photoartflightPraying Mantis With Prey
I was looking for dragonflies in our gardens when I found this praying mantis with it’s bug meal. I was setup for dragonflies with a Canon 300mm f/4 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. So I shot a series of images, handheld, to do a stacked multi-row panorama. I ended up with 7 images for my pano. 2 rows of 3 images and an extra shot for the center. The centered shot sometimes helps for a smoother blended area in the center of the composite layered Photoshop file. I loaded all files into 1 layered PSD file and let Photoshop align the files. Then I use auto-blend to blend all the layers and combine elements for the final file which goes to the top layer. I also save the Master Layered file (just in case I need to go back for a tweak here or there). I then flatten the file for the final image. At this point if I wanted, I would run the flattened file through Nik’s Detail Extractor, then use dFine to smooth out any added noise from the Detail Extactor.
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Cool shots, Reed! !he mantis looks like it’s looking over it’s shoulder at you, worried you’re going to take it’s bug snack! 😉
Thanks Donna! I think it is saying- “You Again! Can’t you let me eat in peace!”
😉
A fantastic camouflage in that environment. Nice pics!
Thanks Hans! It does blend in with the greens in the garden! Almost the exact same green! I was just out photographing a brown Praying Mantis which was smaller, but you could really see it well against all that green in the garden. Thanks again!
Nicely done, Reed! They are such curious looking insects.
Thanks Belinda! We have quite a few in our gardens! Some very large, some very small!
I found a tiny baby mantis in my basil the other day. Had to gently shake it off the cuttings I was taking. Hope it’s still around.
That’s Cool! They are fun to see in the garden. We have quite a few in our gardens. I guess it helps keep some bugs in check!
I’ll accept them over most other buggies in the garden any day!
So True!!!