Saw my first Winter wasp queen out feeding and looking for a mate before hibernating for the winter. My only excuse for cutting off various bits of wing and antennae is it was moving around fairly fast .

Brian V.







Crop from above shot

Hi Brian,
Looks like the old honey, sugar and wonder water is at it again?
Insane detail in the crop mate. . . . .very impressive DOF considering a 'quartering' angle for the shot.
Bruce

Thanks for the comments Bruce

Yes I did spray the leaves with some sugar/honey mix.
Last shot is nearly at a magic angle- where you can get a lot of the bug in focus.
Magic angle- start off head on to the bug and move sideways about 30 to 45' and up 30 to 45 deg.

Brian v.

Thanks for the 'magic' advice...

She's a lovely thing. Wonderfully exposed series, Brian.

Kenny

great find, very rarely see queens any time of year
phil

Thanks for looking and commenting Kenny and Phil

Phil - not sure where the wasps nest around here but fairly often see Queens and drones around this time of year and then again see the Queens in spring.
Brian V.

It's so ... furry. Amazing photos as always Brian.
First time I've read about the magic angle, gotta give this a try, thanks for the tip!
Also curious to know, (mind is practising heorycraft) do you spray multiple leaves or just a single leaf and wait? And wouldn't it be better to drop a single largish drop so it doesn't scuttle around moving from droplet to droplet?

lovely shots,love the detail showing on the crop

Thanks for the comments

Zichar - magic angles can very useful for getting most of the bug in focus in one shot.
I tend to spray several square foot of bush when I do this but just one pass (ie not soaking it). This seems to attract far more bugs than a few drops of honey but does have the disadvantage of the bugs not keeping still. I have once actually added some drops of honey near bugs already attracted by the spray and obviously that does keep the more still but has the slight disadvantage of looking a bit less natural.
Brian v.

Excellent set Brian

I've been doing a sort of "tilt shift" movement with my camera to get those magic angles as well -really a must for people like me who don't focus stack.

Dalantech wrote:
Excellent set Brian

I've been doing a sort of "tilt shift" movement with my camera to get those magic angles as well -really a must for people like me who don't focus stack.

Thanks for the comments John

Brian v.

Another great set, the first is my favourite, great bokeh.

FerBatista wrote:
Another great set, the first is my favourite, great bokeh.
Thanks
Brian v.

Belated thanks for the tip, Brian ... I just couldn't remember which thread of yours that I asked you about this!