JPG Magazine: Stories: Feature Story: Ladybug Diva

Feature Story

Ladybug Diva

By Joshua Blankman

12 June 2008

I was laying down in my bed around 2:30am when I feel a plop on my head. From seemingly nowhere a Ladybug landed on my forehead. What else was I going to do? I grabbed a camera :-) She was so cooperative and cute and was the perfect muse. I called her Ariel after a friend of mine with the same personality ;-)

I have a couple kit lenses but don't have any macro lens so I had to quickly improvise in order not to miss such an opportunity. I remembered a photo and unique effect I had seen on www.jpgmag.com. The person (Casi Fleischman) had reversed a kit lens in order to fake a macro look. Merely turning the side of the lens that faces the subject and holding it facing the camera caused the focus to become very close and very tight. It was the first time I tried and since the depth of field was so small it took some playing around to get the right focus and angle. I set the camera manually and put the camera on a setting so that I could take multi-shots very quickly. This allowed me to follow her and get lucky on the shots that would come out. Ariel was a very good model and knew just where to walk to give me the right angles. When I looked at the photos on my computer to pick the ones I liked and sharpen a couple on photoshop. Ariel sat next to me and watched as I looked at her best shots. She seemed content and liked what I shot and she thanked me by sitting next to me on my pillow until I fell asleep. The next morning when I awoke, she was no longer there but her memory and her photos will live on forever.

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