My FIrst Adult

[zGhost]

Hi Everyone,

Been a few since I have visited, but I wanted to share the excitement of raising my first mantis to Adulthood.

I know it's an easy species, Ghost, but what a beautiful and transforming final molt. My boy Z looks like a different mantis. No more tail wrapped up by his head, his antennae and head dress got huge, and wings certainly change appearances.

The molt happened last night after lights out, so I will get a pic of my boy tonight.

My other mantis, Tito, a O. Gracilis, is still doing well and has a few more molts to go.

That's all for now from this proud Poppa

 

[HungryGhost]

Congrats on a successful upbringing!

 

[I_love_mantids]

congratulations!

 

[sally]

Great job

 

[PlayingMantis]

Awesome, congrats!

 

[Digger]

:clap:

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Careful, it starts with one and the next thing you know your house is infested.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Happy happy! :kiss:

 

[zGhost]

Thanks everyone

Krissam Klaw - I currently have two, but can see how a house could quickly become infested. There is just something about these mantids that is so fascinating. My little Tito (O. Gracilis) truly seems to like playing with me...reaches out for me when I'm around, prefers to crawl on me over all the plants I have. I will upload a few pic in just a bit.

 

[zGhost]

This is my Ghost all grown up.

 

[MandellaMandy123]

Congratulations. My first ghost molted to adulthood a few days ago as well.

 

[zGhost]

Thanks, and same to you Wolfie

BTW - Your mantis photos are fantastic! You have inspired me to break out my camera for some real HD shots. How are you setting up these color ground and background shots? Or is it a secret?

 

[I_love_mantids]

A green male...huh...that's a first

 

[Extrememantid]

A green male...huh...that's a first

Not really..

 

[Extrememantid]

Thanks, and same to you Wolfie

BTW - Your mantis photos are fantastic! You have inspired me to break out my camera for some real HD shots. How are you setting up these color ground and background shots? Or is it a secret?

I'm pretty sure it's coloured paper, I might be wrong though

 

[I_love_mantids]

I'm just saying you don't usually see green male ghosts

 

[MandellaMandy123]

Thanks, zGhost! Here is a post I made several months back about my photo setup. Nothing has changed, except that I now have two of the Joby lights.

How I take and edit my photos:

I use two pieces of colored cardstock for the backgrounds of my photos. I put one sheet on the floor and the other sheet against the wall or a piece of furniture. I have a Canon EOS Rebel T3i and for most of my photos I use my Canon Ultrasonic macro lens. I think it's called Canon Macro Lens EF 100mm. That's what is says on the lens. Anyway, I usually use the built-in flash along with my Joby Gorillatorch Flare125 light. This is what my setup usually looks like:

Sorry for the poor image quality. I took this with my point-and-shoot. The color is really weird. So my photos generally end up looking like this:

Then I edit the photo using Adobe Photoshop Elements 10. First, I increase the saturation by 20. Then I go to Color Variations and increase green and blue once. Then I raise the contrast by about 20 and lower the brightness by around 10. Here's the finished result:

As I've had more and more experience with Adobe, I would probably mess with the contrast, saturation, and brightness rather than doing anything with the color. It all depends on the individual photo - mess around with it until it looks good.

I look forward to seeing your photos!

~Wolfie

 

[zGhost]

Thanks Wolfie I am going to give this a try. I have photoshop 10, not very good with it, but Ill go by your suggestions to start.

 

[Extrememantid]

A green male...huh...that's a first

And I wouldn't consider that very green lol.. But kinda