Dead Wood Turning

As the weather was not so cold, i.e there was no March snow lying around! I went for a first dead wood hunt at Ramsdown Nature Reserve today.   It was still a little damp, but I stayed dry by using my ground mat.   I set up my MPE-65mm 1-5 macro lens with my battered and tapped up MT-24ex Twin flash ( it’s held together by T-Rex tape now!), then set about turning over nearby dead wood and bark in the hunt for interesting tiny critters.

The first thing I found, was something that can plague your exposed skin if you don’t cover up and tuck in well, a Midge.  This was taken about 2.5x Magnification on the macro lens, and has been subsequently cropped ( as have all the other images in this post ) in post processing.

Next up was a lucky find, as it walked past a larger Elongated-bodied springtail that I was about to take.  However, I always find these globular ones more photogenic and amusing with their face like features.  This one also was carrying a water drop on it’s head.

The first image of it is a combination of two images ( around 2x magnification ), stacked in Photoshop CC, for a tiny bit more depth of field.

This head on image is around the same magnification, but is a single image.

My final keeper of the day, was this fairly small, Elongated-bodied springtail, walking on the edge of some bark.

All images were post-processed using Topaz Denoise and Detail, after cleaning up some dust spots.  All taken on Canon 5D Mark IV, and flash diffused by packing material.