Approaching the unapproachable

Yesterday I gave a talk at the Entomological Society of America’s Insect Macrophotography Symposium, focusing on techniques that I use for photographing wary insects in the field. Turnout for the symposium was awesome (I estimate ~125 people in attendance), and as the first talk I’ve given where I presented myself as a photographer I was pleased at the warm reception I got. A big thanks to my friends and colleagues who showed up to see the talk—it was great seeing your friendly faces in the crowd.

For those of you who couldn’t attend the ESA meetings this year or were unable to see my talk, I’ve attached a PDF version of the talk to this post—click on the image of the title slide below to see it. I expect I might give some version of this talk again in the future, so I would love to hear about any techniques you have found useful for approaching and photographing wary, skittish insects in their native habitats.

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Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2012

Program Announcment: 2012 ESA Annual Meeting

The Entomological Society of America recently posted the 2012 Program for their Annual Meeting this November in Knoxville, Tennessee, and I’m honored to announce that I’ll be giving a presentation in the Section A Symposium “Entomologists Beyond Borders: Hands on Macrophotography to Help Think Globally.” Let me say this straight out: this looks like a fabulous symposium, but I’m a bit intimidated at the prospect of sharing the stage with such renowned insect macrophotographers as Alex Wild, Thomas Shahan, Marlin Rice, etc. Nevertheless, I hope that the techniques I plan to share on locating and photographing live, often wary insects in their native habitats will be considered useful by at least some members of the audience. At this point, my talk is still an amorphous collection of ideas swirling around in my head (although, as you might predict, there will be many photos of tiger beetles!), thus, if there are any particular points you would like to see addressed now is the time to let me know.

I have been to a number of ESA meeting in the past, but the last was many years ago. I look forward to attending once again, reconnecting with old acquaintances and (hopefully) meeting many new ones. I hope to see you at the Entomologists Beyond Borders Symposium, and please don’t hesitate to come up and say hello.

When: Tuesday, November 13, 2012: 8:00 AM-12:45 PM

Where: Ballroom A, Floor Three (Knoxville Convention Center)

Organizers: Cheri M. Abraham and Ric Bessin

 

8:00 AM	Welcoming Remarks
8:05 AM	Introduction to insect macrophotography Robert K. D. Peterson, Montana State University
8:35 AM	This is not that difficult: Techniques for shooting digital macro-photography images of insects Marlin E. Rice, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
9:05 AM	Approaching the unapproachable: Tips and tricks for photographing live insects in their native habitats Ted C. MacRae, Monsanto Company
9:25 AM	Digital Imagery: Tips, tricks and tools to make impressive insect images Jocelyn Gill, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
9:45 AM	Methods of magnification Thomas Shahan, N/a
10:15 AM	Photographing insects on a budget Alexander L. Wild, University of Illinois
10:45 AM	Digital image processing: One perspective on organization, correction and retrieval of images Eugene D. White, Rose Pest Solutions
11:15 AM	Concluding Remarks
11:20 AM	Hands on workshop

Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2012