"Expedition Day 3
Till midday we still had not seen any of the insects we were looking for – but then we took time to just take in nature and then they just seemed to be everywhere…"

Come with me onto a small expedition into the (local) fauna to snap some pictures of the small and not so small animals of the insect kingdom. As is often the case with Wildlife, you need patience, a good eye and a bit of luck to get them in front of your lens and take a great photo.

The colourful butterflies, in this case the Blue Morpho butterfly, are best found near their favourite flowers.

But sometimes they come to you out of the blue. As if they are curious.

The same applies to the Hercules beetle, even if it is much easier to find due to it beeing the longest beetle in the world and one of the largest flying insects. This specimen also seems quite unafraid of the photographer.

But then again it is jumpy and disappears from one moment to the next with powerful wing beats.

The Chinese mantis was the most difficult to spot due to its good camouflage.

Thanks to a good eye, however, a particularly photogenic specimen was found. It also seemed to recognize its image in the literature I took along for reference.

And with luck, the mantis could even be observed hunting – Bon appetit.

My thoughts about the set

In general, I think this is a very nice set with a good representation of the insects. It has a lot of potential for great photos and with their little dioramas they also look very nice on a shelf at home.

In terms of construction, the small dioramas for presentation take up the majority of the building time and the number of parts. However, these are beautifully designed with some very nice details themselves. They fully serve their purpose of showing the insects from their best angle.

I like all of the insect models, but from a photographic standpoint, I think the butterfly is “weakest” model. Although it is beautifully designed, it is only really photogenic from one direction, so it lacks variety for posing.

The beetle offers various poses and many possibilities for photos thanks to its detachable wings. The strong colours and contrasts also make it stand out beautifully against a green forest background. Only the legs could do with a little more freedom of movement for more poses.

My favourite model is the mantis, as it is a very good representation of the animal despite the very delicate model. As is the case in nature, its green colour gets lost in the foliage, but that’s what makes this model so attractive and challenging to get a good shot.

Behind the scenes

For the photos for this essay I went on a little expedition into nature a.k.a. nearby forests and gardens. With the help of a few props I tried to give some photos the atmosphere of a real expedition into the wilderness.

In contrast to real insects, you need less luck to get the animals in front of the lens for the photos. Patience is still required, however, as the animals are ‘relatively’ heavy despite their sometimes very delicate structure. So positioning them on a branch/flower requires patience and finesse – or as sometimes in real life wildlife photography the use of some tricks. In this case wire or tweezers go a long way to make the work a little easier.