Dead handy

I thought I'd try a bit of macro photography today using my camera's Live View feature. I played around with it for a good hour or so and was really impressed with just how much it helped to get this shot.

First of all, it allowed me to zoom in 10 times normal size. I had this little dude's eye filling up the entire LCD screen making focussing a piece of cake (and much easier than doing it through the viewfinder). Also, by having the image showing on the screen, it left my hands free to shift the physical elements around (the moth is on a piece of paper and the background is a cheesy mosque alarm clock box) to get the light and depth of field I was after. The final bonus I found was that the mirror locks-up before and during the shot, nullifying any camera shake.

If you're wondering what powers of persuasion I possess in order to get a moth to stand completely still for an hour enabling me to experiment so freely, the answer is that he was dead (heat related probably). In fact, getting him upright was the trickiest part of the shot, and even that was pretty simple seeing as rigor mortis had set in nicely.