Calliptamus italicus
Written by Monday, 06 September 2010 00:00
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." John Muir
|
|
Calliptamus italicus (Linnaeus, 1758; common name: Italian locust) This locust was found sitting on the ground, under a bush; we almost stepped on it. The frightened animal jumped and landed on a young pine tree which was 10 meters away. We approached very slowly and started taking pictures of it when we were about 1 meter away since we did not know when it would jump again. To our surprise the locust sat still, probably thinking its camouflage made it invisible to the enemy (us). However, although the locust would blend nicely on the ground it could not do the same amongst the bright green leaves. Focusing was done manually since it would be impossible to do it any other way. Pine needle-shaped leaves were everywhere so we had to open the aperture from f/16 to f/8 to minimize depth of field hoping the leaves would become amorphous green objects and only the animal would be in focus. We spent some time going around the tree looking for a better angle till we found a small opening among the leaves “leading” to the head of the locust. We took three pictures as fast as we could, re-focusing each time. The best of them are shown here. Flash was set to high speed synchronization which allowed us to use 1/1000 sec and freeze the needles and the animal, although there was a strong wind. Photos by Marina Parha and George J. Reclos Camera: Nikon D300 |
These photographs are the property of MCH Portal and cannot be reproduced without the written permission of the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|