Backyard Mothing - Summer 2014
Stan Malcolm Photos - Marlborough, Connecticut

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I set up a sheet and 300 watt incandescent bulb (from Ace Hardware) at the back of my yard nearest the woods and monitored it for moths and other insects after dark and periodically through the night on dates corresponding to the thumbnail images below.    About the Photo Equipment







 

 

 

All images Copyright Stanley E. Malcolm, 2014. 
Images can be used for non-commercial purposes upon notifying me (stanmalcolm "at" yahoo.com).
Commercial use (e.g., at print resolution) can be arranged.

 


 

Photo Equipment and Technique

Photos taken with a Canon 7D DSLR body, Canon Speedlight 580EX II (with a Gary Fong diffuser pointed forward), Canon 100mm Macro lens and an Olympus IS/L B-MACRO H.Q. Converter (close-up lens) mounted with a filter ring adapter. Initially, I held a small LED headlamp beside the camera to get sufficient light for manual focusing (by moving the camera, not adjusting the focusing ring which I had preset to the approximate area I wanted to cover).  Later, I swapped the headlamp for a pair of LED book lights mounted on each side of the lens.  Shutter set manually at 1/200th second; aperture set manually at f-14 to f-18; ISO 200.  Speedlight set to ETTL.  Shadows, highlights, and exposure adjusted in Adobe Lightroom 4 from Camera RAW originals.

 

 

Note that for daylight flash-supported macro photography, I use several alternative variants on this rig, some using the camera's pop-up flash and foil covered panels left and right to provide indirect, diffuse light on the subject.  The inspiration for these designs is the superb macro photography and clever macro flash rigs of Art Vaughan.  Art is very gracious about sharing designs, part lists, and troubleshooting tips.  (Thanks Art!)