Its been a while since I had an update to my Personal Photography Project.
You can check out this post for a more detailed explanation, but essentially my aim with this is to show you some pictures of invertebrates, and by using the simple black background you can appreciate how beautiful they are.
Previous Themes:
Bee-utiful Bees - Spiders - Butterflies - 'Green' - 'Moth Trap Finds' - Highlights - Caddisflies - Ladybirds - Hoverflies - Bugs
I have posted intermittently on here about my personal project. The project isn't something I do for anything other then enjoyment and, because it is entirely for my benefit, I do it how I want and when I want. As a photographer, I believe we should all do something for sheer enjoyment. Not to please clients, to impress our audience, but purely for our own benefit.
Striped Woodlouse - Philoscia muscorum
This is mine. I could care less what anyone else thinks about these, I could quite happily do this for hours and hours. That said I have neglected it recently... partly because real life has been shit (work/covid/etc). But mostly it has been down to equipment. My old laptop was rubbish.
That's being kind... my old laptop was fucking awful. Slow and clunky when I first bought it, and 4 years later it was practically useless. In its final days it struggled to open the internet, let alone do anything interesting. I hadn't been able to open photoshop or lightroom for 18 months. My partner let me borrow her newer PC, but that wasn't ideal.
I finally bit the bullet a few weeks ago, and bought a new laptop. I did my research this time and bought one that would actually do what I wanted... after spending 2 weeks setting it up how I want it, I am pleased to say the laptop was worth every penny (it was a LOT of pennies!)
Finally I could get back to work on my project, and about time to, I've got a lot of pictures to work through
Each folder features a different species of insect or invertebrate. The aim is to get a nice clear closeup of image of as many species I can find. I especially want a shot to resemble a studio shoot, not just a generic outdoors shot.
The whole point of the clean background is to isolate the indvidual insect on its own with no distracting background. In this way I hope to show that even small invertebrates are just as beautiful, and just as extraordinary as any other group of wildlife
Five Spot Club Horn Wasp - Sapyga quinquepunctata
There is nothing wrong with good macro wildlife photography, and indeed there are many fantastic images of insects all over the internet. I just really like the effect the clean background gives. Besides, I only know of a few photographers doing this kind of work, and I enjoy doing something different to the masses.
Here are a few more I have finally managed to complete:
Elephant Hawkmoth - Deilephila elpenor
Small wasp (not ID'd yet!)
Privet Hawkmoth caterpillar - Sphinx ligustri
I don't expect everyone to understand why I do these... and that isn't the point, I do this for the sheer joy of it, a way to experiment and explore push myself as a photographer
So for those who aren't bothered... thats totally fine, I won't take offence.
And for those few who actually find this interesting, rest assured that with my shiny new laptop there will be lots more of these images appearing in the not too distant future!
Early Thorn - Selenia dentaria
While in my care, all individuals are looked after, and after Photographs have been taken, they are all released safely outside.
All names of species have been checked via Wikispecies
Thank you for reading, I hope you found it interesting.
If you have any thoughts or opinions on this article then I'd love to see your comments.
And if you really like the content then maybe you would like to upvote or re-hive it.
All Photos taken by 
Check out my website for more of my work.
