sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

This is a profile and ventral view of a metallic golden green colored beetle. If you can help identify it please tell me so that I know the next time that I come across one.

It rained like the dickens the day we left the campsite and it was floating in a puddle of water and it also took the ride home in the pill bottle of vodka.

These are stacked images and I used a piece of black velvet placed behind the subject to create the black background. I tried a white background and a colored background however it was difficult to get the metallic colors to show as I saw them.

Thanks in advance to all that view and for your comments, suggestions and critique.

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napabob Loc: Napa CA

nice, nary a shadow to be found...........

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Napabob, I took a 12-oz. slightly translucent drink cup and cut the bottom out of it and cut a section out of the side. I placed it on the lens much like you would a lens hood and I placed a white paper towel over it and I illuminated it from four quadrants around the cup.

I placed the black velvet a bit past the beetle. The first attempt with the white background would not pull in the metallic colorations.

newtoyou Loc: Eastport

You are making a lot of my old friends look their best.
I kept box turtles. I would take one in each hand to a Mimosa tree that these were eating flowers from and let the turtles pick them off. Get a few turtles munching together was a hoot. My turtles were treated well.
This is a scarab.
Cotinis nitida.
Good AM, Gary. A growing package of specimens to go out OOTD. In the meantime,
you are being found by more interesting creatures. Word is out.
Keep them coming, I am getting brain cells stretched that have not been used in years.
Bill

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Bill, Thanks for the ID and it is always good to hear from you and I enjoy the backstories you share with me.

This one is a fair size and its coloration is quite astounding. I suspect that they don't swim well and I also suspect that the heavy rains drove it out. I thought it was a foil candy wrapper laying in the water when I first saw it and I was going to put it in the trash and then to my surprise it was this lovely scarab beetle.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

The 'green june beetle' is a lovely thing. I have seen one, but they live farther south, I believe.
Very nice picture, especially on DDL.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I found it in a pool of water at the campsite in Tennessee during the rains coming up from the tropical storm Barry. Our destination was Bay Saint Louis, MS however I rescheduled the campsite there to October due to the heavy storm and flood waters.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

I believe this to be a Figeater beetle (Cotinis mutabilis).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figeater_beetle

Dixie Native Loc: Leicester, NC

Talk about artistic expression. Taken against the black background really resulted in illustrating those magnificent iridescent colors. The colors are so magnificent, I could see this blown up and framed on someone's wall. The subject is in itself a masterpiece, but the colors alone would make a visually stunning piece. To me, this is one of your most impressive shots. But then again, you know I'm partial to dark backgrounds and beautiful colors.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Again, I am humbled by your review of my work. I find metallic colored insects to be quite challenging to capture the essence of complex mixture of tones and blends. I've tried shooting them in white ping-pong balls and other light diffusers along with using pastel colored paper behind them as backgrounds however the produced colors are not true to what I see naturally in them.

Black has worked best for me with them so far. I enjoy experimenting so I may find something better in the future. I went to the local craft store and bought a piece of remnant black velvet they had. I place it a bit past the subject and I shoot with all lights out except for the diffused light that illuminates the subject.

I use four lights and I shine them at the four quadrants around the subject to reduce as much cast shadow as possible. Two of my lights are variable so I can control their intensity. The other two I soften with diffusers or by distance from the subject. Two are fiber optic and the other two are narrow beam LED.

Both my sessions and I are a continuous work in progress.

Dixie Native Loc: Leicester, NC

Gary

To my eye, you have really hit on the perfect background to present similarly or vividly colored critters.
Don't take me wrong, the second photo is also phenomenal, but the first has a feeling of more depth. It's probably due to the fact that the second is on its' back thus a more shallow presentation. Your lighting on the first also seems more subdued allowing for the natural shadows to take effect. Those shadows then meld into the dark background giving the subject a three dimensionality (if that's a word).

I thank you for all your favorable comments on my photos. At some point I might, at my best, hope to achieve a modicum of the clarity you are able to present with your subjects. For now, I'll keep trying to illustrate, in a somewhat artistic manner, the subjects in their environment and daily living that most people might never experience. At least that's what I attempt to do.

I'm rambling. Keep up your magnificent work and seriously, you need to have someone publish your photos.