Nature Photographer Catherine Chalmers offers tips and techniques for photographing insects and other small wildlife creatures
Article rating: 5.80
I have two macro lenses -- a 60mm and a 100mm. I prefer the 60, because I have to move really quickly when the animals are moving, and I can adjust it much more quickly. The 100mm is heavier and more cumbersome.
With the "Residents" photographs [in which roaches were inside a customized terrarium], the front and the top were glass, so that light could get in, I would shoot thru glass. But that meant I could only get as close as the glass. So if there were something interesting happening in the back of the room, I needed a lens that had more focal length. That's why I got the 100mm. I couldn’t have really done those otherwise.
I have a front strobe [with an] extremely fast recycle time and a short flash duration. If you're shooting insects, you need both of those. And so when I wanted to get a backlight, I was stuck buying the high-end power-pack strobes, because the cheaper ones have a longer recycle time and the blast of the flash is delivered over a longer period. What you want is for a strobe to have all of the intensity over the shortest period, because that's the pop.
