Tag: macrophotography

Tiny fly, tinier prey

fly and prey
Fly and prey

“But the predators, the carnivores, come in all sizes from Scrub Turkeys down to the tiny metallic green-gold flies we see around the garden all the time. They are aerial hunters, like miniature dragonflies, and if we had a microscope we might even see their prey,” I said in my previous post.

I had included a photo of one of those little Long-legged Flies, Dolichopodidae, in the post before that, to illustrate the limits of my smartphone camera. The flies are about 5 mm long, quite a bit smaller than a house fly, and I wasn’t surprised that the smartphone struggled to capture them.

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Smartphone macrophotography

This is a follow-up to Photographing insects with your phone (2020), bringing it up to date by seeing what a current mid-range phone can do.

In Cameras for rambling greenies (2021) on my other blog I floated the idea that smartphones would soon become good backup cameras. The impending obsolescence of my phone made me look into that more seriously and put ‘good camera’ near the top of what I wanted in my new phone. Recommendations on tech sites and from friends led me to a Pixel 8.

Insects

I’ve been wandering round the garden with it, seeing how well it goes with insects and flowers. My conclusions in 2020 were that smartphone insect photography was worthwhile so long as you bear three rules in mind:

  • Rule 1: Get as close as you can.
  • Rule 2: Zooming in doesn’t help much because “digital zoom” makes your subject look bigger on screen but doesn’t capture any more detail.
  • Rule 3: Be prepared to crop the image drastically if your subject is small.

First impressions of the Pixel 8 is that the camera is indeed better but its faults and limitations are similar. That is, I’m seeing an evolution, not a revolution. Here are a few of its best efforts with very small subjects, showing the camera hitting its limits.

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Life on man

Going bush is always enjoyable and wildlife photography is a good excuse for it (or vice versa – I’m never quite sure), but it isn’t necessary to go far. Our quarter-acre suburban block is home to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of species of invertebrates, and they change with the seasons so there is always something new. Some interactions are closer than others…

Chocolate Soldier butterfly
Chocolate Soldier on my shin

I was standing still enough for long enough, trying to photograph a beautiful Metallic Mosquito (successfully) that the butterfly forgot that I might be a threat and used my leg as a convenient perch. That was fine.

A little later, a smaller insect thought that I might be worth a visit.     Continue reading “Life on man”

Photographing insects with your phone

I was so pleased with my bee photos (previous post) that I shared them on social media, which led to this exchange:

Friend: Excellent pictures. I have the blue banded bee but, try as I might, I never get a good shot!

Malcolm: Most camera-lens combinations won’t get a big enough image of an insect to get this sort of detail. I use a DSLR with a 100mm macro lens (both Canon) and add a +4 close-up “filter” (really another lens but it screws on like a filter) for the really small stuff. And then I take lots of shots and throw most of them away.

Friend: And I use my phone

Malcolm: Some phone cameras are pretty good, but you have to get so close to the insect that you usually scare it away. Practice on small flowers – see what yours will do.

Friend: That’s a good idea. I do a fair bit of flower stuff for my Instagram but practicing on insects would be fun.

Malcolm: Slow insects would be next, then. Caterpillars patiently munching leaves, assassin bugs and spiders lurking in ambush, etc. Then work your way up to to ants and bees. Butterflies and dragonflies? Only while sleeping, I think.

Friend: Oh dear. I am really not in need of another obsession…

Malcolm: But this is one that can fill in your free time while you’re waiting for a bus or a friend to turn up. All you need is your phone, some sunshine, and any scrap of garden…

My phone is nothing special – mid-range Chinese and three years old – but after that conversation I had to take it for a walk around the garden to see what it could do.

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Dewdrop spider living on the edge

A mature St Andrew’s Cross spider (Argiope keyserlingi) has set up her web between two maidenhair ferns on our back patio and I noticed yesterday morning that she had caught and wrapped a substantial meal, perhaps a fly or a small moth.

Looking more closely after lunch (my lunch, that is, not hers), I saw a much smaller spider hanging around in the edge of her web.

Argyrodes antipodianus
St Andrew’s Cross with a Dewdrop spider at the top of the photo

The macro lens with a close-up filter was able to show that it was a Dewdrop Spider, Argyrodes antipodianus, and even that it was a male (those “boxing gloves”, really enlarged palps, are the giveaway).

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