Portraits of insects reveal the intricacies of a world | Hacker News Reader

Portraits of insects reveal the intricacies of a world

smithsonianmag.com

89 pointssohkamyung25 comments

“To capture tiny parts of the creatures in perfect focus, Danke puts his camera on a high-precision macro rail that can move in the micrometer—one millionth of a meter—range.”

I was amazed by this and thought such a high-end rail would be thousands of dollars. Nope, there are models on Amazon for $200!

You need a rail and dead insect to get the sort of super detailed photos in the article. But you can get decent photos of live insects handheld with a macro lens and flash (and some patience!).

I wonder how he got these perfect specimens to photgraph? Capture them in a buglight jar and suffocate them? He had to have been doing it fairly quickly so their carcass didn't deteriorate before he got the photos.

One of the approaches is putting insects into freezer

Indeed. That's how I shoot insects: live and in the field with a macro lens. It's quite a challenge, especially for the smaller insects (2-3 mm in length).

It is a bit easier if you photograph them in the morning, when they are still cold and sluggish. You can get a similar effect by putting them in a container in the fridge for a few minutes. But don't leave them in too long! And warn your partner...

I'm more into shooting insects in the wild, when they are active and doing their thing, so I can also catch their behaviour. I contribute to iNaturalist, and a few of my observations have ended up as documentation in some scientific papers by local scientists.

Cool. Can you link to some photos online?

You can visit my iNaturalist profile and see the photos.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/sohkamyung

And here's a Singapore Biodiversity Report that included photos from me (Figs 10-12) [PDF]

https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/0...

Nice. The Black and white Spiny Spider is quite striking looking. Nothing like that in the UK, as far as I know.

While nothing like the photos in the article, I've gotten neat footage of living insects (and other arthropods) by putting them in a little makeshift container under my microscope, with strong lighting from the side. This is very much not a good setup, but it's allowed me to capture things like a front view of an earwig cleaning its antenna.

I typically do this when I find a little arthropod inside; instead of killing it, I give it a free trip outside without (intentional) harm, for the small price of experiencing an alien abduction.

That's really nice!

I can just imagine the bug trying to tell his buddies that he was abducted and examined by a massive alien creature, but no one believes him. ;0)

Danke will be stacking images to keep this extreme detail at all depths. Impressive.

I use a cheap rail and just stack the photos to get a decent end result.

I literally know nothing about photography and can do really high quality macro shots. Technology is amazing.

There is a replacement method: thrusting the insect by your tweezers. thank you did this search, it is a useful information.

"He hopes the text will be translated into English."

If you are reading this, yes, please do. I was ready to buy it.

For anyone else, who speaks German though, you can already buy it here: https://www.kosmos.de/de/von-angesicht-zu-angesicht_1179000_...

The intricacy of the design in these insects is absolutely amazing.

And it's all smashed to bits as soon as one lands on me. How tragic!

It is tragic that some people feel the need to destroy every insect or arachnid that comes anywhere near them. 99.9% of them are harmless to humans. I don't understand the compulsion to maim or kill them.

As someone who doesn't kill them, I can explain the compulsion.

People feel threatened by insects. They tickle, they sting, some spread disease. They can be painful. Some species can do major damage to structures and crops. They look alien and menacing to many people.

I wish those people would learn some empathy and curiosity.

As someone who has describe insects species we might alternately say "the evolutionary processes that lead to the anatomy of these creatures is mind-blowing".

Find access to a 60x scope. Fill a yellow party bowl with water about 3/4 full. Put a drop or so of non-lemon dish-soap on the edge, it will break the surface tension. Put that bowl outside, literally anywhere there is plant life (and pretty much anywhere in general). Get an algae removing dip-net, for fish tanks. After a day, but no longer than that, pour the sample through the net. Rinse it carefully by running fresh water over your hand onto the specimens. Invert the result into a small, flat-bottomed white pan with a little ethyl (or propyl) alcohol you get from a pharmacy. Put that under the scope. Be amazed.

I've seen a lot of minds melted by this little experiment, which isn't so little, it's the best way to collect many insects. In the field we'd run hundreds of these on collecting trips, servicing them every day or so.

No doubt!

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