My neighbors must think I’m crazy, but such is the lot of a (backyard) wildlife photographer. I found this Broadwinged Katydid in my alley while doing some yard work a weekend or two ago. I hadn’t managed to drag myself out of bed that weekend for early-morning wildlife photography, so I was itching for some photography. Plus, I’ve never seen one of these bugs before, let alone photographed one. So . . . out comes the camera for some alleyway macro photography. Only problem: I couldn’t get the bug on a good perch on a decent background. I wound up attaching a branch to my tripod, placing the katydid on the branch, and moving the whole setup into the shade and in front of a pleasing background. I looked a little strange with my macro setup (including large flash diffuser) photographing a small bug sitting on my tripod. But at least I got some decent images.
<Begin photo gear geek discussion>
P.S. To the guys who designed the Canon flash metering system: seriously? Center-weighted averaging is the only choice for metering? And, metering that produces a completely different exposure every time? I finally gave up and used manual flash for these shots. Happily, the Katydid held still long enough for that to work. It’s enough to make me think about switching to Nikon.
</end photo gear geek discussion>
