Hungry Eyes

[Loupey]

Finally found some of these guys to shoot. Of all places far and wide that I have been searching, I found two in front of our living room window this afternoon.

I'm taking some artistic license here as the first image is actually a second one.

[Loupey]

...and two images after the meal.

Sorry I cannot reveal the particulars of these shots as I was trying several different things at once (one tube, two tubes, no tubes, pop-up flash, 430EX strobe,...). Only thing for certain is the lens - 300mm.

I was already late for an appointment when I first spotted these guys. So I didn't have any time to take notes.

[julsoph]

Dang Loupey...those are fantastic.

Emily

[Knight]

Great series Loupey

[Old Timer]

Ok you got me on my knees. I GIVE UP. You are the master. I just can not hand hold any more and get good crisp images like these. (Might have a little to do with 58 year old eyes as well.) Beautiful series of images.

[OBie]

Wow - those are GREAT. Preying Mantis' are so beautiful.

[quetzal]

Awesome pics, you captured them beautifully

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

them are amazing !! the mantis are around my area here but hard to catch a glimps of .. let alone catch one having supper !!!

[paulnj]

Nice job. I saved a few in the last few weeks when clearing land, but no images in a month or so

[Loupey]

Thanks, everyone, for looking and commenting! It was loads of fun watching these two hunt. They were hard to see among the hosta clutter. I was originally shooting hummingbirds and hummingbird moths (what else? ) amidst the hostas and noticed a lot of bees. Once I spotted these guys, I was milked it with everything I had

I shot a few more yesterday (a day after these were taken) for Payn's B&W thread. These two were still at it.

[Jaedon]

I love Manti , they look so alien.

Awesome captures Loupey

[payn817]

Wow Loupey....you SUCK.

I been looking for these for months, and you beat me to it. Nice series though.

[euphoria]

Wow, great job!
I've only seen one mantis this year and I didnt have my camera with me! :mad2: :mad2:

I need to start listening to those hunches tellin me to take my camera with me

[terryger]

got my wife hooked on the photogrphy thing as she is a bug person. i showed her your stuff loupey and she has to have a set of tubes now too. those and the teleconverters are the next purchases.

she took some pics of a mantis the other day i'll tery to post up tomorrow. hers was easier to find. it was on the tripod leg! nothing like these but we all have to aim for something!:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

you got me hooked and now you are reaching here. bet you didn't know you had so much influence.

[coachgns]

WHOA!
I'll quote OT here: "I give up!"
These are incredible - I can say "Now I have something to try to attain" or I could say "I'll never get anything this good."
Reality tells me the latter.

[Loupey]

Jaedon, Payn, Euphoria - thanks for such kind words. Euphoria, I keep a small camera bag (10D with 300mm attached, one end pocket with a 2x TC and the other end pocket with a set of extension tubes) in my truck virtually constantly. I have two locations near my work and one near my house that I like to "get lost in". I've found that I can "get lost" for about 2 hours before either my customers get mad or my wife

Terryger - that's great news about your wife! Hope she gets a PR account name here. Look forward to seeing her posts :thumbsup: I'm glad that we have been able to help you out. Photography is about as wholesome of an activity as one can get - albeit an expensive one if you let it

Coachgns -thanks for such nice words, but naw - its really not that hard. We can gladly help you here if you want to learn. As you can see by my number of posts, I tend to talk a lot. Or as my wife says, I "give a lot of unrequested advice"

[Loupey]

...oh, I forgot. I wanted to post these two images from the previous series that I did not post.

Thanks again, everyone! Mantises rock!