Mantis

Excellent image!

Well done!

 

Exceptional capture! Well done!

Good shot. Fantastic!!

Trully outstanding. Tell us little bit more how you took it (as others asked already). What kind of light, and especialy how did you set it up? Did you have to wait for this to happen? Did you help it? ;-) I am very curious. Do you do anything to bring these insects to your garden? Thank you for sharing!

It's always amazing when one can capture such a photo as this. You were lucky to get such vivid colors and an interesting pose, plus you had the skill to pull off the shot.

One word "awsome"

right place...right time= great shot. my hats off!

No words to express!!!!!!! Excellent, just excellent. Contrasting colors of hunter and the prey are just nice. Moreover DOF is just enough to throw out the background. Keep it up ettan

Well, the aestetic result is really stunning, it's all perfect: the act, the colours, the lighting, the background, the plant under the mantis - it even has flowers on it... Dare I say... it's too perfect? I mean: this wonderful shot in my opinion does not qualify as a nature shot, it's a still life of a natural subject. Very well done, indeed, but looks too unnatural to my eyes. The mantis relies on also mimetism to take its prays by surprise, but not on a red plant. I have never seen a mantis feeding on dragonflies, always smaller prays, and the lighting and background shows the shot was taken under heavily controlled conditions (terrarium?). Hope you wont take my observation as too much criticism, just my thoughts, and I have already said this is a perfect photo. I looked at your portfolio and like really very much 'mid air refuelling'. Congrats, Marco

Superb, and unique. And no, the clipped wings don't really bother me. I find the colors wonderful as well, and interestingly, the background almost looks like a studio background...:-) Congrats for such a successful take. Regards.

Fantastic shoot and excellent timing of shoot!

 

I think that the colors help to make this photo very great!

 

Congrats!

It's great to see stuff like this because It shows us a whole other world that is happening benith our feet. And the photo itself is nearly perfect.

It's a nice photo for sure. Just as a point of clarification though, was the mantis found on the flower and did it ambush a dragonfly... or is this a staged photo? (i.e. mantis placed on flower, dragonfly fed to mantis)

 

Purely an academic question, but just curious. Thanks, and congrats on POW selection. -Greg-

This is amazing. I don't think it matters one noodle whether this is staged or not -

fantastic capture.

Fantastic macro/nature capture. Most wonderful lighting and details and stunning colors. An image to be really proud off Ettan....Best regards, Harry

Great capture. You have combined perfect technique for an strong moment ...

 

Congratulations.

 

Miguel

AMAZING colours! The DOF is perfect, too many macro photo's don't have the whole foreground in focus (ie: all teh flowers are in focus)

I was so happy to see my photo posted as POW this morning. Thanks for all the comments on my photo and thanks for choosing this photo as POW.

As to answer the questions asked by Pete,Radim,Yogesh,Marco and Greg,,,

This photo was taken from my garden, i found the wild mantis on the flower, so i clipped a dragonfly and fed it to the mantis, Then, i cut down the flower and hang it upside down (mantis won't run away while eating ).thus ,you will get the mantis hanging down by the weight of the dragonfly. so as not to cause overlapping of both insects--or to get the WWF special body slamming effect as mentioned by Wilson Tsoi.

The underlight is actually the backlighting, and i use a reflector to bounce off some light to the face of the mantis. The towel is hold by my maid.See pic for the original position.

I use photoshop to adjust the color and burn the background and turn the picture 180 degree.

 

Thanks again for all your constructive comments.

My congratulations to you Ettan. This is a classic worthy of National Geographic. One point: in your details you indicate that this is unmanipulated. You admit that you did some PS adjustments, and you should say so in the details of the image. It would be good to state how you set this up as well in the details area, so we can go back long after your POTW is gone to see how you created this masterpiece.

 

Bravo!

Thanks much for the explanation Ettan. It was especially interesting to read the 'upside down' part to position the subject(s) so dramatically. An inspiration to do some macro photography someday! Best, Greg

I was spell bound after seeing Mantis. The crisp, sharp and spectacular.

 

I would like to know what lens you used for this kind of photographs. What f-stops and shutter speeds do you work with for capturing something like this.

 

Hope to hear from you soon. I am eager to do something of the sort myself.

 

Mrinal.

Hi ! Mrinah, I am using canon 100 mm EF f2.8 macro len ./ digital iso 400, tv 1/20 and av 20.

Thanks.

An absolutely fabulous image. The clipped wings don't matter a bit to me. You are to be

congratulated on your obvious skill in arranging and shooting this photo.

 

However, I felt compelled to comment because I'm disappointed.

 

Upon finding out that this shot was staged (and shot upside down -- clever), I felt relief,

because my love and appreciation for dragonflies caused me to hate to see one in the

grasp of a Preying Mantis, and doubting that a preying mantis could catch a dragon. But

also, I felt disappointment that what appeared to be an incredible piece of nature based

photojournalism was actually a setup shot.

 

I'm sure that there are many that would disagree with my perspective on this, but I think

that if a shot is staged, that should be clearly indicated in the notes accompanying the

image. To indicate in your notes that the shot was not manipulated may be true from a

technical "photoshop" perspective, but gives the wrong impression to a casual viewer.

 

Maybe it's because my perspective is so strongly influenced by a photojournalist's ethics,

that I am opposed to staged nature shots. I think one of the challenges of being a nature

photographer is that I have to wait for things to happen, rather than interferring and

making them happen. Some books and magazine go so far as to suggest refrigerating

insects to slow them down for easier shooting! I'm apalled! I want to show nature as it

really is, not as I think it should be.

 

Again, it's a great image, and you did a great job of setting up and shooting it... But please

clearly indicate that it was staged.

This is an astounding image. It just overwhelms with it's colors and the close view of nature's actions within the photo.