A very pregnant Mantis

Image Critiques Macro/Close-up Critiques
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-20240917-_7R43648-Mantis-ARW.jpg
-20240917-_7R43648-Mantis-ARW.jpg2048Ă—1252 1.4 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Truth in posting: I found this gal on one of the porch door frames and moved her to a handy milkweed plant-she chose the pose.

Specific Feedback

I suspect this could go brighter, but it was a gloomy, overcast evening, so this probably represents the way I saw it better than a brighter image.

Technical Details

Sony A7Riv, FE70-200 f/4 “macro” @ 169 mm, handheld, f/20, 1/400, iso 8000. Noise reduction in DxO PureRaw 4. Processed entirely in LrC with global adjustments before noise reduction and cropping and fine tuning adjustments afterwards (some adjustments to the head and upper thorax to emphasize them against the background).

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Nice setting for this mantis Dennis. It is really good to have these natural predators around to keep the other bugs in check, and it looks like your going to have a bunch of them around soon. I love the way she blends in so well with her BG. Nice colors and nice patterns. I wonder if a diffused flash would have helped?

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@Ed_Williams , @Sandy_Richards-Brown I should have mentioned that we don’t have any native mantids in this area. They are all introduced by gardeners, so I usually destroy the egg cases I find. However, it’s never all of them, so we still have plenty to photograph.

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What a find, Dennis. I didn’t realize that mantis weren’t native where you live. I guess I thought they were about everywhere.

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Hi Shirley. They are very wide spread. I don’t know why they weren’t native here, but most of the ones you see here now originated in China and came in on the garden trade. One of our prairie volunteer coordinators was death on them and most of us picked up the habit.

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