Taking pictures of insects is usually a rather time consuming business. By the time the tripod is put into position, the object in focus and the cable release attached, the insect has escaped to a new resting place. And the often necessary, long shutter speeds do not guarantee a sharp result either.
As a flyfisher you are well aware that there is nearly always a wind blowing in our countries, a wind that makes the plants, on which we can find the insects, move constantly. Furthermore, it is not easy to find room for a heavy tripod in your flyfishingvest, not to mention that we do carry a lot with us already anyway… Still there is a method whereby we do not need to carry heavy tools with us, where we can use the smallest aperture and the object is still ‘frozen’ with 1/500 or 1/1000 of a second.
This combination almost guarantees us good pictures, even on days when the wind throws it’s breath across the meadows and shoreline vegetation. I came across this method some twenty/five or thirty years ago, in an article by Ted Fauceglia in the American Fly Fisherman magazine.
Flashlight
In the future we can leave the tripod at home. What we need is a reflex camera, either in APS-C or full frame, the normal 30 or 50 mm lens, a few extension tubes and a small flash. A flash with a guide number of 16 or 20 in combination with a sensivity of ISO 100 is more than enough. This flash is placed in a ‘flashholder’ (Novoflex used to make these under the name X-Shoe Flash Bracket, but others will be available too) right next to the front lens. A flashcable connects the flash with the camera.
The system is based on the fact that the distance between the front of the lens and the object, we want to take a picture of, is the same as that between the flash and the object. The system does not work in combination with a special macrolens, neither with the macro adjustment on some of the zoom lenses, it only works when we make use of extension tubes or bellows.
Test exposures are necessary
An artificial fly can be used for the first test exposures. The aperture on the lens is closed down to 16 or 22. This has the advantage that on the final picture we do have the largest possible depth of field, still this will be little more than a few millimetres… Next we have to make sure that the flash keeps firing with the same amount of light all the time. On most flashunits you will find an A for automatic and M for control by hand. The A is not used for this photography, on these short distances it would not work properly anyway because it does not ‘know’ that we make use of extension tubes (a TTL flash that is completely controlled by the camera would work alright here too, but this would mean that we would have to make a much larger investment).
With the eye behind the viewfinder on the camera, we slowly move our camera forward until our subject comes clear and sharp into view. Check whether the flash points in the direction of the artificial fly and than take a first picture. The next thing to do is to cover the flash with one of the small white plates that come with the flashholder or with a small piece of white latex that can be cut from a pair of medical gloves. A small elastic band is used to secure the plate on top of the flashunit. After a second test exposure another plate or piece of latex is put on top of the other and a third picture is made. Write down exactly what you have done: number of the picture, aperture 16, nothing on the flash or one or two plates, etc.. Later, when you look at the pictures on your laptop or computer, it is easy to see what combination gives the best results.
Easy to use
But, you will say now, when I need to use more or fewer extension tubes, does the whole thing with test exposures start all over again? No, this is not the case. As long as we do not use another, more or less sensitive setting (ISO 50 or 200), we do not need to change the aperture or the number of sheets with which the flash is covered. So we do get the correct amount of light, no matter whether we use one, two or three extension tubes. The advantages of this system are easy to see. The only thing that has to be changed is the angle with which the flash is positioned next to the front lens of the camera, this has to be pointed at our object all the time. You can check this by holding one finger of the left hand in front of the lens and when this is in focus, check whether the flash is pointed at the top of your finger.
In this way it is even possible to take a picture of an insect that is in the palm of your left hand, by just holding the camera with your right hand! A flash only lasts 1/500 or 1/1000 (or less) of a second, so there is no chance of a blurred picture in case we moved the camera somewhat when we made the picture.
What shutter speed?
On most cameras it is easy to see what shutter speed needs to be used in combination with an electronic flash. Usually this will be 1/125 or 1/200 of a second, some of the latest models even allow us to use 1/250 of a second. Normally you can find this in the manual that came with the camera. Read the instruction manual of your camera when you are not sure about this. 1/125 or 1/200 is still quite long for a combination like this, but the flashlight will freeze any movement.
Rudy van Duijnhoven
