Texas Beetle Photographs Organized by Family

Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn

Primer on Mike Quinn's Photographic Techniques

Problem: How to get as many good photographs of as many live insects as possible as quickly as possible? Here's our solution:
  • Field Collecting
While in the field, we put critters we want to shoot into a clean live (no kill) vial with a tissue or other material for them to crawl around on. I keep using the same vial until it gets so full that one or two bugs nearly escape, then I switch to a fresh vial. I segregate the really predacious stuff.

Photos of a wide range of insect collecting techniques. Note that live insects are mostly collected via beating, sweeping, blacklighting and rearing. The various trapping methods shown generally collect insects into killing/preserving fluids.
  • Logistics
When on an extended trip, we generally shoot everything each night that we caught that day. This can make for a *very* long day particularly if we blacklight after dark. We generally eat a hearty supper (to keep energy up after a sack lunch) so shooting can last until 1, 2 or even 3 a.m. Then we get up and do it all over again.
  • Equipment
I shoot everything hand-held almost exclusively using Canon's seminal MP-E 65mm 1-5x Macro Lens. - Wiki - Canon - Review - Ento Blog (w/50+ replies) - Amazon 

This manual-focus lens shoots from life size (1x) or about the size of a larger-than-average postage stamp down to 5x which is about the size of a grain of rice full frame. (For critters bigger than a postage stamp, I use a 100mm macro lens.)

I use a ring flash with two strobes. I set one strobe at 1/4 to 1/8 power of the primary strobe to allow for some modeling or a shadow effect. I try to have the primary flash towards the anterior of the bug (its head) but sometimes the subject is uncooperative and its rear end receives more light than its head...
  • Camera Settings
I shoot everything in manual mode, 100 ISO, 1/250 sec. and at f16 (though the effective f-stop is almost always higher). I over expose nearly everything 2 stops due to the white background which is a ~1.5' x 2' plastic tub turned upside down. I simultaneously shoot both JPEG and RAW images. (I use the former and archive the latter on a one terabyte external hard drive.)
By day's end, we may have six, eight, 10 or more vials. We put the waiting-to-be-processed vials on top of a hotel ice bucket.* This cools the critters down a little bit, often long enough to get off one to three shots. The bugs generally then make a "run for the border" of the plastic stand they are on. Each time they reach the edge, I (or an assistant if I'm lucky) will recenter the bug. I can usually get off 2 to 3 more shots before it reaches the edge again.

*(If you want to store live critters in a hotel room refrigerator, make sure to check the refrigerator's temperature setting as it's likely on the coldest setting which may be fatal to your bugs.)

I generally shoot straight down on the bug for the primary shot. As the bug crawls around, I follow it with the camera perpendicular to the platform it's crawling on. The platfurm is the bottom of a 10" high basket placed near the edge of a table. I'm standing and leaning over the platform slightly. (The elevated platform necessitates minimal bending on my part as I follow the subject around.)

After the first series of pix, I enlarge the images on the back of the camera to check the condition of the bug as they sometimes have debris on them, often from the tissue in the vial. If such is present, I rub a finger over the top of the bug which usually is sufficient to clear the insect of unwanted debris.

It helps to have an axillary light source to keep the bug well lit as opposed to using the flash's weak focusing lights which have to be turned back on for each successive shot. When on the road, I'll ask my assistant to train a flashlight on the subject. At home I use two lamps set on either side of the shooting platform.

I can often get a nice shot after about three tries, though occasionally I may shoot a dozen pix. Probably 3 to 6 shots is the norm. Occasionally, I shoot head shots, lateral shots, etc. if it seems warranted. (If it's gonna be a long night, I usually stop after getting the first reasonably decent shot.)

Lord knows it helps to have the likes of Ed Riley spurring you on, assuring you that "this is a really good beetle!", while deep-sixing the common stuff that you already shot one time or another. (Unfortunately, Ed's drive doesn't diminish in the morn, and we usually get to the breakfast table before the grad students drag in!)
One trick that occasionally works for calming down bugs is to put it under a dark bottle cap for a few minutes. Lift the cap and they often stay put momenarily.

For the fastest (least cooperative) bugs e.g. many carabids, we often put a glass vial of EtOAc on top of them until they seem to slow down enough for our purposes. While this is generally effective, it also often (understandably) leads to excessive grooming on the bug's part once the vial is removed. If a particularly large dose of EtOAc is required to slow them down, they sometimes loose functionality in their hind legs... This condition may or may not be readily apparent in the resulting photos.

For large fast bugs, I often switch to the 100mm macro lens which has auto focus. I can usually get off a shot before it reaches the edge of the platform.

A quick dose of EtOAc also acts like smellling salts to "wake up" curled up beetles.
After getting home, I process the images in Picasa: http://picasa.google.com/ - Watch a video introduction - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasa

Picasa is both a free easy-to-use photo editing software and a free way to share your photographs via Picasa Web Albums. I selected Picasa over other available photo editing software mainly because it's a Google product and I'm happy with the other various Google products that I use.

After selecting the best photos for each subject, I try to crop everything square if possible. Sometimes this means cropping part of a hind leg (or less preferably an antenna) to get a tight shot.

Next, I generally lighten the highlights until just before they washout. After the 2-stop overexposure and further lightening, I sometimes boost the shadows slightly to compensate the other way. Rarely, I'll use the "sharpening feature" a smidgen.

I also turn the image if necessary, 90º or 180º to get the bug as vertical as possible (with its head up) to facilitate side-by-side comparison of like species.
I initially post all my photos into Picasa Web Albums, usually by date and location. (Although lately, I've taken to combining trips to the same location into the same folder as previous trips.)

http://picasaweb.google.com/entomike

As soon as they are determined to family, they instantly show up on my TX Beetle Photographs, Heteroptera or True Bugs of Texas, or "Homoptera" of Texas page.

The size of the Picasa thumbnail photos can be increased (or decreased) via the "slide bar" in the upper right of the screen just below where it says "Mike Quinn's Gallery".

The actual identity of the critter shows at the bottom of the photograph *after* it's clicked on. The scientific name can then be entered into BugGuide for associated biological information.

I would like to shoot a YouTube video of all this, but doing so would be a bit of an ordeal in itself...

Hope this helps, Mike 

Mike Quinn, entomologist
Austin, Texas 
512-577-0250 - cell

05 Aug 2011  © Mike Quinn / entomike@gmail.com / Texas Entomology / Texas Beetle Information