The frozen one

[Prajwal J Ullal]

Spotted this beauty while something around it distracted my attention. Almost steady as the neighboring twigs, this beauty had almost very well camouflaged itself into the surroundings. TO my surprise it didnt move a mm apart from its head, kept itself put to this pose no matter how close I went. Didnt risk touching it though, might have hurt it.
ID help required as am confused if its a mantis in DSF or (if there is anything like) Stick insect mimicking mantis.

EXIF:
Canon 550D
Canon 100mm macro
F/2.8
Shutterspeed 1/2000
ISO 400
Handheld, No flash used
Mildly cropped(15% crop)
Kept the DOF at shallowest to avoid any ugly details of the background as it was completely surrounded with dried grass/twigs

Location: SGNP, Borivali

[Mrudul Godbole]

Stick insects are so well camouflaged, can be very difficult to spot. Good details. Some more space at the top to include the rear leg in full would be good. Nicely captured. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Why 1/2000 shutter speed and only 1/f2.8 aperture? It is not possible for the depth of field to cover such a large creature with only f2.8 aperture. Your focal plane is also not parallel to the body. So only a small portion of it is in focus and gives the impression of the image being soft. To reiterate, sharpness is a function of shutter speed, stability (as in holding rock steady or using a tripod or some form of steady support), depth of field as well as resolving power of your lens. Also, if an image is a large crop, then any weakness will be amplified. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice...this looks like a mantis.
TFS
Roopak

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

This is a young mantis. Not sure which species. Nice pose.