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The past Saturday I joined 25 other Louisville photographers for a photowalk with Jon Eland who was visiting Louisville for IdeaFestival. Jon is from Leeds, England which is a sister city with Louisville. As a rule I am not a group shooter, I prefer to go out alone when I do my photography, but after attending a lecture that Jon gave to the PhotoForum camera club here in Louisville last Wednesday I decided to join the group for Jon’s NuLu Fest photowalk. I’m glad I did because the interaction with other photographers led me to some interesting subject matter that I probably wouldn’t have seen such as these insects on the corner of a building on Market Street in the NuLu district of Louisville.
Deborah Brownstein, one of Louisville’s finest macro photographers, pointed these insects out to me as I was walking past Joe Ley Antiques. I was focused on the vast amount of stuff that was outside his shop and walked right past these guys. Deb showed me these insects and immediately I knew that I had to capture a few images of them. I liked the contrast of their red bodies on the green wall and the pattern that they made. I have no idea what they are but I am fascinated by the various stages of growth they appear to be in. Judging by the wings some have matured into full size while other smaller ones are just starting to grow their wings.
Yesterday I decided to start editing the images from the photowalk and the first one I went to was this image. I decided to use Topaz Adjust to enhance the color and detail in the shot. I used to use Topaz Adjust a lot but had drifted away in favor of the NIK collection of software. I decided to use Topaz Adjust 5 and the “Spicify” preset as my point of departure and tweaked several sliders in it to finish this image. I like the controls in Topaz Adjust when I’m editing because they allow me to complete my edit without returning the image to Aperture 3 for sharpening and final output. Everything I need is inside TopazAdjust including sharpening which is something I generally have to return images to Aperture 3 for when using the NIK software.
You’re right about Spicify, it’s a great preset. In fact, it makes this photo so realistic it almost makes me itch. 🙂 I’ll bet you ended up with the most unique photo of the entire photo walk.
Thanks for you kind comment. I’m not sure that I have the most unique image though; my friend Deborah Brownstein was the person who pointed them out to me and I’m sure she has some fantastic shots of them herself. When it comes to photography and macro she rocks Louisville! Whenever there’s a photo event you’ll find her there tripod and camera bag at the ready.
Your photowalk with the group sounds awesome! And this picture is so vivid. I’m not one who likes critters in real life but in this photo… spectacular! 🙂
Glad you like it…
Jon’s a great guy, I and another Louisville photographer collaborated with him on the first Louisville/Leeds Sister Cities artistic collaboration. It was good to have an exchange of ideas and see what kinds of images we came up with.
I agree Jon was a good leader and a good person to spark our creativity. I’m glad that I caught his lecture to the PhotoForum club and that I decided to go on the photowalk with him.
Insects like these were all over my butterfly weed plant this summer; but my picture was not in the class with yours. It is a fantastic shot.
I have no idea what they are but I liked the way they were arranged on the wall.
Great capture and editing…you’ve kept it alive to the point they appear to crawl on the page.
That is a very nice compliment Phyllis I like to try to maintain a sense of reality while emphasizing the colors and textures in my images.
That’s an excellent contrast between the red and the green. Where I am, in central Texas, the green that contrasts with various bugs has usually come from prickly pear cactus pads.
Thanks Steve, The colors are directly across the color wheel from one another. When that happens they are the true compliment to each other. I went back a couple of hours ago with my Macro lens and shot some more photos of them.
BTW…. I avoid Prickly Pear Cactus like the plague; made the mistake once of planting some, felt like it was months before all the spines were finally out of my hands.