Metallic flea beetles mating

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

This was a tough scene to photograph. It was wet and very windy, with low light. Moreover, this was at a low angle just above the surface of water, so I could not take any solid support from below. I did not want to use flash as it tends to throw off the metallic colours very easily. I went to as narrow an aperture as possible while retaining reasonable handheld sharpness. Ideally, I would have loved to go to at least f11 for this scene, if not more.

Metallic flea beetles - Altica sp. | Laterite plateau habitat, Goa

Canon 760D, Canon 100mm Macro USM
Av f8
SS 1/160
ISO 800
No flash
Handheld with live view
Image selected from a burst series

C&C welcome.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Tough scene to photograph due to the low light. It would have been great if the light was from behind you ie frontal lighting. For close macro subjects f8 becomes very shallow. However, one can't have deep depth of field and get a shaky image. I agree that flash would have bounced and created unwanted reflections in the shiny body of the beetle. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

The metallic colours look great. Good details, the teeth can also be seen clearly. Tough scene, nicely captured. Thanks for sharing.