Mantis by ettan ettan

No words to express!!!!!!! Excellent, just excellent. Contrasting colors of hunter and the prey are just nice. Moreover DOF is just enough to throw out the background. Keep it up ettan

Well, the aestetic result is really stunning, it's all perfect: the act, the colours, the lighting, the background, the plant under the mantis - it even has flowers on it... Dare I say... it's too perfect? I mean: this wonderful shot in my opinion does not qualify as a nature shot, it's a still life of a natural subject. Very well done, indeed, but looks too unnatural to my eyes. The mantis relies on also mimetism to take its prays by surprise, but not on a red plant. I have never seen a mantis feeding on dragonflies, always smaller prays, and the lighting and background shows the shot was taken under heavily controlled conditions (terrarium?). Hope you wont take my observation as too much criticism, just my thoughts, and I have already said this is a perfect photo. I looked at your portfolio and like really very much 'mid air refuelling'. Congrats, Marco

Superb, and unique. And no, the clipped wings don't really bother me. I find the colors wonderful as well, and interestingly, the background almost looks like a studio background...:-) Congrats for such a successful take. Regards.

Fantastic shoot and excellent timing of shoot!

I think that the colors help to make this photo very great!

Congrats!

It's great to see stuff like this because It shows us a whole other world that is happening benith our feet. And the photo itself is nearly perfect.

It's a nice photo for sure. Just as a point of clarification though, was the mantis found on the flower and did it ambush a dragonfly... or is this a staged photo? (i.e. mantis placed on flower, dragonfly fed to mantis)

Purely an academic question, but just curious. Thanks, and congrats on POW selection. -Greg-

This is amazing. I don't think it matters one noodle whether this is staged or not - fantastic capture.

Fantastic macro/nature capture. Most wonderful lighting and details and stunning colors. An image to be really proud off Ettan....Best regards, Harry

Great capture. You have combined perfect technique for an strong moment ...

Congratulations.

Miguel

AMAZING colours! The DOF is perfect, too many macro photo's don't have the whole foreground in focus (ie: all teh flowers are in focus)

I was so happy to see my photo posted as POW this morning. Thanks for all the comments on my photo and thanks for choosing this photo as POW. As to answer the questions asked by Pete,Radim,Yogesh,Marco and Greg,,, This photo was taken from my garden, i found the wild mantis on the flower, so i clipped a dragonfly and fed it to the mantis, Then, i cut down the flower and hang it upside down (mantis won't run away while eating ).thus ,you will get the mantis hanging down by the weight of the dragonfly. so as not to cause overlapping of both insects--or to get the WWF special body slamming effect as mentioned by Wilson Tsoi. The underlight is actually the backlighting, and i use a reflector to bounce off some light to the face of the mantis. The towel is hold by my maid.See pic for the original position. I use photoshop to adjust the color and burn the background and turn the picture 180 degree.

Thanks again for all your constructive comments.

My congratulations to you Ettan. This is a classic worthy of National Geographic. One point: in your details you indicate that this is unmanipulated. You admit that you did some PS adjustments, and you should say so in the details of the image. It would be good to state how you set this up as well in the details area, so we can go back long after your POTW is gone to see how you created this masterpiece.

Bravo!

Thanks much for the explanation Ettan. It was especially interesting to read the 'upside down' part to position the subject(s) so dramatically. An inspiration to do some macro photography someday! Best, Greg

I was spell bound after seeing Mantis. The crisp, sharp and spectacular.

I would like to know what lens you used for this kind of photographs. What f-stops and shutter speeds do you work with for capturing something like this.

Hope to hear from you soon. I am eager to do something of the sort myself.

Mrinal.

Hi ! Mrinah, I am using canon 100 mm EF f2.8 macro len ./ digital iso 400, tv 1/20 and av 20. Thanks.

An absolutely fabulous image. The clipped wings don't matter a bit to me. You are to be congratulated on your obvious skill in arranging and shooting this photo.

However, I felt compelled to comment because I'm disappointed.

Upon finding out that this shot was staged (and shot upside down -- clever), I felt relief, because my love and appreciation for dragonflies caused me to hate to see one in the grasp of a Preying Mantis, and doubting that a preying mantis could catch a dragon. But also, I felt disappointment that what appeared to be an incredible piece of nature based photojournalism was actually a setup shot.

I'm sure that there are many that would disagree with my perspective on this, but I think that if a shot is staged, that should be clearly indicated in the notes accompanying the image. To indicate in your notes that the shot was not manipulated may be true from a technical "photoshop" perspective, but gives the wrong impression to a casual viewer.

Maybe it's because my perspective is so strongly influenced by a photojournalist's ethics, that I am opposed to staged nature shots. I think one of the challenges of being a nature photographer is that I have to wait for things to happen, rather than interferring and making them happen. Some books and magazine go so far as to suggest refrigerating insects to slow them down for easier shooting! I'm apalled! I want to show nature as it really is, not as I think it should be.

Again, it's a great image, and you did a great job of setting up and shooting it... But please clearly indicate that it was staged.

This is an astounding image. It just overwhelms with it's colors and the close view of nature's actions within the photo.

wow! this is an amazing picture-it captures the elegance between to beings

THE PHOTOGRAPH CAPTURES A REAL TIME EVENT,WITH VIVID COLOURS ENHANCING THE IMPACT OF THE PICTURE.

Steve wrote: "I want to show nature as it really is, not as I think it should be."

I think this is a very respectable opinion, and one that would deserve a discussion of its own. Knowing other pictures by Ettan Ettan which he declared staged, I must say I suspected this one was as well - but only because of the background, since I know nothing at all about wildlife's secrets. I find the above comments very interesting: I see there that it would in fact be impossible (?) to capture a mantis eating a dragon fly in this position, and I see that a mantis would probably not be able to capture a dragon fly either (?). Are these 2 comments accurate? And if so, I would like to know whether the photographer knew it...? If he knew it, I would be very interested if he could share with us the "philosophy" behind the setting-up of such a photo. In short, Ettan, why would you stage a photo that COULD NOT exist in reality ? Why not, if you want to stage images of nature, stage a REALISTIC natural scene...?

We are a pretty funny bunch of folks here. Most of us own Photoshop and spend a lot of time "fixing" our photos to make them look the way we want (or the way we expected). Ettan didn't manipulate the photo, he manipulated the scene. Is that such a big deal? He captured something that most of us have admitted is beautiful and awesome. Just because a bait was set doesn't really take away from the techical aspects and pure beauty of the shot. What makes this any different than using a flash? Does a perfect shot only come from what can be changed on a camera? I think it's necessary sometimes to manipulate the scene in order to capture the image we can only dream of.

Jeremy Preece: "I think it's necessary sometimes to manipulate the scene in order to capture the image we can only dream of."

Manipulate background, manipulate lighting, manipulate position, manipulate in Photoshop, yes... but to manipulate something that goes against the very nature of things is not really ethical in my opinion. I'm not an animal activist, let alone an insect activist, but I doubt a dragonfly is a natural prey of a mantis and to "force feed" it one and take a picture of it is perhaps akin to a restaurant selling foie gras. Yes, the end-result (for both this picture and for the foie gras dish) is pleasing and beautiful, but the process to get there is perhaps not acceptable to quite a few people.

If the photographer had used Photoshop to bring two composite images of a dragonfly and the mantis together and had clearly stated so, I would have no problem with that image. Clearly no insects will be harmed in the making of the picture when you use Photoshop. But in this case, a dragonfly was harmed, and what was even less acceptable was that it was fed to the mantis, whose natural food pyramid probably does not include dragonflies (I'll retract this statement if a naturalist says otherwise). It does not depict a scene in actual reality and people who do not know about dragonflies or mantisses will go away after looking at this picture, believing that mantisses eat dragonflies when this is not true. Pictures are very powerful, but I would think this kind of photography is "abuse" to make your photographic fantasies met.

It is a great capture no doubt, but unfortunately it suffers the same fate as the LA Times photo of the solider guarding Iraqi civilians.

Regarding mantis eating habits see:

The mantis has a tremendous appetite that is not limited to just insects. They typically eat cockroach-type insects, and prefer soft-bodied insects like flies. They have been documented eating 21 species of insects, soft shelled turtles, mice, frogs, birds, and newts (Prete 305). One study from the excrement of an Algierian mantid showed intake of 93.2% Hymenopterous insects, and 5% arachnids (Benrakaa 253). They are carnivorous, and only eat live prey, but have been documented in labs eating dead prey that has been manually manipulated. They are cannibalistic in nymph and adult stages. They are diurnal; meaning they eat during the day, but they have been spotted eating at night around artificial light sources (Sargent 8).

taken from: http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomology/courses/en507/papers_1999/feldman.htm

So I suppose it's possible that mantises eat dragon flies. Nevertheless, I am in agreement with those who have criticised this photograph on the grounds that it is not a true representation of nature.

Allan Passmore

I don't like this photo because the colors don't gel together well, and this is more about color than nature or anything else. I mean, seriously, they just don't match well(I think its the background?). In nature, everything looks good with everything-whether it be dirt or bugs or light. It just all works. The color just doesn't jive in this photo. Its the equivilent of an uncool dude who's just trying too hard to be cool. Even though he's got some cool gear and some hip attitude, he's lacking the soul and therefore is coming up short.

Amazing shot even if the set up was manipulated, but a lot of pictures in magazines are also manipulated, specially in macro photography. So I don't find this kind of actions to be unusual nor unreal. I guess that using a strobe in the middle of the jungle makes a big difference, also cutting some of the vegetation to have a "nicer and neater" shot, etc.

Hanging the flower-insects down is a very cleaver idea and I applaud it.

This is a powerful image. Sure, it's slightly less impressive because the dragonfly was fed to the mantis but still the bringing together of all these elements takes talent. Etan volunteered the information in response to the inquiries. It's not like we had to beat it out of him with a rubber hose!?!

If I can learn a few tricks about lighting for my photography then I consider it a precious gift. This thread has been an education in more ways than one.

Scatamousche

A preying mantis will eat just about any other insect that comes its way, so the only piece of this that strikes me as unlikely to appear in nature is the position of the insect while eating, which Ettan created by tipping the flower upside down. Overall, it strikes me that this is much less manipulated than the average studio shot. I love the colors and the position; a worthy POW!

Appears to be a battle to the death.

I'm sure the ending is excellent but please don't tell us now. I want to enjoy the moment you've frozen for us. I think this is a well taken photo considering the amount of action taking place and the urgency felt in taking this photo before the moment was past.

Well done to you, I say!

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=fd57b02cf6490bb869fa851c16ff3640&threadid=1236772&perpage=40&pagenumber=3

check out that link, someone stole your photo, halfway down the page

someone stole ur piece. By the way sweet babes. WWJD?!? LOL :-) I like you a lot.