Green Capsid on White Gladiolus

[Bilbo_baggin]

Went for a look around the garden tonight and quickly spotted one of the annoying pests that infiltrate the shrubbery and flowering plants - a capsid bug.

This one was clambering across one of the petals on the white gladiolus growing up behind the spiraea near the rockery. These bugs can be very damaging in the garden, and are generally best destroyed or (if you are kind like me) donated to a neighbour.

Anyway, this was always going to be a challenge, because the outside light kept going out after 90 seconds so I had to trigger it on the IR detector to light the flowers up again continually, and of course I had to use flash - which against white petals does not a good combination make. However, I dialled in some -EV on the ring flash which seems to have done the trick, combined with some light loss from using extension tubes, along with a bit of careful work on the raw file.

Manual focus, manual control, tripod mounted, cable release, three extension tubes on the Sigma 105.


All in all, I think it came out well, and I'm quite pleased with the little series I got on this.


Exif:

Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 105mm
Image Date: 2010-09-01
Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/9.5
Exposure Time: 0.0056 s (1/180)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: Yes (Manual)
Color Space: sRGB
Photographer: Paul Iddon
Copyright: www.pauliddon.co.uk







Paul.

[dpSparhawk]

You did very well mate. With the conditions making photographing awkward the result is very good. Sharp detail and good light.

[chesser]

nice capture Paul, loving the vivid colours..

[peterc4]

very nice, my kind of focus