Arthropod Macro
Under high magnification preserved insect specimens reveal impressive details. It often takes these distinctions to identify a specimen to species level. Being able to set up lighting and pose the subject exactly in the frame, allows for a level of control that is usually a matter of chance in the field.
*A note on ethics, all specimens were found deceased. Insect lifecycles can be remarkably short. It is common to find them expired by water and road hazards, or after heat waves. No subjects were harmed for the purpose of this photography.
Due to the optical limits of macro photography, depth of field at this level of magnification is incredibly shallow, sometimes just fractions of a millimeter. Therefore to have the subject in focus, it is necessary to take a sequence of images at slightly different focal points. To later be composited into a single image, a process referred to as focus-stacking, that produces the results above.