Matt's Posts

Will and I have been thinking about writing a series of blog posts on some of our favourite images and how they were taken. The aim is to provide a little more explanation behind some of the techniques that we use and to highlight the most important things to consider when you’re taking wildlife photos.

So, I’m kicking off with my mosquito emerging series of photos. As is the case with most of my macro photos, the inspiration behind these shots came from getting outside and actively searching for subjects – you can’t always expect to come up with good ideas whilst sitting on your backside!

I noticed the larvae of these mosquitoes living in a stagnant pot of water in my garden. I did a bit of research into their development and discovered that it takes about 1-2 weeks (depending on the temperature) for them to develop into the adult form that we all know and love! This was perfect, since it gave me a good amount of time to try and come up with a set up to photograph them as they emerged.

Over the course of about 14 days, I maintained a keen eye on their development. I kept the larvae in a glass of distilled water in my room, covering the glass with perforated cling film – I didn’t want my face to suffer any consequences during the night! Once the larvae had turned into pupae, I knew they were close to hatching. As soon as I saw one that had straightened out (normally they are curled up a bit like cooked shrimp), I knew it was about 5 minutes until go-time.

I transferred the mosquito into a custom made pot of water and made final adjustments to the setup. I was using a Canon EOS 5D with an MP-E 65mm macro lens. For the lighting, I had three flash units – a macro ring lite and two supplementary strobes. Additionally, I had two desktop lamps (one 20 Watt and another 40 Watt) to illuminate the green background. Working at such large magnifications meant that I needed plenty of light to keep the ISO low, the aperture small and shutter speed high.

In order to obtain a strong reflection, I had to get an extremely shallow angle with the surface of the water. This effect is known as Total Internal Reflection. An aperture of around f/16 provided a sufficient depth of field, however, using a magnification of around 4x meant that I encountered some softness in my images due to small aperture diffraction.

After the mosquito had fully emerged from the pupal case, it rested on the surface of the water for a few minutes whilst it pumped fluid into its wings to harden them. I took as many photos as I could, but I was limited by how long it took the flashes to recharge to full power. In total the whole process from start to finish took no more than 5 minutes.

It really was an amazing process to observe through my lens and it actually gave me genuine respect for these insects. Of course, if you have any questions about the set up or anything else then leave a comment below.

Update: We were interviewed about these photos by the BBC. We have embedded the interview below:

Will and I have just returned from a 14 day trip to Nepal. The expedition got off to an incredible start with a helicopter flight into the Sagarmatha National Park. We flew into this mountainous region from the remote village of Lukla and were almost immediately surrounded by towering 8000+ meter peaks including the likes of Everest and Lhotse. Soaring through deep glacial valleys and over high mountain passes was a once in a lifetime experience. Throughout the journey we were accompanied by Tashi Tenzing, grandson of Tenzing Norgay (who accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary on the first ascent of Mt. Everest). Tashi himself has scaled the infamous mountain three times and is one of the most inspiring and fascinating people we have ever met. Near the end of the flight, we landed at Tengboche, a Buddhist Monastery in the Khumbu region.

For the first 2 days of our trip, we were based out of the capital city, Kathmandu. During this time, we visited the historical town of Bhaktapur, one of three cities located in the Kathmandu valley. We spent an afternoon wandering through the bustling streets, passing street sellers touting their various goods. It was fascinating to observe and photograph the vibrant culture and architecture that extends through the ancient city.

Our next port of call was Pokhara, a city that expanded rapidly in the 1970’s due to the trekking industry. The city is a popular location due to its proximity to the Annapurna conservation area. Normally, one is able to see a panoramic view of the Annapurna mountains from the foothills, unfortunately however, we were unable to experience this for ourselves (except for a few fleeting glimpses) due to the haze and thick fog that sets in at this time of year. Nevertheless, we got some nice photos at the World Peace Stupa, where countless prayer flags had been strung up between the trees.

When we weren’t busy photographing the surrounding countryside, we aimed our lenses towards the ground and focused in on the smaller creatures of Nepal. At this time of year, the country’s climate is much cooler, and while this means that the insects are less abundant, they are much lazier and more amenable for photography.

Although not many people know it, Chitwan National Park is one of the best places in the world to see the Asian one-horned rhinoceros. Once widespread over the whole subcontinent, the Indian rhino is now restricted to localised pockets and only numbers about 2500 individuals. In Chitwan, the rhinos can be found foraging in the tall grassland, which offers them both protection and a copious food source. Obviously this presents a problem for photography. The best way to see the rhinos is from a high position, and this is offered by elephant safaris. The advantage of viewing from elephants is that most of the wildlife behaves more naturally than if it is approached by other means.

Chitwan was a wonderful natural environment, which offered opportunities to see plenty of mammal and birdlife, however the pressure on the land from surrounding settlements was quite evident. On a number of occasions, we observed people coming into the park to illegally cut grass for cattle fodder, or to fish in the rivers. We can only hope that in the future, efforts to eliminate these activities will succeed. Unfortunately we remained eluded by tigers throughout our trip, having only seen paw prints on the dirt roads. Hopefully though, Will and I will be able to return to Asia in the near future to photograph these beautiful cats.

Will and I have had our “Caiman under the Stars” image featured as a full page spread in the January-March 2009 issue of Canon EOS Magazine.

On Friday I attended the Awards Ceremony for the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards 2008. I won the 12-18 year old category with my photography of a fox taken in our garden.

My elephant photograph was also placed as highly commended. The awards were presented by TV personality, Matt Baker.

I have just returned from a trip to Washington DC to see my Leopard Cub photo in the Nature’s Best Windland Smith Rice International Awards exhibition. My winning photograph, which has been reproduced at 4×6 feet in size, features alongside the other stunning images from the 2008 competition. The exhibition is being held until May 2009 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

See all the winning photos here: Nature’s Best Windland Smith Rice International Awards

We have spent the day at the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in Germany. Will and I got the runner up prize in the “Other Animals” category of the competition. Here is a picture of us standing next to our photograph in the exhibition gallery.

See all the winning photos here: GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008

My article on the mountain gorillas of Rwanda has been published in the online magazine Nature’s Best Photography for Students Issue II.