Cicada

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Ganesh H Shankar
Cicada
Cicada (corrected, werongly mentioned it as cricket earlier) is more heard than seen in our jungles. It is there every where in our jungles but takes some patience to find one. I must have spent an hour to get what I wanted. Thank God it stayed.

Macro photography often needs lots of patience to get precise results. I might have made about 50+ images to get up to this one.
This is not made using torch light, I used an off shoe flash with a soft bouncer to precicely control the light output I wanted. One of the issue with torch light is not enough spread which may create some artificial lighting effect for subject during the day unless we don't carefully control the influence of ambient light. Exif - 200mm f4 macro at f13, off shoe flash with a soft bouncer used as a back light, made during day time.

Thanks for your views..
Sun Aug 23, 2009 9:48 am
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Ganesh H. Shankar
Wishing you best light,

Image
Fine Art Nature Photography


Ganesh H Shankar  Joined CNP On 24 Apr 2008    Total Image posts 973    -   Total Image Comments 7874    -   Image Post to Comment Ratio 1:8    -   Image Comment Density 38     -     Total Forum Posts 956

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Commentby krishnan v on Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:37 am

Nicely seen. Even with an off shoe flash , it is tough to get this precision with a live specimen. I like the way the curve of the tree is highlighted, sort of complements the backlight and also the black space to the left. Wonderfully executed.

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Best Regards
---Krish
http://www.krishphoto.com

Commentby Sriharsha Ganjam on Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:30 am

"Thank God it stayed" Ganesh, else we would have missed this noisy jewel. I just love the output here. The light makes it look more like a fire fly to me than a Cricket. What a precise execution here I just love it. Seriously sir its OOW (Out Of the World) and "Thank God it stayed"

Commentby Shivakumar L Narayan on Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:31 am

Exactly an image which i was very keen on making during the WG trip couple of weeks back of a ciccada. I heard them so much but never get to see one. At times the sound source was hardly few feet away but in dense forest its not a easy task to find them.
Perfect use of light - space and subject stance. Am in love with this image.
I still remember a Ciccada (if am right) image which VMR had made some time back which depicts its exoskeleton.
I guess i will have to wait for some more time to make an image which is there in my mind.

Edit: Was referring to this > http://www.indianaturewatch.net/display ... p?id=12323

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Shiv | +91 97390 36563 | www.shivakumar.net | twitter | facebook | instagram | youtube



» Last edited by Shivakumar L Narayan on Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

Commentby Vijay Mohan Raj on Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:29 pm

This is a true example of how fantastic mood lighting can be achieved with flash. The subtleties of the macro subject is so nicely highlighted with the way you have wanted to depict. I think off shoe flash is really a very good approach especially if you want to shoot macro. I would like to know whether a warming gel was used for the flash. Compositionally a very strong image indeed. This is a new benchmark image for using off-shoe flash creatively. By looking at the image we comment easily working in the field in the night with nothing much for the eye to see and pull it off is certainly a very tough task indeed.

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A creative mind is a restless soul...

Commentby Ganesh H Shankar on Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:57 pm

VMR, I did not use any warming gel. I made this during day time in a dark shaded area.

What makes off shoe flash in macro tough in this kind of backlighting efforts is precice control of the region of light spread. For example I have several images where bark of the tree has undesirable lighting. I would keep the camera in timed trigger mode, go on the other side of the tree to hold the flash when camera triggers and come back to see the result and repeat the experiment with different flash direction to control the spread of the region of light ! And while we do all these our subject should stay put !! Often in nature photography effort behind making a desired image goes unnoticed. Often we go home empty handed, frustrated.. But some times it pays off..

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Ganesh H. Shankar
Wishing you best light,

Image
Fine Art Nature Photography



» Last edited by Ganesh H Shankar on Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:51 pm; edited 2 times in total

Commentby Shankar Kiragi on Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:18 pm

Very delicately and pricisely handled lighting on the subject. You can not achieve this result in just one day or in few attempts. It's the patience and practice pays off.

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Cheers, Shankar Kiragi

Commentby Pramod Viswanath on Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:35 pm

No matter howmuch ever OOOs, AAAs and WOWs are expressed, I presume nothing can match or correlate to the amount of effort, thought and execution that has gone into this image. If 50:1 is your hit rate - I would hate to call it HIT rate!! I would call it 50 successful attempts to create an image that pleases everyone perfectly. And, 1 image that will have the last laugh and causes displeasure to NONE and also makes everyone want to look at it in awe for aeons!

This critical quality and signature imaging will be extremely different for anyone to 'ape' or supersede the bar set by you.

Coming to the image, what makes this image for me is not the angle of light but the 'angle of bounce' that you have created - the catch light in the eyes. Light travels in a straight line and that is science. "Bending" the light to your needs is A R T and can only be visualized and translated by a true artist.

I can go on and on about this image and your effort but am damn sure nothing will please you until you see it on the Hahnemuhle! Please do remember to give a ring when you are done. Just dying to to see this on the wall..

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Pramod Viswanath
Frames from wild | My Blog
Our only limitation is imagination !



» Last edited by Pramod Viswanath on Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:46 pm; edited 5 times in total

Commentby Nilanjan Das on Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:45 pm

This is a lesson photograph . Thanks for sharing how you made this image Ganesh. I would not have even imagined that in day light an image like this can be created. Thanks to your immense experience, that you could visualize this and make such an image. compliments.

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Nilanjan Das Photography

Commentby ramesh_adkoli on Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:15 pm

Ganesh, fantastic image. All your effort paid off in the end. Congrats. Thanks for sharing your field experience of making this image. It is a great learning for me on closeup and flash photography. TFS.

Commentby Ashwini Kumar Bhat on Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:12 pm

You have proved again that you are master of light! Just perfect control over the light. For my taste the frame looks a bit tight. I would have preferred a bit more space at the bottom and MAY BE a little smaller size of the creature... Just my taste... Thanks for sharing this...

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Cheers,
Ashwini Kumar Bhat
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My scribblings | My Portfolio

Commentby Nilanjan Das on Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:37 am

I think its a perfect one for me. I simply do not qualify to comment on images like these. Lets see and enjoy and learn :).

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Nilanjan Das Photography

Commentby swhl on Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:25 pm

a wow shot.. the kind of shot where your name is written all over it... simply love the way you use light, Ganesh! always a great inspiration your shots are.. thank you... and extra thanks for explaining the 'How' part... :)

Commentby Nirav Bhatt on Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:27 am

Extremely impressive!!


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