Photography

People periodically ask what photography equipment I’m using, so here goes: The better pictures of things that are smaller than 2 cm or so are taken with a Canon Rebel XSi and MP-E 65mm lens with MT-24EX Twin Lite flash.  If you are tempted to get this setup, you should know that it won’t let you take pictures of anything larger than 22 mm wide or more than 10 cm (4 inches) from the end of the lens.  Also, I only got this body because it was the cheapest option; a fancier one is probably a good idea if it is within your means. Someday I will need to figure out some kind of homemade diffuser like this or this so I won’t have two glaring white rectangles showing up on every shiny surface.  For non-tiny subjects I use a Nikon D50 with either a Nikon 105 mm ‘micro’ lens (the older version, made for a film camera) or the 18-55 mm lens that comes with the body.  I usually just use the Nikon’s built-in popup flash, which yields passable results for my purposes but would not be a good way to go if I were trying to get high-quality images.

If you would like a print of one of my images, feel free to contact me for pricing and available sizes.  In addition to the photos on my blog, I have over 11,000 posted on www.BugGuide.net, some of which are also displayed at Moth Photographers Group.

Horse fly (Tabanidae: Hybomitra).

Horse fly (Tabanidae: Hybomitra).