I thought I was pretty fortunate to discover a few tiny praying mantises on the azalea bushes out front yesterday, until I went out this morning right after sunrise when the dew still hadn’t cleared…
If you look closely at the top pic, you’ll see a large dewdrop adhering right between the mantis’ eyes. Which means, if you look at the image to the left, that forward bump by the antennae isn’t the other eye on the far side, but that dewdrop again.
My model here is about 20mm long (less than an inch.) These were taken with the Vivitar bellows and the Vivitar 135 2.8, Metz 40MZ-3i strobe on-camera direct (top) and off-camera above subject with Lumiquest Big Bounce diffuser (bottom). Oh, and a Canon 300D/Digital Rebel – yes, the first one. Now do you think you really need the latest and bestest? In fact, everything used today except for the tripod was bought used – and the tripod’s fourteen years old…