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Thrifty Thursday: the Mantid's Shadow

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


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

[Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3]

The on-camera flash options for a small digicam are pretty awful. One trick to using a point-and-shoot successfully is to avoid flash and look for situations where the ambient light is both sufficient and interesting. Here, a preying mantis in late afternoon sun casts a shadow against an iris petal.


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From the other side of the flower, a more conventional image, also taken with the Panasonic with the flash turned off.

Alex Wild is Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he 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.

More by Alex Wild