Bug the trend
Lee Frost hopes his creepy crawly close-ups can combat people’s phobias and present six- and eight-legged critters in a new light
MISSION: Present arachnids and insects in a different way to dispel people’s fears
PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Frost
LOCATION: Stoke-on-trent, UK
KIT USED: Nikon D810, Micro AF 105mm f/2.8d, Raynox DCR 250, Yongnuo YN560 III (DIY diffuser)
TWITTER: @Leefrostscol
INSTAGRAM: @lee_frosts_capture_of_life
From a young age, I’ve had a passion for wildlife and nature. As a toddler, I was always picking up creepycrawlies and putting them in my pockets for my parents to find later. We lived near fields and streams, so I was forever looking under rocks, and searching the long grass for anything unusual.
What really kicked off my photography, though, is quite bizarre. Six years ago, I got too close to nature one day and was bitten by a spider on my leg and ended up very ill with cellulitis. After about a week in hospital, all I was thinking about was what spider had bitten me? So I took to the internet and, as I was browsing through these amazing close-ups of spiders and other insects,
I was blown away! So much so that I took the plunge to get my own camera and try to capture close-ups myself.
Since then I came first in the 2020 Luminar Bug Photographer of the Year’s Bug Homes category [1] and was awarded the People’s Choice in the Macro category at the British Photography Awards 2021 [5].
Simply the pest
Having a family means I don’t have as much free time as I used to, so I try to take most of my images in my own garden. Creating habitats for insects is a great way to attract them, whether that is planting certain flowers or purchasing a bug hotel, you can entice bugs into your own backyard.
One cold spring morning I looked at my bug hotel, which had only been up for a week, and I noticed that I had a couple of residents, including a fine-looking male leaf-cutter bee (Megachile). I grabbed my camera and waited three hours for the residents to make an appearance. Finally, two emerged at the same time [1].
Letting a patch of my lawn grow enabled wildflowers to emerge, attracting more insects to my garden. Thick-legged flower beetles (Oedemera nobilis) are great pollinators, and this male was happily going from flower to flower.
Whilst lying on the grass in wait, I set my focus and composition on this buttercup. Before too long the flower beetle landed in the perfect position. I got a surprise in the editing stage as I noticed a greenfly aphid hiding in the image [2]!
Thanks to the bug hotels in my garden, I often see parasitic wasps lurking around, looking for an opportunity to lay their eggs on host (often mason bees) larva. Getting a photo of one can be tricky, as they’re always on the move. When I spotted this beautiful 5mm ruby-tailed wasp, I had to try and get a shot of it. After many failed attempts while chasing it around the garden, it came to rest for a couple of seconds [3], this gave me the chance to take a few images, and capture the beautiful iridescent colours.
The initial Covid lockdown was hard on everyone and I felt it was important to keep busy. Lucky for me I enjoy macro photography, so this gave me an opportunity to spend more time in the garden. One day I happened to stumble on these mining bees that kept landing on my glass garden table [4]. This one stayed still for a few seconds, allowing me to focusstack eight images, which I later merged together in Photoshop, producing one delightfully sharp image from front to back.
During the winter there aren’t many insects around, but I still like to keep busy and practise handheld focus stacking. Jumping spiders are my favourite species to photograph, their big eyes make them look cute. I have a little collection of pet jumping spiders that I use to practise on, and for this image my female (Phidippus adumbratus) moulted her exoskeleton and revealed some wonderful colours. She was relatively still while eating, so this seemed like the ideal time to shoot a focus-stacked image [5].