About this website...
As you may have read on the home page, this website is dedicated to showcasing my passion of photographing creatures that most people will never get a chance to see and that some people don't even know exist. The creatures being arthropods which include insects, arachnids and crustaceans. Insects are the most diverse class of animals on the planet. They not only range in size, shape and colour across all the species but also range in size shape and colour through an insects species life cycle.
All photographs of insects, spiders and other arthropods featured on my galleries page were taken relatively close to me home in Devon, England. But I've recently added a page, "Bugs" Abroad, of places I've travelled to and had at least part of a day where I've been able to capture the country's tiny, interesting creatures.
Disclaimer: I've tried to identify the insect or arachnid as best I could, but they could be mis-identified.
About me...
I'm a photographer who started out photographing landscapes, travel and nature when I could. Then after purchasing a high magnification lens (the Canon 65mm MPE) and actually starting to use it, my photographic inspiration shifted. I was amazed by what I was seeing with extreme macro in a world much smaller than my own. Since about 2019 I've been shooting almost exclusively extreme macro and I hope you enjoy my work. If you would like to check other photography I've done you can visit my other website timcrabb.com
About my process...
The majority images created using a process called focus-stacking. For this process I blend my images together using Photoshop to align all the photo's in a stack or series. Then using a combination of auto focus blending and manually editing each individual layer masks to choose the sharpest areas for the final picture. Ending with adjustments for cropping, sharpening and toning to closely resemble the subject in nature.
The type of photography my work falls under is often referred to as extreme macro photography. Macro is basically taking pictures of subject the same size they are in life where extreme macro brings you closer to the subject moving past the 1:1 magnification ration of standard macro photography. With the equipment I currently use I'm easily able to get up to 10x magnification.
To photograph these fascinating creatures in high magnification you must use specialized camera equipment. The camera is used to take little slivers of insect that I take back to the computer to seamlessly blend together in order to reveal their beauty. All editing done is to create an image that closely resemble the subject in nature I photographed at that time. Cloning out dust spots is also common across my photos but cloning out debris that I'm unable to clean up before taking the pictures may also occur on rare occasions.