Way back on one of my early '70s birthdays, I was given a book called 'Borne on the Wind' by a photographer named Stephen Dalton. He was one of the pioneers in photographing insects in flight. But his images, while stunning, seldom looked natural, many being taken in a studio.
I loved the book, and the way that the camera revealed views of insect behaviour that were impossible to see with the naked eye.
This summer, I spent a lot of time photographing butterflies, and while the results were respectable, they didn't really excite me. There was nothing there that I hadn't seen a thousand times before. Which got me thinking about Dalton's images, and wondering whether todays digital cameras could capture something similarly unusual.
On the plus side, technology was in a different league and using cards rather than film, I had a limitless number of frames with which to make an attempt.
On the downside, I wanted to work fluidly under natural conditions, which meant no strobes, wind tunnels or controlling of natural behaviour.
Oh, and to minimize the sitting around waiting and maximise the opportunities for shooting, I decided no tripod either.
So I was going to be shooting macro, handheld images of movement too fast for the eye to see and too unpredictable to anticipate, using only natural light.
I have to admit, I thought it was unlikely to work.
But the thought wouldn't go away, and eventually, I worked out a technique to do it. I call it the 'bloodyminded persistence and luck' method.
And these are some of the results to date.
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| Brimstone butterfly |
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| Spotted Longhorn beetle (Rutpela maculata) vs. Silver washed fritillary |
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| Brimstone vs. Large skipper |
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