Moth Trapping

Maria was kind enough to buy me a Moth trap recently.  It's a simple UV light over a white canvas box that I can run overnight in the garden.  The moths are attracted to the light and hide in the box, tucked away in egg boxes till morning.  Come the dawn I close the trap down, have some breakfast and then investigate the contents (if any).

Obviously my main objective is to photograph any moths that are lured to the light.  Many settle on the white canvas of the trap or on a white backdrop behind the light box and can be photographed in situ.  Fine for record keeping but hardly creative, the weave of the canvas or backdrop failing to add anything to the image, no matter how beautiful the moth.  For example, this shot of a Jersey Tiger, Euplagia quadripunctaria, doesn't do the moth justice.

Better to display the moths in a more attractive, natural looking setting.  

Fortunately many moths are torpid in the morning after the trap is opened.  Although some do immediately fly away many others can be coaxed onto a finger or a suitable twig and then moved onto a more photogenic environment.  This Buff Ermine, Spilosoma luteum, happily sat on my finger and could then be transferred onto some dead tree fern fronds for photography.

Sometimes the transfer is to a leaf or leaves, as with this Poplar Hawk Moth, Laothoe populi...

...or onto a twig, as with this male Four-spotted Footman, Lithosia quadra.

The objective is always to produce an uncluttered shot with a natural looking background ro set off the moth. One complication is that I'm shooting with my STF-8 twin macro flash and the Olympus 60mm macro so the light fall off behind the subject is fairly swift.  Hence I use a pale green background, which darkens a little with the light fall off to produce a pleasing neutral background for many shots.

I've even set up a little studio scene for outdoor use which gives me a number of scenic options.  It's only a couple of branches and some interesting stones housed in a small planter with the backdrop behind but the results are looking good.

Here's a Knot Grass moth, Acronicta rumicis on one of the branches...

...while a Square-spot Rustic, Xestia xanthographa, sits happily on another...

...and a Black Arches, Lymantria monacha, perches happily on the stone.

I've only managed a few trapping sessions so far and am limited to shooting only in my Plymouth garden, restricting the range of species that are likely to be attracted to the trap, but already it's proving very satisfying in photographic terms and it gives me an idea of what's around.  Different moths have different flight times so it will be fascinating to see the range as the seasons roll around.

A final word.  All shooting was outdoors and all moths were released unharmed into thick vegetation after shooting.  None were additionally cooled or stunned.  They could - many did - fly away before I got the chance to shoot them but that's all part of the requirements for ensuring their ethical treatment.

Olympus 8-25mm f4 Pro

I mentioned in my January post on the Panasonic 9mm f1.7 that, although I liked the lens for it's sharpness and light weight I was not too impressed by the noticable chromatic aberration in high contrast shots.  I also said that my preferred option would have been the Olympus 8-25mm f4 Pro lens but the budget wouldn't stretch to that.

Now it has.  Thanks to an unbelievable one time Amazon offer I snapped up a new 8-25mm for £570, significantly less than the price for a well used example.  It arrived yesterday and I had a brief window in the evening (after my cooking and kitchen cleaning duties!) to take some shots in the garden.

Shots including these:

Shot against the evening light at 8mm handheld, with light bouncing back from patio doors to illuminate the trunk of the Yucca, and even a small sunstar on the first image, I was more than happy when I got it back to the computer and viewed them at 100%.  Yes, it needed processing to darken the sky and lighten the foreground but the file stood up well to the necessary Lightroom masking.  Above all, no chromatic aberration, an improvement on the Panasonic 9mm.

In another example I stressed the lens to the utmost with another against the light shot through my shaded central bed into the backlit bananas that are just developing their massive leaves.

8mm and necessary post processing again but the lens stood up well to the high contrast lighting.  

Obviously I'll be doing a great deal more testing to fully explore the capability and flexibility of this new lens but I'm already impressed.  The colour and resolution is all I would expect from an Olympus Pro lens and it certainly fits into my plans to slightly lighten my load by only taking the 8-25mm, 60mm macro and 40-150mm f2.8 (+1.4x teleconverter) when I want to save a little weight but still cover the widest possible range of shots at publication quality.  Yes, there's a gap in the 25-40mm range, but that's hardly a problem that can't be solved by taking a couple of paces forward or back.

Will I keep the 9mm?  Too early to say but, if I don't find myself using it, it will go.

Robin preening

Been a bit busy lately, catching up on some much needed work in the garden, but my resident robin redbreast (Erithacus rubecula) decided to interrupt me by going through a preening ritual while perched on the handle to one of my larger shrub pots.  How could I resist.

Poor thing looked rather disheveled. I know a pair are nesting in the garden and this must be one of the adults looking rather worn out with parenting duties.

All shot with the EM1 Mkii and Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 Pro.at ISO 800.  There wasn't a lot of noise but I used the Adobe DeNoise in Lightroom just in case.  The dark backgrond helps to emphasise the bird though it did need -0.7EV in exposure compensation to illuminate the bird correctly.  I never fail to admire the resolving power of the Pro lens and camera combination.