Plume Moth

A few days ago, this little thing set up home on the dining room door. My moth book says it is Ambliptilia Acanthadactyla which hangs around gardens and often comes in to hibernate. It stayed on the door for several days then moved on last night. Getting this picture took several attempts over a few days, thanks to the moth's preference for being close to the bottom of the door and the door itself being in a dim corner with wall on one side and cupboard on the other.

A stack of 14 shots taken with K3 + Irix 150mm macro and processed with Affinity Photo. Lighting was the big problem, this version was (dim) natural light, flash at top-of-door height angled down at 45 degrees, diffuser (thin polystyrene sheet) half way between flash and moth, white board on floor under moth. And the big surprise was the amount of marks and imperfections on what looks like a perfectly smooth, white door - it took ages to clone them out!

Thoughts, comments etc. welcome as usual.




Steve

That's worked pretty well Steve,

Pleased to see the end result was so good

Michael

I thought it was the Angel of the North until I put my glasses on

Nicely done Steve

You should certainly be proud of that - the photo AND the mucking about that was included!

Thanks folks. As someone who enjoys a challenge, it was well worth the messing around over several days to get the final picture.

What I don't say above is how the camera was supported. Not enough space to use the main tripod (Benbo Trekker), so had to use the mini tripod. About 2Kg of body, lens and focusing rack were on a Novoflex mini-ball head on a mini-tripod with rubber feet on a soft carpet. Touch it and it wobbled. Wireless shutter release, of course. Presumably the flash froze any residual motion and any misalignment beteen shots was sorted out by auto-alignment during stack processing. That's my theory, anyway. The next challenge is to find a way of using the geared head low down indoors, rock solid on a carpet - and preferably without being told 'You're In The Way!'.

Interesting ... it makes one wonder where Antony Gormley got his inspiration from...

Steve