The praying one and its prey

[Prajwal J Ullal]

While on a birding trail to Lokhandwala lake and walking along the dusty trail i spotted a dragonfly resting on some scrap. Just a moment later, while I was capturing the dragonfly my colleague mentioned about something moving on the dead branch, besides it. It turned out to be a small bark mantis and it was surprisingly steady and unaware/ bothered by our presence. Later it turned towards the camera, I thought it was distracted by me, but later realized that the mantis was more concerned about the probably prey, a fly.

EXIF:
Canon 550D
Canon 100mm macro
F/7.1
Shutterspeed 1/80
ISO 100
Handheld, no flash used
Location: Lokhandwala lake

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Interesting scene. You needed the fly more in focus too, which is not easy with the 100 mm, especially when shooting hand held without enough light. Was it possible to shoot from an angle where both the fly and mantis would have been in the focal plane? That would make an interesting perspective too. This composition looks good, but you need a lot of DoF (I have tried similar compositions with frogs, but the shallow depth in those images even at f32 really bothers me). Did you try shooting this scene with an 18-55?

TFS

[Prajwal J Ullal]

Though the mantis wasnt bothered by my presence, these flies were very conscious, so i couldnt get any other angles with the fly.
I was a bit too lazy becoz of the continuous shifting between 55-250 for birds and 100mm for insects, so didnt get the 18-55 for capturing this beauity

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice you could get the mantis and the fly in the same frame. Good details on the mantis. Nice observation by your friend . Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

It would have been great if you were equidistant from the mantis and the fly. That would have helped in covering both within the depth of field. The shots that we miss always remain in our mind for a long time. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Roopak Gangadharan]

nice scene..
TFS
roopak