Bill sent me two pairs of beetles and some bark to stage a macro photo session for examination and practice of settings, lighting and posing.
I don't know if I am a taxidermist or a mortician at this point however here they are. I don't know their species so perhaps Bill will give us information on what they are and where and how he collected them.
I learned a lot with this session so thanks for viewing and your comments, recommendations and critique are important to me.
Nicely camouflaged bugs. Nice image, too.
i really like this one,with the camo matching the bark,it suits my taste perfectly
Thanks, Bill sent the beetles and the bark to me from his collection so he has a keen eye for what items will compliment each other.
Those are strikingly camouflaged. Cerambycids, by the look of them.
You have developed a total mastery of your equipment.
Thanks Brenda. Bill has been a great help to me educationally and he has provided me with specimens that I would not have otherwise. This is just another example of his help by providing specimens and a substrate mounting which match so well.
I practice with my camera nearly everyday so over time, and what feels like endless experimentation, I'm making some headway with how everything needs to come together.
This is the 'odd' Cerambicid. The antenna are short.
When I first found one about 50 years it was(I believe) Ragium inquisitor.
Now it is Stenocorus inquisitor. It feeds on Viburnum as adult. A conifer borer as larva. Found in pine logs, usually at the stage the bark has loosened. The larva form a 30mm ring of frass between wood and bark in which to pupate. Very early spring emergent. I posted these a few months back, larva, pupa and adult. Rarely found unless looked for.
Bark is pine.
Gary, knowing you repaired these digitally makes this all the better.
To everyone, these arrived in rough shape from transit. I had packed carefully, but not enough. Next time, Gary, I will make a small WOODEN
box.
Gary reconstructed them before posting.
He may explain how. By the way, 8Dec. was date of my post of these.
Bill
These arrived early last week so I hope they were enjoying their journeys in the meantime. Bill had them packaged well with buffers along the sides and fluffy soft insulating material around them. Bill had them mounted on the tree bark for me ready to photograph. From what I could tell the USPS had set something on top of the box that press down on the specimens which damaged a few of their parts which I was able to rebuild in post with my experience in graphics.
I really like the way Bill had staged these for it makes it a much more pleasing and interesting subject. It also captures how they would be found natively in this case in the pine bark.
I hope to do more like this in the future by including a bit of the habitat along with the specimen I collect.
sippyjug104 wrote:
These arrived early last week so I hope they were enjoying their journeys in the meantime. Bill had them packaged well with buffers along the sides and fluffy soft insulating material around them. Bill had them mounted on the tree bark for me ready to photograph. From what I could tell the USPS had set something on top of the box that press down on the specimens which damaged a few of their parts which I was able to rebuild in post with my experience in graphics.
I really like the way Bill had staged these for it makes it a much more pleasing and interesting subject. It also captures how they would be found natively in this case in the pine bark.
I hope to do more like this in the future by including a bit of the habitat along with the specimen I collect.
These arrived early last week so I hope they were ... (
show quote)
To all, I appreciate Gary's appreciation, so a good trade.
Bill
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