Macro Photography – Soldier beetle

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By Simon Hawketts ·

Soldier Beetle
Soldier Beetle

This is a Soldier Beetle which I found in the field across the road from our house in May 2012. I believe the Latin name for this variety is Cantharis Rustica.

This was taken with a Pentax K-r and a Tamron 90 mm f/2.8 1:1 macro lens. In order to hand hold the camera and get enough depth of field to keep the beetle in focus I had to raise the ISO to 2200 to get the shot at 1/125 @ f/8.0. A little bit of noise reduction was applied in Lightroom and I also cropped the images to get a 2x magnification from the original picture.

  • Pentax K-r
  • Tamron 90mm f/2.8
  • iso 2200
  • 1/125
  • f/8.0

Comments (7)

  1. dinkerson
    Wonderful detail. I love this capture. It looks like he's wearing a cloak with a tall collar.
  2. Jackie
    Excellent!
  3. anisjarossi
    Very nice macro.
  4. GrowlTigger
    Nice macro shot, with a helpful description of how the settings used.
  5. Pat
    Nice macro!

    Comments (2)

    1. Simon Hawketts
      Thank you
    2. Simon Hawketts
      Thank you