Hatching Wasp Eggs
ktuli — Wed, 08/31/2011 - 20:44
I have to admit something about this photo - when I took it, I didn't even notice the fact that these eggs were hatching. In all fairness, they are only about 1mm in size, so they were pretty tiny.
Anyway, I happened to catch a glimpse of these white eggs attached to the underside of a leaf, so while I held the lead over with one hand, I had to steady the camera and shoot with the other. Not necessarily the easiest thing to do. Add in that the bright sun was wreaking havoc with my wireless flash capabilities (I need to remember to keep my sync cord with me for cases like that).
However, once I got home and looked at these on the computer, I realized that the wasps were actually in the process of hatching right then! Had I realized that at the time, I most certainly would have taken much more time with this subject and used the 2x teleconverter to get some even closer detail. As it is, you'll have to settle for a crop (mouseover the image for the cropped view).
Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/250 sec at f/16. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode and wireless control. Image Stabilization on. ISO 160. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.
Due to the bright sunlight, I don't think the flash actually fired, so I had to do some significant brightening of this in post production, and because of my less than recommended one-handed camera stabilizing techniques, there is a bit of camera shake blur that the IS wasn't able to fix (normally 1/250th a second wouldn't be a problem to hand hold, but with the flash bracket and one-handed operation, apparently that isn't the case).
Regardless, I thought the original image was interesting because of the beautiful pattern the eggs create, but finding the bonus of the wasps actually hatching is really really cool if you ask me.
- Bill
Lovely shot! Especially considering that you had bright sunlight to contend with.
I agree about how beautiful the patterns are, and I'm intrigued by the circle of tiny projections that look almost like perforations. I'll have to go and find out more about these kinds of eggs. It looks as if the 'baby' wasps start eating their way out along these lines - but how do they know how to start there? Must find answers ;)
It's amazing what we only notice when we get home and look more closely. All kinds of bonus surprises like that can await us :)
In a year of looking closely at the undergrowth in my garden I've only ever found one egg cluster like this, and try as I might I found it impossible to get a good shot of it, even with a solid tripod. It wasn't wasps, but Shield Bugs that had hatched out of mine, but I was too late to witness the emergence, so it's great to be able to see a similar event in your shot :)
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