34/365: March of the Caterpillars

I must revert to another archive shot tonight, as its 11pm and I still have some work to do. PRIORITIES! This one is cool though.

This was taken nigh on two years ago, when I got my first true macro lens. Of course I was eager to shoot some bugs, but bugs are hard to get shots of! They have to be really interested in whatever they are doing...and not want to leave, even with you gigantic ass getting ever closer, and whispering, "Yes, yes, that's it baby, yeah! You're a tiger!" Had to find something that bugs like...

What's that you ask? Oh, just a fly. Oh, what's it ON? Oh, nothing, just you know, some stuff in the yard. You know, that flys are attracted to. What? It was all dried up! No, I don't know why the fly was attracted to it if it was all dried up! I took a shower after! I'm a slave to my art!

Back to the caterpillars. I was roaming the garden, it was springtime, and these caterpillars were way in season. They come out in April and are everywhere. I walked past our rain barrel, and saw a mess of them crawling in a ring around the barrel. I watched them and walked around the barrel, and to the best of my judgement, it appeared that they were simply following each other in a never-ending loop. They just kept going around the same ring. I set up my tripod and a single bare speedlight on a stand, to the right of the barrel. The crisp light made the little guys really stand out against the black plastic. Sorry, no setup shot today, just archival shots.

Shot with the Canon 60mm ES-F Macro, the posted picture is actually three separate shots merged in photoshop to make a panoramic composition. Here's a  detail.

Strobist info: Took this one in later afternoon, there was still a lot of ambient light, but the rain barrel that these caterpillars are crawling on was behind my shed, so I was able to knock down most of the ambient with a fast shutter. Triggered a single bare speedlight on a stand to the right of the barrel, pointed down at the ring of bugs.

- LLG