FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey guys, I had a photo thread but it's been buried long ago. I'll be posting my best and favourite macro shots of carnivorous plants

I've also posted a simple guide to using extension tubes and my macro setup. I use DIY techniques to cheaply adapt my beginner's equipment for macro.

(26 April 2017)


Drosera capensis with wasp


Drosera peltata with gnat


Drosera capensis with mosquito


Byblis liniflora with fungus gnat

(27 June 2017)


Drosera peltata with prey


Drosophyllum lusitanicum

(09 July 2017)


Drosera binata

Spectacular images!

Excellent work! What sort of photography equipment do you use?

nimbulan wrote:Excellent work! What sort of photography equipment do you use?

I used to use a technique called double lens reverse mounting where you reverse-mount a shorter lens on a longer lens that's attached to your camera body (i scratched my longer lens right in the middle so i can't do this technique anymore :/ ). You get wonderful magnifications and high quality images. I think image one used this technique

I also use extension tubes with my kit lenses, which I used to take the rest of the images. You don't get as high magnifications, but image quality is preserved.

As for lighting, my old setup had an inbuilt flash, which I redirected and diffused with a pringles can and aluminium foil.

I recently upgraded to sony A7, which has great ISO capabilities. Since it doesn't have an inbuilt flash and I don't have an external flash, I'm experimenting with ambient lighting and processing techniques to get my shots. So far, haven't done any true macros outside of the 'studio'/bedroom but will do so when the D. peltatas in the area pop up again.

I've used both single reversed lenses and extension tubes and have rarely managed to get results quite that good. I really need to figure out a flash - additional light is a must that close!

nimbulan wrote:I've used both single reversed lenses and extension tubes and have rarely managed to get results quite that good. I really need to figure out a flash - additional light is a must that close!

Good light is critical. Soft ambient light works well if you have stabilisation (the byblis flower photo was taken with extension tubes and softened window light). You'd be looking at exposure speeds in the order of tenths-of-seconds to seconds though so it's more suitable for studio settings. In the field, rigging up a diffused but bright artificial light system makes your life a lot easier.

Quick update of two new photos. Also updated in the first post.


Drosera peltata with prey


Drosophyllum lusitanicum

Woah! Amazing photography!!

These pictures are truly amazing, they should be in nat geo or something! Keep up the good work, and please keep sharing them

For those who are interested in exploring macro, I've posted a quick guide on my setup and technique. I use extension tubes and DIY methods which can cheaply adapt most camera setups for macro.

Also, here's a Drosera binata


At this point I should mention that a lot of my shots are composed in terms of the positioning of the insects. The insects are always already dead and have naturally been caught by the plant, but I do sometimes arrange them manually to bring out the plant's most interesting features (for example, the forked leaf of D. binata). I am very open about my photo-processing workflow and I do believe that my compositions preserve the integrity of the subject (for example, I wouldn't put a dead lizard in a VFT cause it probably doesn't happen too much in nature).

For all this time I thought that these macros are of live insects in a really good pose and you have a really good camera. Hmm maybe try doing burmanii's snap traps? Or a bug stretched accross MULTIPLE filfiormis stalks?