Hello ,

Over the last while many people have complemented me and asked how I get such good photos of insects. The first question people tend to ask is: “what equipment did you use?” But in my personal experience and belief, this is fundamentally the wrong question to ask.

The main aim when taking a photo for me is to showcase an organism in its natural habitat, with a natural body position, while displaying natural behaviour. Yes, all the insects and other organisms I photograph are alive, as I do not believe in staging a dead animal for a photograph. Ethical and moral photography of any organism includes not disturbing the organism or causing unnatural stress or to let it deviate from its daily routine. There are four main aspects that you need to know and delve into to get a great shot of any living organism.

The first aspect is the biological aspects of your subject organism. If the organism lives in a mist belt forest underneath the canopy, a photo of the organism in a scorching desert isn’t going to look natural. Do some research on your specimen and get information like, where does it occur, what does it eat, when is it active (Diurnal, nocturnal, crepuscular).

The second aspect is the behaviour of the organism. Knowing the behaviour of an organism (even in plants and fungi) will assist you in getting better photos. With many organisms’ information on behaviour is not readily available, so this will likely come with experience and observation of the organism you want to photograph. Ask yourself questions such as, when does the organism move, when does it sit still, how does it react to movement, is there a specific reason that it sits still? Can I replicate the reason it is sitting still? Like putting down a freshly dropped flower with some honeydew still in it, as you saw the ants eating the nectar and sitting still while they do so. Or is there a specific food source where they sit still? Like ants that sit still at aphids to feed on the honeydew they exude. Is there a specific spot of sand or dirt that they are hesitant to cross or that they stop afterwards to clean their tarsi before moving. The moment of hesitation before crossing or the cleaning after the crossing will give some good photo opportunities!

The third aspect of importance is location. No not as mentioned in biology, location on a smaller scale. You will often encounter a giraffe in a savannah habitat, but you’ll never see a giraffe on big smooth granite bolder and neither would you find one climbing a tree. The same thinking applies to all organisms. Many insects are found on plants, and they are quite happy to be there, but make sure the plant you put them on is one that you find them on naturally. It looks strange when you find an insect that is specific to thorn trees on a palm leaf or vice versa.

The last aspect is the most difficult to showcase and even more difficult to plan for, emotion. If you can let someone, feel your photograph instead of just seeing it you have won them over and they will like the photo irrespective of the fact that it might be slightly off focussed, skew, or not the best light.

This example from National Geographic is one of the best to showcase exactly why depicting emotion is so important in your photos. In this photo one can clearly see the seahorse in its natural environment doing what it usually does, clinging to something to avoid being swept away by the current. It is not clinging to a twig or rock like it would do naturally, but to an earbud. This photo evokes the human emotions through showing the impact of pollution on nature, and that is what takes this photo from an average photo of a seahorse to a brilliant one.

The most iconic and beautiful photos of organisms are the ones that clearly and with emotion showcase the organism in its natural habitat or current natural state.

How does the photo of the seahorse make you feel?

If you would like to send me a message with your answers, feel free to do so on Instagram @abugmanslife or via email to [email protected].

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