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Thrifty Thursday: The iPhone and the Grasshopper


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Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500.

Romalea guttata - Eastern Lubber Grasshopper

[iPhone 4S - $336]

The ubiquitous iPhone isn’t designed for macro photography, but when the subject is as large as this 3-inch lubber the little camera’s optics do just fine.

The challenge of making this photo was not optics but lighting. I built a white-box studio using foam boards from an office supply store, printer paper, and a desk lamp inserted facing upward in the box. The bounced light was softer than direct light, and as a result I achieved a professional-looking image even though the shoot was conducted with little more than standard office supplies and a phone camera.

To photograph the grasshopper, I placed it on the white paper in the middle of my tabletop studio and stuck the iPhone in through the gap in the far wall.

Alex WildAbout the Author: Alex Wild is an Illinois-based entomologist who studies the evolutionary history of ants. In 2003 he founded a photography business as an aesthetic complement to his scientific work, and his natural history photographs appear in numerous museums, books, and media outlets. Follow on Twitter @myrmecos.

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.






Comments 2 Comments

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  1. 1. Sean McCann 2:01 pm 02/28/2013

    Beautiful monster!

    Link to this
  2. 2. mayureshgoyal 1:45 am 03/2/2013

    This is what i have done , without using any studio equipments and its completely natural. I used iPhone 4s
    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150896534606671.405998.528446670&type=1&l=66fd066d7d

    Link to this

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