Teaching Wednesday - How to Photograph Beetles: Five Images, Five Lessons / Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
- Michael Blyth
- 7 hours ago
- 6 min read
I love beetles, so quirky, so different, and a lesson on How to Photograph Beetles is long overdue.
"Here are five images and vive things they can teach about photographing beetles"
Most of us walk past them every day. A ladybird on a stem. A beetle making its way across a gravel path. A flash of iridescent green on a purple flower. We notice them in passing; and then we move on.
This week I want to talk about phone macro photography — not as a niche pursuit, but as one of the most accessible and rewarding ways to train your eye and produce images that genuinely surprise people.
Modern phone cameras, particularly when you engage portrait mode or simply move close and allow the camera to hunt for focus, can produce beautifully detailed close-up images with background blur that would once have required dedicated equipment.
They are not perfect replacements for a true macro lens, but they are remarkably capable, and crucially they are always in your pocket.
You'll never be short of subjects, there are even some little ones who live on Antarctica.
But it is definitely a case of needing to slow down, get close and using your phone or camera at it's extreme (although there are a few of these bugs who are beasties big enough to be friends with your phone.)
Many years ago when I worked as a geologist on the copper mines of Zimbabwe, we used to play bowls by floodlight in the evening. There were a good number of huge beetles, probably Giant Dung Beetle Heliocopris colossus, that attracted by the lights would land on the green and become part of the game, (a small biological speed bump with legs!) Most people ignore beetles, but please don't, they're fabulous, and truly wonderful to photograph. Equipment wise, a camera with a pretty standard lens is not your best friend for this, you need something that lets you get in really close. There are a range of lenses out there which are called macro-lenses, and do what it says on the label. Phone-wise, most of the modern ones let you get some very good macro images, and it is mostly these that I'm using here.
Let's run through a few and I'll share some thoughts.
Image One - a burying beetle is one of the UK's most striking beetles, it's black wing cases banded with burnt orange, and little amber clubs at the end of their antennae. Most people have never seen one, they live their lives close to the ground, with the purpose of burying carrion, returning the dead to the ground. When this one landed on my hand, I let it settle and did a rather awkward one handed picture.
It's the background that in a sense adds to the picture, the skin is warm, neutral with fine lines and texture that give a sense of size to the beetle. The leg detail, the articulation of its antennae, and the slight sheen on its thorax, all of it sits well against my skin in a way it would not against grass or bark.
Opportunities like this are worth capturing.
Image Two, a seven-spot ladybird on a broad leaf, sometimes ignored by photographers as being too familiar to bother with,
This image works well because of what it leaves out. The leaf angle is such that it runs diagonally across the lower half of the frame, with everything below and in front being dissolved into non-focus, a gentle green blur.
Therefore no competing detail. But what does stand out is the wonderful colour contrast of the red and green; hugely satisfying visually, made 'cleaner' by the black and white also on the beetle. The complimentary colours make the red all the richer by the green around it.
A lesson here is that simplicity in macro-photography needs to be a choice, not just a chance.
Image Three - this Oil Beetle (Meloe sp) is more like a sci-fi creation, it's huge abdomen, small wingcases that barely meet in the middle, it's flightless by the way.
The entire thought to share is 'get down to ground level'. If i'd stood and photographed looking down it would have been a little shiny thing on a load of gravel.
By turning the phone upside down so that the lens was at ground level, the whole thimg changes. There's interraction , the details become alive, with the antennae and legs becoming a much greater presence.
Being low changes the perspective of the gravel, their shadows giving a rugged nature to the images.
If you're using a camera rather than an upside phone, it takes a willingness to lie on the ground and not worry about what people might think.
Image Four - Walking to the wonderful town of Pollença on the island of Mallorca, I spotted this Orange Longhorn Beetle. The image stands as a wonderful mix of colour.
The beetle itself is positioned in the sun in such a way that the brightness of the sunlight is offset by the deeper colour in the shade. If it had been further round and completely lit, the colours would have been even more vibrant, but sometimes you use what is there.
The variation between sunlit and shaded green, with the spikes, adds to the drama.
But the big thing here is noticing it, just strolling down a sunny path back to the house, and bothering to do something. My hands were full of goodies from mthe market. Easy to carry on walking. Instead I placed my bags on a large rock, and got out my phone.
Getting in close is absolutely vital, but beware of getting too close and losing focus and composition. Just experiment, and learn from it. And don't forget to pick up your goodies from the rock!!
Image five - The thick-legged flower beetle (Oedemera nobilis) on Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) is, I think, the most beautiful image in this set. The metallic green of its wing cases against the deep magenta of the flower is a colour combination that stops people in their tracks. Neither colour normally appeals, but the combination is gripping.
The discussion here focuses on iridescence. Many beetles, and this species is a great example, carry colours that change with the angle of light.
They are not simply green or blue; they shift between the two, and in different light conditions the same beetle can look entirely different.
This means that overcast light, which flattens most subjects, can actually be beautiful for them it renders the metallic sheen evenly rather than creating the harsh highlights you get in direct sun.
If you find one like this, take several frames from slightly different angles. The colours will change markedly, and you will have learnt something extra.
A couple of other things to note.
There are many bugs and beasties that are just too small to capture with any hope using a phone or ordinray camera. They are a fascinating source to focus on, but require specialist equipment - which you may one day decide to get and follow a wonderful journey of seeing wonderful things most people miss.
Another things is that the blighters do move - crawling over flowers or the like - perhaps one in ten will be sharp, the autofocus will 'hunt' in the wrong direction, the beetle will turn at the wrong moment, the light will shift. Experienced macro photographers are used to it, if you're a beginner, don't get depressed by the number of frames needed to get one right.
Working technique - move slowly towards your subject, focus on the head or eyes.
You can get away without special equipment - but you need to slow down, get low and close, nand none of this is any use if you've not trained yourself to see.
That, in the end, is what photography teaches — not the technical skills, though those matter, but the habit of attention. The willingness to lie on a gravel path and watch a dung beetle navigate a stone. The patience to wait while a flower beetle settles on a thistle. The instinct to hold still when something remarkable lands on your hand.
If you would like to become more confident with your photography, without drowning in jargon or buying more equipment, subscribe to Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.
The Wednesday posts are practical, simple and intended to help you make better photographs with whatever camera you already have, including the phone in your pocket.
And if you are ready for a little more involvement, I am beginning a small, more active space for people who want to move beyond simply reading tips and start putting them into practice.
It will be encouraging and practical: regular prompts, simple suggestions, the chance to share what you are making, and a way of learning to see more clearly alongside a small group of like-minded others.
You do not need to be advanced. You do not need impressive equipment. You only need the desire to get better, and the willingness to look a little more carefully.
If that sounds like something you would enjoy being part of, please get in touch.
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