A heavily pregnant praying mantis made its way through the rainforest behind our yard and up onto our patio a few weeks back. She seemed quite content letting me take as many macros as I wanted, following the lens around with her huge eyes, possibly seeing its own reflection in the glass, which happens often when photographing insects. An important lesson I learned early on in macro photography was to find an insect that is just as curious about me, as I am in it!
When I first started out, I always seemed to be running around like a mad women chasing bugs around! That only results in shaky wobbly images that get thrown out in the trash. Instead, take your time and search out insects that are lying around extremely still. Macro photography is a game of patience.
Here are my 3 favourite shots of the praying mantis. The first with a darker background was due to it standing against a darker corner. It then moved onto yellow patio furniture, hence the yellow background in the second shot. Before flying onto a green shrub ie the green background in the last image.
All these images were photographed with a Canon 7D SLR + Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens + Twin Lite MT-24EX flash.