The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Not the most beautiful photo ever, but I think it’s relatively poignant. I found this Bald-faced Hornet exactly like this on my deck coffee table. We always have them around and they are fearsome looking, but relatively harmless unless you get close to a nest. I haven’t seen it, but there have been a few dead hornets around the driveway so it can’t be far. Probably this fall it will be revealed and all its residents will die off except for the future queen who will hibernate for the winter.
Not sure what happened to this one, whether it just dropped out of the sky or was harassed by a predator and was too tired to fight. Maybe it did though, given that it seems to have lost its antennae. Check out those wings - that’s some hard miles there. Hornets and wasps aren’t everyone’s favorite creatures, but this just shows that they are vulnerable in the end.
Specific Feedback
It’s an awkward angle with the head tilted downward so far, but I didn’t want to touch it for fear of breaking off those touching wings. Does it work? Does it make you feel anything?
Technical Details
Handheld, but with the camera directly on the tabletop and very still.
Manual focus selection using focus peaking. 19-image stack.
Lr for initial work to improve contrast, details etc. Sharpening & some nr. Zerene Stacker for a DMap image with PMax details filled in. Further enhancement of the TIFF in Lr for the crop, color and some masking to reduce exposure on the table wood. Ps for a bit of distraction removal that Lr had a hard time with.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
An excellent find, well photographed and presented! Details, colors and tonalities are so good! The stack looks perfect and a good idea, as we get to see detail that we couldn’t otherwise. It’s the sort of scene we can so easily overlook, but it tells a story about the fragility of life. A poignant feeling is evoked by it peering into the abyss. Well done!
Thanks @Diane_Miller for your eagle eyes on the stack. You know how it is, you think you have everything right and then something slips by. Almost went in for a platypod or something, but didn’t have to since I could stick the camera down pretty well without it. Plus I had to get really low. Glad it isn’t too weird a shot although it is a bit odd. It’s still stuck there if I had to do it over.
I wouldn’t say odd at all – more like compellingly unusual. It truly evokes feeling.
A small beanbag can let me stabilize a camera on the ground for shots like this. With an articulating screen and a remote or shutter delay, it’s so much easier than in the old days. At the recent workshop I was using my older body almost as low as the tripod would go and pointed 40 degrees up – shooting star trails. The only way to see the back screen was to lay in the dirt on my side. (Canon Connect on the iPhone would have been wonderful if it would have worked… I hassled with it for days before leaving on the trip and gave up. It has always been flaky.)
Kris, I like the title you used. He is definitely grounded. It does leave us wondering if he died of natural causes but does look like maybe something was brave enough to pick a fight with the hornet. The cycle of life, even in the little things. Around here, the fire ants find this to be a feast for them.
I didn’t think to mention it before, but there is some subtle and effective tension in the image with the slight slant of the gap leaning one way and the hornet’s body the other way. Having him slightly below center adds to the impression of falling into a hole.
This is really interesting, Kris, and excellent work. When I looked at it, I initially had a little difficulty getting the perspective lined up to figure out what was going on. After getting my mind wrapped around that, the empathy for this little critter kicked in. I find a lot of insect images I have taken show how hard their lives are-especially considering how short most of them are.
P.S. This looks like perfect inspiration (or excuse) for buying one of those probe macro lenses so you could get down and shoot from just in front of the head.
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman, @Diane_Miller, @SandyR-B & @Dennis_Plank - yes it is a strange view, but I didn’t know how else to work the scene without damaging what’s left of it. The macro proboscis could be useful here!
It certainly was a thing I didn’t expect to ever see. What are the odds?
Kris: I have to confess that wasps (especially!) and hornets are not my favorite critters but you’ve done really well with the opportunity here. Excellent stack and because we don’t see the stinger end there is a bit more sympathy for its plight. Good catch and a fine capture. >=))>
Thanks @Bill_Fach - yeah, wasps and hornets gave me the screaming willies for decades, but I’ve overcome it in the last 10 years or so and I can stand around with them buzzing me no problem. They have never harmed me, but oh, it was so hard to not flip out, I tell you. Glad this helped make them seem less intimidating. At least when they’re dead.
