Cat flea? - Ctenocephalides felis

My faves

I have a soft spot for fleas, but even regardless of that, these are some of the best photos of them I've really ever seen. You can really see the pieces that compose the animal. ;)

The eyes are so beautiful... like little pearls. XD
& the way the exoskeleton twists & folds over its self into such delicate plates... it really looks like a suit of armor!
& the genal comb looks really sharp, too! It's all dark, like it's made of ebony or something. :D

… Jonas Insinga, 31 January, 2008 - 10:30pm

Thanks Jonas

Having spent a fair amount of time fiddling with this things under a dissecting scope lately, I have to agree that they're pretty interesting creatures. Very efficient.

… Jay Barnes, 1 February, 2008 - 3:36pm

Hey Jay, could you take a loo

Hey Jay, could you take a look at the forum topic I posted about macro lenses, and give me your opinion on the setup I'm looking at?

http://bugguide.net/node/view/160266

Thanks!

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 9 December, 2007 - 5:13pm

Another great one Jay!

Please give us some detail on how you achieved this shot.
The detail is excellent.

… S3, 22 November, 2007 - 11:00pm

Thanks Mike

The setup I used is very similar to the one I described here. Good depth of field isn't possible at this magnification, so I take a series of pictures while changing the subject distance between each frame. Helicon Focus takes the sharpest parts of each image and combines them to make one.

Couldn't be easier. ;-)

… Jay Barnes, 26 November, 2007 - 12:18am

kudos

Jay,

If you haven't already written an instructional book on macrophotography, you really should. Just beautiful.

… Jeff Gruber, 21 November, 2007 - 4:39pm

You first

Those beetles you've been uploading look terrific.

… Jay Barnes, 21 November, 2007 - 6:15pm

Thanks...

but mine are the product of a magical machine (Syncroscopy Automontage) whose operation thankfully requires very little in the way of photography skills (of which I have very few). So my book would just have a dedication page and a lot of blank pages. I could probably sell all the unsold copies as journals or diaries:)

The detail of your images blows mine away!

… Jeff Gruber, 26 November, 2007 - 8:13pm