Out of Sight

Lately, I've been experimenting with creating extremely high-definition macro images. These images are created by focus-stacking photos (on the Z axis), then stitching them as a Panorama on the X and Y axes. It takes many photos to create a single image (tens of photos per image, and up to tens of thousands, or even more. There really is no limit), and as you can imagine, creating these is very time-consuming. Here are the two proof-of-concept images I created using a system I designed. Each is made from thousands of photos. The only image-processing done to create these images is stacking and stitching. Clouded Yellow. Click to see the full image and be able to zoom in to see individual scales. Monarch wing. Click to see the full image and be able to zoom in to see individual scales.

About 10 years ago I was in a really cool place in Ecuador – the Jatun Sacha reserve (which is part of the Jatun Sacha foundation ). Walking through the trails, I was simply amazed by the diversity of insects I observed, but I didn’t even have to go to the trails, insects were literally everywhere: the dorms, the kitchen, and even the bathrooms. The bathroom compound was an open space structure and luckily for me, it also had lights I could turn on. Just before sunset, I’d turn on the lights, go and eat dinner for about 45 minutes, and when I’d come back, I’d check the catch of the day (in other words, the bathroom was a light trap). The surrealness of spending more than an hour each day taking photos of insects in a bathroom was not lost on me, but I liked it! Here are a select few of the insects (mostly moths, also, one spider) I shot during that time, most were identified via iNaturalist , and some I had help with (which I’ll mention). Since I’m not usually identifying species fro...

A few years ago I happened to schedule three separate macro photography sessions over the span of a bit under 24 hours. Each shooting session had a group of macro photographers shooting together. When going to take photos of insects in an open area (e.g. not a jungle), we'd usually pick sunrise/sunset/night times, to avoid the harsh sunlight and the hyper activeness of the subjects. Here are the photos I took, shot in Israel in early March. 1)       Night session – A bit before midnight in Caesarea 22:30 - arrive at the location, get my equipment ready and start looking around. 23:05 – The first cool photo I took was of a juvenile unidentified jumping spider (family Salticidae), this is a three-image focus stack. This little jumper was very inquisitive and curious, I did gently direct it to this position, which is the reason you see sand particles on it. 23:18 – First time seeing this genus ( Hypsicorypha ) of plant-mimicking mantis from the family Em...

Did I already mention that ever since I was a kid I was fascinated with insects and that the ones that fascinated me the most were mantises? Why yes, I believe I did. The biggest and most common mantis in my area was the bush mantis ( Sphodromantis viridis ) . that’s the reason I kept them as pets when I was younger, and was also why I decided to raise a few in 2011 and photograph their entire life cycle.