Winged bugs

[lowcorsa]

Hi,
I have 3 pics I could do with a bit of help with.

I took these on a walk through some fields along Scotch Hills in Barton under Needwood.

I have no clue what any of them are.
I am in the process of creating a photography book on animals and these will be goin in the book if I can find the ID's.

The colours may be abit more orange/red that they naturally are this is due to light and the processing.




Thanks
Carl

[Brobson]

Hi Carl, i think No 1 is a Large Skipper and No 2 is a Speckled Wood butterfly. No idea about the fly, its eyes are quite unusual so hopefully someone can ID it.

[lowcorsa]

Thanks for your help.

[Barry Fisher]

Hi,
I have 3 pics I could do with a bit of help with. I took these on a walk through some fields along Scotch Hills in Barton under Needwood. I have no clue what any of them are. I am in the process of creating a photography book on animals and these will be goin in the book if I can find the ID's.The colours may be abit more orange/red that they naturally are this is due to light and the processing.
Carl

Hi Carl,
As these are your first posts let me welcome you to the forum. We are a very friendly bunch on here and you'll find plenty of help and advice freely given by the members.That said, you will probably not appreciate what I am about to say next, but my comments are made with the best of intentions and represent my own personal viewpoint not that of the forum. If the photography book on animals is for your own or family/friends use, then fine and please ignore the rest of this posting.

However, as a keen bibliophile myself, I wonder what is the purpose of your book? Is it is a book on the techniques of photographing animals or a book of photographs of animals? I believe that, whilst these images might be OK for identification purposes, the quality of these images is not up to the standard required for publication in a book. Carl, I believe that there are already enough poor quality books out there and I also have quite strong feelings that no author should be producing books on subjects which they have no clue about. In addition, for publication purposes the colours need to be as natural as possible unless deliberately altered for their creative effect.

Notwithstanding the above Carl, stick with the forum and with the help and advice given by members, you will soon find that your images will improve to a standard which would be acceptable for publication. However, you'll have to do a lot of background reading to become more familiar with your subject matter if you really want to succeed especially in the field of natural history subjects

[lowcorsa]

The book is just a book of animals ive photographed, and is to be entered into a competition. I needed a theme/topic for the book and chose animals ive come across. Im goin to add the names of the animals just as a little extra and for me to learn a little on the way.

I know the images above arent professional quality, I only started takin proper pictures last october and so im usin this project as a learnin curve aswell. the images above are also crops from a bigger image.

The book once entered into the competition will be on sale on the competition hosts website, not in shops or any online shops. The websites shop is full of amature photography books. Im usin it mainly as a way to make myself a book of photos ive taken, rather than make money from sellin the book.

[Barry Fisher]

Hi Carl
As I said, if it's for your own use then fine. Just be careful that the publishers website is not just a con trick to extract money from you.

I note the fact that you only started photography seriously last October. We all have to start from scratch and learn from our mistakes as we go along. The more photos you take the better you'll become, especially if you listen to constructive criticsm and take the advice on board.

I know the images you presented were for identification purposes and not submitted for C & C. However, when you take close-up shots of insects, you'll get better results if you try to keep the body or wings of the insect parallel to the camera and not at an angle. This, together with stopping down the aperture will give you a greater depth of field to keep more of the subject in sharp focus; but you'll still need to focus accurately and use a fast enough shutter speed, or a tripod, or flash to prevent camera shake to get the best results.
(One last tip for now, you'll probably progress further in the competion with your book if you use the correct spelling and grammar for your text )

Keep shooting and posting images