Photography In Our Garden - Part 5 - Using a Moth Trap

Photography In Our Garden - Part 5 - Using a Moth Trap. 

One thing that I have always enjoyed photographing are insects, butterflies and moths. Since the lockdown, I have run my Skinner Moth Trap on three separate evenings, and although the nights have not really been warm enough to have large numbers of moths, I have still managed to attract a few on each occasion, so this has given me some interesting subjects to photograph. 

The interesting thing about using a moth trap is that you never know what you are going to catch. Early in the morning I take the trap into the garden shed and slowly take it apart to examine what species I have caught. If you do this early, - at about 6.00am,- the moths are quite cool and easy to transfer onto plants, twigs and branches, so you can photograph them without much difficulty. Once they have been  photographed, the moths are released unharmed. 

The following are a few images of some of the moths I have caught recently in out garden since the lockdown. All taken with either the EM1X or the E-M1 MkII, and the 60mm F2.8 Macro lens or the 40-150mm F2.8 + MC14 converter. Some are single shot images and others are using the `in camera focus stacking` on the Olympus cameras. 

Popular Hawk Moth 

Earl Grey Moth 

Swallow Prominent Moth 

Close Up Head shot of the Swallow Prominent Moth. This was taken on a tripod using the Olympus EM1X , 60mm F2.8 Macro lens and extension tubes. It was a 15 shot `in camera` focus stacked image. 

Dark Sword Grass Moth 

Cinnabar Moth on bracken fond 

This is my Skinner Moth Trap 

In the bottom of the trap are cardboard empty egg trays/boxes. These are like aa `maze` for the moths. They find there way in but cannot find their way out. They will just sit in amongst the egg trays quite happily. 

Puss Moth 

Treble Bar Aplocera Plagiata Moth 

Muslin Moth