Yesterday my wife came in with an unusual looking insect, and wondered what it was; it looked like a moth with baby wings. We were in a rush to go out but I grabbed the camera with a 60mm F2.8 macro lens and fired off a few hand held shots spanning a total of 5 minutes. Not the best of technique or focus due to the rush, but here is what we saw.
The time line photo montage was produced in Photoshop CS3 by batch renaming the files to the HHMMSS time (EXIF data) and then using the CS3 function to create a Contact sheet from 16 of the photos, spanning 16:50pm to 16:55pm.
Hi Dennis
Interesting montage of moth metamorphisis.
Isnt nature absolutely incredible.
Makes the folding of aircraft wings on aircraft carriers look primitive.
Kind Regards
Steve
Thanks Matt, Steve and Dave, I’m glad you enjoyed this amazing spectacle too, and I have my wife to thank for bringing the little fella into the house and insisting I take a few photos.
It was quite extraordinary seeing the changes in real time. Initially, he tried flapping his tiny wings and gradually they began to unfurl and pump up, both layers. All the time, he was motoring along at a fair rate of knots so it was hard to keep him in frame and focus. I was so excited I forgot to stop down to give some extra depth of field.
He kept on wanting to go in one direction, as if he had a built in compass and when he had completely unfurled both sets of wings, he toppled over a couple of times as maybe he wasn’t used to the weight/moment on his back? It’s funny, but one expects them to be competent “out of the box” but we have seen young bird’s crash land so they too have a learning curve it seems.
There also seemed to be a scattering of glossy beads on his wings, maybe the hydraulics as he pumped them up?
After he had completed the physical process, my wife took him outside and put him deep inside a bush so hopefully, he had a chance to practice his new found skills.
I’ve included 4 larger frames that aren’t too affected by DOF issues.
Thanks B&D and Mike – it sure was a special and fascinating spectacle, right before our very eyes. I’m so glad that I managed to grab the sequence of photo’s as we have both looked at the series several times now, in continuing awe and simple wonderment!
Having the time stamp in the Exif data proved very useful as from memory, we both estimated the unfurling took between 10 and 15 minutes, yet the headers clearly shows the reality of less than 5 minutes.
I took a big moth off one our cats that was just beginning the unfurling process and put it in a bush by the back door. It was fascinating to watch as the wings spread over the next 1/2 hour. Didn't have a cam available to capture it, so thanks for these pics. I found where it had come from too, there was a 20mm dia hole in the ground near where the cat got it, must have been in a chrysalis down there for god knows how long. There were several more hatched in the same area, just after a couple of wet days.
Wonderfull sequence Dennis, I am glad you where able to present them to us .
Brilliant as usual, I always look forward to your images be they Astronomical or Nature
Ron
Thanks Ron – I’m so pleased that we had the chance to record this wonderful event, typical of nature that puts on these and similar daily shows, presumably billions of times each day, world wide, right under our noses!
Thanks Ric, and yeah, I wholeheartedly agree; there’s nothing quite like a daily dose of the sublime beauty and incredible capabilities of nature to humble one!
Thanks Andrew, I hope your hectic work schedule ends soon. We were literally on the way out when we grabbed these photos; almost didn’t bother but are now so pleased that we did. For the sake of 5 minutes out of our schedule, we were treated to this wonderful transformation; from lumbering earthly being to fully fledged aerial maestro.
