Luminous beings are we…

Master Yoda’s explanation of the Force to Luke Skywalker (see Related Resources, below) features the following memorable quote.

Luminous beings are we,
not this crude matter.

One of many reasons I like the “Meet Your Neighbours” technique for photographing natural subjects against a pure white background is that it seems to reveal the luminous beings that odonate exuviae are. Feel the force by looking at the full-size version of the following image.

Common Green Darner (Anax junius) | exuvia (anterior)

Related Resources

• Meet Your Tiniest Neighbors Using Macro Gear and a Field Studio Setup – an interview with Clay Bolt, co-founder of the “Meet Your Neighbours” project
• Meet Your Neighbours – The Field Studio e-Book, by Niall Benvie, co-founder of the “Meet Your Neighbours” project
• Master Yoda Quote (ALLY) | Star Wars V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (1:00)

Tech Tips

I added a Raynox DCR-250 close-up filter to my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300 24x superzoom bridge camera for a closer view of the anterior of the odonate exuvia.

The camera was set for 1-Area Focusing. The focus-and-recompose technique was used to focus on the eye of the subject.

A Godox X2To/p wireless flash trigger for Olympus and Panasonic was used to fire two off-camera flash units.

1. A Godox TT685C Thinklite Flash for Canon Cameras (manual mode), fitted with a “Vello Bounce Dome (Diffuser) for Canon 580EX II Flash,” was used to light the underside of the translucent white plastic background; the top of the flash unit was ~30 cm from the bottom of the white plastic.
2. A Godox TT685o/p Thinklite Flash for Olympus/Panasonic Cameras (manual mode), fitted with a Lastolite Ezybox Speed-Lite 2 flash modifier, was used to light the subject from above.

Copyright © 2019 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Tags: Anax junius, BoG Photo Studio, Common Green Darner dragonfly, exuvia, Family Aeshnidae (Darners), female, gear talk, Meet Your Neighbours, studio photography