Mantis

[Astaroth]

I love the mantis, they are very weird. They has saws in their legs, two big compound eyes, three simple eyes, a single ear (in their thorax)… and they seems like aliens!! Have you got any picture of mantis?

I would like to share a picture taken today:

And other old shots:

[JasenkaG]

Thanks for sharing and yes, the mantis look like aliens! My favorite is the first image you posted – those soft pale colors nicely emphasize the insect and its weird appearance.

[Astaroth]

Thanks @jasenkag :)! My favourite is the first one too. I tried to find these pale tones in post processing. This is the original shot:

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

Aww man, now I gotta go back through my LR collection to find the damn mantis. This is gonna take a while.

[Astaroth]

Haha, I’m wishing to watch it, @admin :)!

[Frank]

Wow!

[Astaroth]

Thanks, @rambler :)!

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Love the first image a lot 🙂

[Astaroth]

Thanks @dahliaambrose :)!

[Tersha]

Love your mantis shots Astaroth. We don’t have mantids living wild in the UK, but I’ve kept several over the years, as pets. They are all so different and fascinating!
This is an old photo of the first one I had …

[Astaroth]

Beautiful shot, @tersha :)! It’s watching you :)! With the black background, the hard light and that look, it’s a little scary :)! Its leave shape is amazing.

I thought the mantis were living wild in the whole world. I like them very much in nature, but I prefer don’t imagine them inside my home :)…

[Patrick]

Everyone of these is beautiful , i know i said it already but they just are 😉

[David Chesterfield]

Fascinating creatures!

 

[Astaroth]

Wow, you have a great mantis collection :)!

I usually prefer as closer as possible, so I like very much the third. It’s more minimalist, its eyes in focus make it very powerful. However, I also like to watch them in their environment, your other pictures are very beautiful too :).

[David Chesterfield]

Thanks Astaroth!

[Tersha]

Interesting collection David. Are they all around and about where you live?

[David Chesterfield]

Thanks Diane. Yes – all in my garden. I can usually find one or two on any given day.

[Patrick]

Lovely photos David , love the 3rd one.

[David Chesterfield]

 

[Tobie]

Weird and interesting indeed! Love your 1st shot too @astaroth!

[Astaroth]

Thanks :)!

[Tersha]

jewelled flower mantis

[Astaroth]

These kind of colours are very exotic for me :)! I also like the texture in its wings.

[Tersha]

Thanks Astaroth!

[Ken Scheepers]

Back yard mantis on our water feature

[Tersha]

Lovely Ken.

[Dave Watkins]

They make such great photo subjects. So alien looking. Here’s another. Praying mantis on curly-leaf parsley.

[Astaroth]

A very nice mantis portrait :)! Good choice of deep of field (I usually have some problems with it in my pictures of macrophotography).

[Dave Watkins]

Thanks. DOF extremely narrow in macro. This shot @ 1/25, f/10, iso 400 using a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens. Cropped about 50% as best I remember. Not a recent photo. 🙂

[Astaroth]

It’s the perfect DOF for this scene :).

I usually use a 90mm, but with 68 mm of extension tubes the DOF is minimum. Yesterday I’ve testing to shoot at F/18 – F/64, but the DOF increases very little with each F-stop and the lack of light is huge. I love the very sharp images of extreme macrophotography (5:1 or higher magnification), but I think that they are made in studio, with hundred of shots joined by computer, with a millimeter rail and, usually, with dead bugs. I prefer shot them alive in nature.

[Tersha]

Great shot of a brown mantis Dave.

[Tersha]

Stick mantid

[David Chesterfield]

That is super interesting @tersha! Never seen one before

[Tersha]

Thanks David, @dchester1001, he was fascinating. He was a pet, but they don’t live that long, maybe Ill get another one day. 🙂

[David Chesterfield]

Brutal

 

[Tersha]

Wonderful shot David, @dchester1001! I didn’t know they ate bees, not a photo for the squeamish. I have some similar eating flies, I’ll look them out.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Oops! Great shot David 🙂

[Robert Apple]

Does this Count ?

[Tersha]

🙂 Rotavator?

[Robert Apple]

Yep, a popular brand in the US.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

🙂

[David Chesterfield]

From my garden today.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Great macro shot David 🙂

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

That is solid @dchester1001

[Tersha]

Sweet little mantid David, good shot!

[David Chesterfield]

[Tersha]

Stunning shots David, such a beautiful mantis!

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Beautiful photos David. Love the details 🙂

[Robert Apple]

Nice Shots David

[Dahlia Ambrose]

One from the garden. They are cute and quite friendly! 🙂

[Tersha]

How lucky Dahlia, we don’t have them wilding this country, lovely shot!

[JasenkaG]

This mantis looks friendly indeed!

[Robert Apple]

That’s great Dahlia, we get them here as well, not now though everything is still frozen.

[Federico Alegria]

Interesting point of view! Thanks for bringing this post back to life.

[Author]

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