold..i refuse to put insects in the fridge to photo..Thats wrong..but tbh i cant see any thing wrong in what im doing as long as the insect goes back unharmed the next day to the same place i found it.

remember this technique is perfect for focus stacking as the insect hardly ever moves..

also remember the important thing here is not to harm the insect..my feeling on this is there out side all night any way..all im doing is making sure they wake up where i want them so i can photograph them before they are warm enough to fly off..i cant see any thing wrong in how i get these images..Your going to be seeing alot of images from me lately..if i use this technique il be sure to mention it in the post..

Fill flash with mt-24ex

taken with canon mpe-65 at just over 4X life size

Description
board of seeing bugs and cant get close enough to shoot?board of seeing a wonderful butterfly get 1 foot close to you then when you walk closer it flys off?so was i,so it was time to get somthing sorted as i dont have the money to be buying a 500£ 150mm lens..i only have a canon 60mm macro for this type of work..so any way,This is what i do....

I go out with a big tub..its a 2pint cup with plastic lid..i go out and catch the bugs..butterflioes..damseflies..not dragonflies yet but i intend to as summer progresses..any way i catch the bug in the plastic cup and bring it home which is only a 2 minute walk ..i then release them in my 2FT X 1FT net cage..i leave it in my hall way till about 11 pm when it starts to get cold..i then take the net cage out side and leave it there all night..i make sure i put a type of lid of plastic screen over part of the net cage so they can go under cover if it rains hard..well..you can imagine how cold they are when i go out there at 6am in the morning..there so cold all they want to do is get on your hand as its nice and warm..But dont do this yet..as its only going to take around 30 seconds for the insect to warm up on your hand then it will fly off.

so i go out at 6am..i unzipped the net cage and put the stick in front of the butterfly untill it walked on it..i think i remember having to nudge the butterfly to do so..soon as its on the stick i took it out the net cage and stuck the stick in the grass,this way i didnt have to hold it any more..if you have been keeping updated on johns blog your see the thing he uses to do this. link here [link] which i intend to get in the next few days.

so the cold butterfly was sat on the stick..very very cold as its been out all night,,this was 6am remember in uk..it was around 11c(52F) and at that temp they cant fly or move much.i took the images i needed to take then around 5 minutes later the sun comes out,it started to warm up then 5 minutes later it flew off but that didt matter to me..i had all ready got my mpe-65 shots before i ever set it up on a stick for my 60mm full body shots..

i go out every morning early but its very hard to find subjects in the morning as there all hiding trying to stay warm..dont get me wrong thos this is a last resort.i have spent a hole 1 year trying to get close to this wonderful butterfly and i had no luck..so trapping it was the only option to get the shot i needed.

what you have to understand is when your shooting certain subjects the only time your going to be able to get close enough is if there cold..i refuse to put insects in the fridge to photo..Thats wrong..but tbh i cant see any thing wrong in what im doing as long as the insect goes back unharmed the next day to the same place i found it.

remember this technique is perfect for focus stacking as the insect hardly ever moves..

also remember the important thing here is not to harm the insect..my feeling on this is there out side all night any way..all im doing is making sure they wake up where i want them so i can photograph them before they are warm enough to fly off..i cant see any thing wrong in how i get these images..Your going to be seeing alot of images from me lately..if i use this technique il be sure to mention it in the post..

Fill flash with mt-24ex

taken with canon mpe-65 at just over 4X life size