I captured this photograph of a Fork Tailed Bush Katydid (Scudderia furcate) sitting on a Blackfoot Daisy yesterday morning in my front yard. I noticed that some flowers were blooming in the undeveloped area and I walked over to see what they were. To my surprise I spotted this very colorful nymph sitting on the flower so I ran in and got my macro gear so I could photograph it. I used the manual focus stack technique that I used to capture the spider on the Buffalo Bur that I wrote about yesterday. There was a breeze which made it difficult to create a perfect stack.
Katydids get their name from the sound of the chirps they make. It is akin to someone calling “Katy-did, Katy-didn’t” and that became how thy were recognized. The Fork Tailed Bush Katydid male as a split “tail” at the end of its abdomen. This physical feature became part of its name. Katydids are very small insects. As a point of reference, this Blackfoot Daisy measured about 5/8″ in diameter. Katydids have excellent eyesight and when startled can hide behind leaves quickly. This was evident when I went back to measure the plant. It ran and hid behind the flower as I got near the flower with the ruler. This particular species is a pest on citrus groves. They nibble on the rind, which ruins the fruit.
This image was taken with my Canon EOS 5DS using my Canon EF 180mm f/3.5 Macro Lens. The camera was set on Aperture Priority mode with the aperture set at f/8, shutter speed at 1/100th of a second and the ISO set at 400. I did not use a flash to light the subject. I captured three images using manual focus stacking (manually adjusting the focus). I brought the images into a single image using Photoshop. I then used Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro to finalize the image.
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Beautifully done.
Thanks Rick!
I agree with Rick. Only issue for me is that I like the flower more than the insect……
It is just a neat flower.
https://tkahler.com/blog/2016/08/blackfoot-daisy/
Your pure flower pick I believe….I think I like that one better as it is without the distraction of buddy that can’t make his mind up about Katy…
The flower is very cool for sure. I like that the flower seems to have flowers in it. The bug adds more physical dimension and it has slight movements (especially the antennas) which make it a challenge to focus stack. I do like that aspect a lot.
Yup. I definitely like the shot and appreciate the difficulty level. Great execution.