Mantis Tries To Scare Dog

Anytime Winston sees an insect he's immediately on it, so I was a

little worried his instincts would surpass my commands to leave it,

but he did great. It actually even did a quick jab at his nose right

after this pic and he still left it alone.

This is to funny...a wonderful capture indeed. I love it!!! Looks like the dog is say" your kidding,right?" haha  wonderful!

So funny!  Great shot.

I think your dog has your sense of humor too! This is great! I love it...and Winston too! Thank you for sharing. :)

awesome, awesome shot!!!

regards,

ot

Best regards Scott!

PDE

It soooooo ...nice. I love it!

Great shot Scott - I think my Hans would have made a quick snack out of this bug regardless of my commands. . .

Well done -

David

So cute!! Wonderful shot!!

hehehehe!  Coool!

Very good.

I wonder what the matis is saying to the dog?  I love the dog's expression too!

He wasn't really trying to scare the dog, he was simply trying to convey the size of the fish that got away : - )

Brilliant shot......self control is worrying for a labrador.

Best Regards

Alf

Terrific!

Great shot Scott - the mantis looks like a music conductor.

Sam

Scott,

This is not a single shot.

Nice composition, but there are these are two different images overlaid into one scene.

First, the Mantis legs do not have their ends terminated properly. They are straight. At the end of each leg should be seen a curved claw like structure. The mantis is a light weight insect that could not have its curved claws buried into the carpet under its own weight , not possible.

Second, the carpet line goes into a blur and is not the same from where the dog lies to where the Mantis is positioned. A blending or blurring tool was used.

Third, the shadow on the dogs ear is correct, but the Mantis exhibits no shadow on his body or the floor beneath him.

Since the canon 7D was used, this image could have been posted at a larger dimension such that it could be enlarged. It was not. However, I had no problem determining the true origin of this image.

Regards,  Mike

Hilarious... 

Thanks, everyone.  I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Mike - Wow.  You really put some time into your definitive deductions.  I admit, I have come to enjoy reading your critiques on others just to see how crazy off base you are at that moment, or how hard you are demanding unnecessary camera details, or just how proud you are that day of your lens collection.  So thank you for the entertainment.  This is a very aggressive mantis and during the first of the shoot it started walking off and I tried to pick it up.  Every single foot was deep in the carpet and I felt like I would have ripped the legs off if I would have pulled up hard.  When it goes into this defensive stance, shown here, you can be rest assured those feet are dug in and there ain't no moving it.  There was no blurring going on either, but I was stupid and shot this at f5.6, so the dof was too shallow.  I was right on focus on the mantis, but the focal plane was going up the middle of Winston's head, so I had to selectively sharpen his face to make up for it.  Maybe that's what you are seeing....don't know and really don't care.  There is a shadow under her and it looks like behind her.  It's just hard to see since the camera was so low....maybe you could even see them feet if the camera wasn't so low.  I did clone out the little piece of lint under the mantis that I put on the carpet so I would know exactly where she needed to stand, being that I set everything up first and was standing above it holding the remote cable in one hand and a stick to direct it and maybe protect it from my dog, in the other.  The one thing you are right about is I "could" have uploaded a bigger picture.  Go through my portfolio...97% of the shots are either 640 or 680 pixels wide.  I hope that doesn't mean 97% of my shots are composites.

Haha, this is really great! Such a humurous shot!

Love the way the dog is watching the show-off mantis :)

brilliant image Scott. my choice for PoW candidate

Scott,

  Wonderful image, one for the wall.  Into my favorites this one goes.  Thanks for sharing.  Take care, Patsy

Nice work, Scott.  Congrats.

This deserves the 7 I'm giving it, even if it is a composite, as the image is both aethetically pleasing and hilarious. However, I do understand Mike's concern about honesty about one's methods. I think--if you care--you can easily dispel that, Scott, by posting other images from this session. I generally think Mike, while a bit quirky, is usually sincere, and I think questioning whether an image is a single image or composite is part and parcel of what "critiquing" an image is. If one is attacked for posing questions about methods, it takes a big bite out of the true function of a forum like this. Just my two cents.

Emmanuel - I agree completely that questioning things like if a picture is a composite or not is part of what this site is about and am all for it.  Unfortunately, Mike didn't question whether or not my picture was a composite.  He told me blatantly flat out that my picture is a composite when it is not.  I would have been 100% civil about it if he had asked and stated his reasons for thinking so and not told me with all of the unfounded certainty in the world when he was obviously wrong.  Posting more images from this session isn't going to prove anything.  What would be stopping me from making composites of those?  I'm not going to post a full size pic or an unpost-processed pic, so you can just believe me or not.  I honestly don't care.  Although, I do have a couple others that were close to making the cut and if I have time I might go ahead and post-process them and post them here in a day or two.  End of discussion.  Anyone can rant all they want about it.  I won't be replying....it's not worth it.