Up Close with Nature

Since the concave diffusers seem to be in the trend now, and the light from these were really well diffused with no hot spots, I had to make myself a pair of concave diffusers as well. Prior to this, I have been using my version of "cup diffuser" for the MPE65 1X-5X macro lens / MT24EX macro twin flash combo for a couple of months now and loving the light from it. More about the cheap yet great

A collection of some of my favorite weevil images, all shot in Malaysia. Funny how I didn't even know about these cute weevils before I took up macro photography. Mostly taken with a Canon 40D, MPE65 1x-5x macro lens and MT24EX Twin Flash. Episomus sp. weevil All full flash, normally 1/200, F11, ISO100, 40D, MPE65 and MT24EX twin flash with DIY Diffuser. A male giraffe weevil A female

So i posted two images of a same weevil in a forum: Both shot with a 40D, Sigma 150mm f/2.8 with natural light and reflector, and a plamp to hold the branch still to minimize wind movement. Someone commented: #2 is the lesser of the two weevils. Another one laughed :D. I had no idea what was going on. Finally someone showed us this clip: What a pun! :P

Spiders are really cool, especially those ant-mimic spiders. I have come across and also photographed so many ant-mimic jumping spiders and ant-mimic crab spiders in Malaysia. Here are some of my favorites. More awesome Tropical Spiders here. All shot with 40D, Canon MPE65 1X-5X macro lens and MT24EX Twin Flash and DIY Concave Diffuser. A male red ant-mimic jumping spider, Myrmarachne

I have always loved beetles since I was a little kid. Used to be able to find those rhinoceros beetles so easily under the lamp posts at night. Nowadays, one has to go up to highlands to find them. Anyway, here are some of the cool and amazing beetles I have photographed since taking up macro photography. Mostly shot with a Canon 40D, Canon MPE65 1X-5X macro lens and MT24EX Twin Flash. Longhorn

Must be quite a sight to behold! You can witness this at Körös River (Hungary), Central Europe, if you are lucky. Because of these kinds of occurrences being largely dependent on environmental factors such as temperature or moisture, it was nearly impossible to tell exactly when they would happen. Life in the Undergrowth Read more about the amazing documentary here. Since mayflies have no

Some of my favorites robber fly shots. It's always a plus when they have a prey with them. All shot with a Canon 40D, Canon MPE65 1X-5X macro lens, Canon MT24EX Macro Twin Flash and DIY Concave Diffuser. Full flash, 1/200, F11, ISO100, Handheld. First time finding one with silver and blue color scheme! Orthogonis sp. - ID credit: Eric Fisher. Giant robber fly with blue wings, newly molted

Another clip from the Life in the Undergrowth series. If you don't keep your nest neat and tidy, no females will even visit you. On the plus side, though, if you're excellent in this department, you might get multiple visits in a night! var sc_project=5950241; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_security="db14c664"; Highly

I found this "wasp" at Sungai Tua last Saturday. I was completely fooled by its amazing mimicry that I really thought it was a wasp, despite having seen and read about it before. Silly me :D I should have seen the halteres though. Sorry about the bad light. I used my Sigma 150 with borrowed speedlight and snoot diffuser for these shots, not the MPE65. It was to big for the MPE. Syrphidae,

Springtails This short clip is extracted from the great Life in the Undergrowth More about springtail on Wikipedia. You can find my first springtail (Collembola: Paronellinae) shots here. Highly recommended:

Just a short clip from the amazing "Life In The Undergrowth - 01". An orchard spider is shown enduring a parasitic wasp grub, which injects its host with a hormone that deranges it and halts the spinning of webs. The grub then sucks the liquid from the spider's body and uses the remaining silk to form its cocoon. You can read about this amazing DVD and how it was made here on Wikipedia.