Sunday, February 7, 2010

Tale of the Blue Tiger Beetle



I was out snapping shots of insects at a pandanus patch near my house one afternoon and
noticed that there was a strange-looking bug making its way around the foliage.It has a metallic-blue coloured body with red coloured legs.I wasted no time by removing my Raynox DCR-250 close-up attachment on my Canon EF
50mm f2.5 compact macro lens and started taking shots of the bug.It was moving around so much, I managed to cap off two shots and that was it.My primary focus was a large jumping spider that is on the prowl on the green patch.There are at least two species of spiders thriving in this small area.I also noticed a large aphid that was mating on a patch of leaves. On any given day, I would have squashed this ugly pest. But seeing as it is, I left the aphid
alone as its not in my way.While I was tracking the jumper's movement, I saw the blue bug resting on a cowgrass. There, it stood elegantly, as if it was waiting for me to photograph it in full glory.I took aim with my camera and shot at least 60% of the beetle in frame and used my pop up
flash diffuser to give it a softer lighting. Now, it turned out that the blue coloured bug was a tiger beetle.I was told by macro photographer Liew Wai Keong that the blue beetle is very hard to
capture because its a sensitive bug.To make matters worse, it has a mettalic body which reflects light, making direct flash
photography very harsh.In total, I managed to get six shots of the blue tiger beetle and the following day, the bug
was nowhere to be found.Maybe someday, it would wander around the pandanus patch again and this time, I will be
waiting with my camera and close-up lens.

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