Island View Beetle
Today I revisit a series of shots I took at Island View Beach in October. This beetle was carefully situated on a piece of driftwood.
I suspect that this bit of wood is a healing scar on the trunk of a hardwood tree resulting from a cut-off branch – maybe it was an apple tree or similar. It ended up amongst the mess that serves as a futile breakwater along this bit of shoreline.
Rose, occasional Quimper Hitty companion on outings, had a good time with this beetle and identified it as a European Ground Beetle (see her blog post here).
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Canon 5Dii, Canon 100mm/f2.8 macro lens, ISO400, 2.8, first and second – processed from 3 brackets at 1/2000th +/- 1.0 EV, third: single image, 1/6400th
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burnt embers 
These are cool. The background is perfect.
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Thanks – it is such an odd piece of wood. But then beetles are pretty odd things too, when you think about it.
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I just don’t even know what to say! These are all FABULOUS! That second shot, though, that’s the one for me my friend! What outstanding textures and details, and the lighting in all three looks so good it almost looks staged! Great shadows, great definition… they’re all great!
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Thanks so much Toad. The lighting is totally natural, as found. It worked well for that odd bit of wood and the beetle. Glad you like this one, I was not all that sure about it.
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Beetles are such fun to photograph. The’re generally colorful and slow moving, making them perfect macro subjects.
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Totally true Ken. And even if just black, they have some very fine details. The project I was on last summer included the discovery of 10,700 year old beetle carapaces which I had a lot of fun photographing (I wish I had my current macro set up, or even the 1:1 lens at the time) – they were black but quite deeply ridged – beautiful really.
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It looks similar to an Aussie Christmas beetle. How big is it? Our ones are large (20-30 mm long). They are part of the scarb beetle family I think.
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Hi Katherine – this one is about 2cm long. It is an accidental import, probably in the 1800’s, by ship somehow.
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Teensy! We like out bugs big over here. And our spiders.
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Not nearly so much fun for macro photography if you can see all that detail staring at you from the other side of the room. Or from the ceiling while one is bed immediately beneath all those details.
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Brilliant
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Thank you!
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