Three in One Macro
by Falc

Comment by tpoc:
I clicked on this pic and when it blew up the first thing out of my mouth was "oh, that's INSANE! WOW!" Congrats on such a cool macro-within-a-macro shot! Congrats on your interpretation of a water-droplet macro...I think it's COOL!
: )
Jeannel

Three in One Macro
by Falc

Comment by mrorange002:

Originally posted by yurasocolov: Oh boy... Edit: let me elaborate. I think swiping ideas from previous challenge winners is just lame, even if you enhance it a little by adding a bug or two. So, sorry, no 'unbelievable', 'creative' and 'wonderful' from me:

Hey, that's my photo!
Anyways, WHATEVER!!! This site is about getting knowledge and ideas from each other. He's taken an idea from a photo and greatly expanded upon it.

I say good work!!!!

Three in One Macro
by Falc

Comment by kcuman:
Well Done!

Three in One Macro
by Falc

Comment by muckpond:
you're on quite a roll here lately, sir. congratulations.

Mother and Daughter
by Falc

Comment by dcflyer:
I love the composition of this shot. My favorite, so far. The subject just leaps at you. Would make a good submission for Circles challenge, too.

Three in One Macro
by Falc

Comment by theSaj:
Wow....

AMAZING!!!

I'd love to see the froglet version too...

Three in One Macro
by Falc

Comment by Falc:
WOW, what can I say, thanks to you all including yurasocolov. I do appreciate all your comments. The image is not very imaginative, I new there would be lots of bugs, lots of water droplets and lots of flowers and to get points over any of these the winner would have to be brilliant at any one of these. I knew that by combining these themes that there were extra marks to be gained and I had seen something similar a long time back on some other site (can't find it now though). I did really enjoy experimenting with this and building a small 'set' so achieve the effects.

So for those of you who asked about the details here is how:

Equipment:
1 small cardboard box - approx 9inches across.
1 Sheet dark green card for backdrop, applied to inside of box
1 spiral reed pushed through holes in side of box - used spiral reed in order to stop the water droplet running away
1 white/pink/purple daisy like flower - pushed through a hole in back of box
several willing and unwilling ladybirds
1 childs paintbrush - to coax ladybird into walking the plank
1 syringe to add water after each retry
camera - 10D with 100mm f2.8 macro lens
canon ex550 flash with remote trigger
tripod

OK so with the reed and the flower set up I added a drop of water, then pushed/pulled the flower until I got the right amount of blur in the background whilst manually focussing on the water drop.

Once this was set the it was a case of ladybird wrangling with the pant brush. I found that they didn't like to pass the water droplet and would either turn round or jump off at that point. I know I had about 7 or 8 bugs and only got 3 or 4 decent shots before I ran out.

I also tried the same shot with a small froglet, but the dof was too short to get his nose and feet in focus, so I went back to the ladybirds. I also had an attempt at a damsel fly version, but he wasn't to sure about signing the model release so I had to let him go.

All done in a very enjoyable afternoon sat in the garden.

Mother and Daughter
by Falc

Comment by madison461:
Her yellow tunic casts a shadow of yellow on the floor. The setting is awesome.

Three in One Macro
by Falc

Comment by CalliopeKel:
Well deserved win. Enjoy your Ribbon!

Three in One Macro
by Falc

Comment by SJCarter:
Congrats Falc!