Slurping Stamens

I was absolutely blown away! Compositionally stunning; you have

definitely captured the moment, and without a tripod either!

Awesome work

Congrat's Mark this image is great, I don't do much macro work but I

do know how hard lighting is when your lens is about 1" inch away from

the subject and this holds true for depth of field and focusing too.

Getting all the technical stuff right and such a great pose from the

model which I might point out is is sharp focus from his head to his

ass makes this one a winner.

 

I have not looked at Mark's stuff in a while but if his folder lookes

any thing like it used to it's all top notch stuff. I think I'll check it out right now.

This is by far the best of all your good shots. Outstanding in a technical and aesthetical way. Really touching. One thing I miss in some cases is the biological name of the objects.

Mark, Congratulations. I am new (sort of) to photography and I am finding out that amongst all types of photography I am leaning towards macro.

Your work is certainly a pleasure to view.

Thanks for your contributions towards instruction as well.

Best Regards,

AJ Murphy

This is just perfect!
Perfect dof, action, colours and composition.
I can only admire your entire work.

Congratulations on your choice of POW. Thank you for all the information in your presentation and otherwise. Your photography takes us into another world that parallels ours. One we never even take notice of. This world contains colors, and forms so very nicely illustrated by you, and that we would never see otherwise. Once I get past the idea that it is "bugs" I am looking at, viewing your portfolio becomes a treat for the eyes and senses.

stuning shot..

trouble w/ one thing...

what did you shoot this with???G1 canon but errr reversed pentax had me confused..

thank you for the inspiration..

Mark, Wow! I check out POW for this week and boom!... one of your excellent insect images. One of the first series of photos which jumped out at me when I 'discovered' photonet was your butterflies. This subject and composition are especially great. A well deserved congrats and we're all looking forward to more!

Your work is truly beautiful and the tutrial is great. It has inspired me.

Thank You.

Terry Philhower

conrgats on a very well deserved honor. it's so great to see these beautiful creatures up close, considering they are so awesome to study, yet so hard to come across in this magnitude. your work is educational and unique. thanks so much for sharing it.

finally! a photo of the week that i can actually agree with. i've followed mark's portfolio for a long time now, the pictures are amazing. beautiful work. really. there's nothing wrong with this shot. it's gorgeous.

Absolutely wonderful. I was not aware of your work, and I am very impressed with your portpholio. Your tutorial is most interesting, especially since I own a Canon G2, and had no idea that it could be used to make such images. Your "outside of the box" thinking is truly inspirational.

A beautiful shot and well deserved POW. You truly show their personality. The fly almost looks as if he's talking into a microphone! I also found your macro tutorial to be very informative.

Sharp as a tack, yellow and black. Taking photos of insects, you have a knack!

My favorite photographer on photo.net shows discipline in a very special subculture of photography. His body of work is outstanding and this recognition well earned. Not a flash in the pan with one lucky image Mark turns out eye-turning photos week after week.

Thanks for sharing Mark.

I can understand the ratings on aest. but not the org. ratings. This photo is not orginal, there are million photos like this one and it does not add something new to this genre I think :-)

Good to see a digital photograph make POW...congrats Mark, and keep doing what you're doing.

I have seen so many great shots like this that I believe I at times actually take them for granted. Nowhere else have I ever seen insect captures like those posted here. They are fascinating to say the least. Beautifully seen and captured!!

Mette wrote:

"This photo is not orginal, there are million photos like this one..."

Unoriginal only in the same way that every photo of a human being taken since the first grainy portrait is also unoriginal. For cryin' out loud, try to find another shot of a Syrphid fly doing THAT to an anther! And then try to find one that is composed as cleanly!

Mark, that's a really, really nice shot!

 

What is surprising is that you took this shot using something from Pentax and still managed to get it published on this site. Amazing!

 

Bill

It looks like it's singing into a microphone. :D :D

Can`t really say anything that hasn`t been said. You are, definitely, the insect macro expert on the site. Great photo. I don`t know if it`s your best but that is all opinion. I think for you it would have been better to put up a folder or subject of the week. Looking at the people commenting, there are alot of great photographers praising your work and I think it is well deserved. You say how you do it but I don`t know how you do it.

I was going to ask how you manage with slower shutter speeds to compensate for the smaller apertures required for maximum dof. I couldn't see how a tripod would be useful if the subject was moving ... but then I read your tech info and saw that you use flash! Fabulous work Mark, you're an inspiration. It is very difficult to get sharp pictures at such close distances, particularly when the slightest movement of the camera moves the subject out of the plane of focus.

This pic is so good, and Mark's not even a "professional" Mark, you've really inspired me to get into Macro. Keep up the good work.

Mark, my favorite aspect about your bugs is the lighting. It would be impossible to capture this amount of clarity and definition without the use of some kind of lighting modification, I'd say. The brightest light available by nature would be full sun, but the highlights on all of these are diffused, indicating either a lighting tent of some sort, or auxiliary lighting, i.e., flash, also softened by diffusion. As for originality, there is a lot of decision making going on in so far as camera position for angle of view (considering the limited depth of field) and in background selection (although most of the backgrounds are completely fuzzed over, they are still selected carefully, they still need to be selected carefully for hot spots and color coordination) I agree with the comment way up there that it's hard to find a best shot in your folders, Mark. Congratulations and it's about time.