The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Not the target species, but close. Tarantula hawks are incredibly strong as they will tackle huge adult tarantulas, sting them to paralyze, lay an egg in a still living spider, which will hatch, then the larvae will eat on their host until they are ready to pupate and eventually metamorphize into an adult. I have seen a tarantula hawk drag a spider, that was at least twice to three times as large, across a thirty foot wide paved roadway, dig a hole in a hillside, and then bury the spider after laying an egg. As most bees and wasps, they are nectar feeders and in the desert are really attracted to milkweed plants. Their sting is said to be a bout four times stronger than a honeybee, as a reference point, and I know that to be true.
Specific Feedback
I cloned out a small intruding OOF milkweed blossom in the LLC. I also lifted the shadows in the wasp which brought out a lot of the blue in the body.
Technical Details
Canon 5D Miii, f8, 1/8000 sec, iso 640, -1 exp bias, 100-400/1.4TC, at 560 mm.
Great story, and I’m so glad we don’t have these (nor tarantulas). I see you kept a respectful distance, Ed, as once bitten… A diffused flash might have brought out more insect detail in the second shot; to my eye even the yellows there could be a bit brighter, but I don’t want you to get closer and bitten again! Gorgeous contrasting colors in the insect in shot 1, especially the sheen on its body.
Very nice images, Ed. I agree with Mike that the first is the better of the two, but I like the side-on look in the second. I know lots of macro folks that run around with the flash permanently attached.
Ed: Good results on both shots. My general MO with wasps is to kill them before they get after our caterpillars. This guy is a worthy subject and although I hate the darn things they can make for compelling images. Well done. >=))>
Thank you @Dennis_Plank and @Bill_Fach. I have a picture my son took with my finger trying to pet one of these like a fool . . . they’re actually not too aggressive, just move on usually, unless you put them in a net and try to get them into a jar. They don’[t take kindly to confinement.
This is supposed to be the second most painful sting of any insect, second to the bullet ant in S. America. Though docile, you probably don’t want to be poking it. Instead watch someone else do it.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnExgQ81fhU .
Thank you @Guy_Manning. Interesting video. I’ve not found them to hurt quite as bad as Coyote depicts them in the video, and they’re not that different from a velvet ant sting in m y experience. Of course, I may not have received the full blessing when they got me. . .
