Objects in the Camera May Be Smaller Than They Appear
Alex Wild wants to teach you—and everyone else—how to be a bug photographer.
- Alejandro Santillana01Entomologist Alex Wild’s life is full of bugs. When he leaves his house, he notes the growth of two paper wasp nests in his garage. When he strolls across the lawn at the university where he works, he turns over stones searching for ant colonies. And when he opens the door to his lab, he's greeted by a million insects—like this straight-snouted weevil.
- Alejandro Santillana02Wild is the curator of entomology at the University of Texas at Austin. He's also a professional bug photographer, licensing images to publications like National Geographic and The New York Times. And he wants you to be a bug photographer too. Wild runs Insects Unlocked, a program that allows anyone to visit the university's bug collection, pick out a blueberry bee or anything else, and learn how to photograph it.
- christopher johnson03All the photos are posted to the program's Flickr account, where people can download them for free. He hopes it helps people love bugs as much as he does. "They're small, so they don't get the appreciation of larger animals, but they do even more amazing things," says Wild, a self-described “ant guy.” "And they're everywhere\!"
- brett morgan04Wild’s fascination with insects began at four years old, collecting ant nests in Allegheny State Park in New York, near where he grew up. He didn't start photographing them until 2000, when he was an entomology graduate student at University of California at Davis. “I needed photographs for my talks about Argentine ants—horrible little brown things—so I bought a cruddy digicam,” he says. “It was really addictive.”
- Karen Perez05In 2015, when he accepted a job at UT Austin, he knew he had to incorporate photography. He took to Kickstarter, where he was able to raise more than $12,000 to purchase photography equipment.
- christopher johnson06Wild's 1,300-square-foot collection room houses a million bugs sorted by taxonomy, including wasps from entomologist (and sexologist) Al Kinsey and 150-year-old beetles from a school teacher in the 1870s.
- alejandro santillana07The photo lab is just next door, where after a quick demonstration of how to use the equipment, people can get to work. There's a student who uses the collection for a research project on bees and a New Yorker cartoonist who likes to snap photos of butterflies and moths.
- alejandro santillana08Some people like shooting on brightly colored backgrounds while others go for a more serious approach on black or white.
- christopher johnson09For aspiring bug photographers, Wild has a few tips. Work with soft, diffused light to highlight details on your specimen and, most importantly, photograph from the bug's perspective. “If your point is to make people empathize with the insect and how it sees the world, get down on its level, shooting sideways or up at it," he says. Turns out the best way to take a photo of a bug is to think like one.
Charley Locke writes about growing up and growing old for publications including The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and WIRED. ... Read More
Writer
Amazing Macrophotography of Insects
We rarely see insects in close up, unless we wake up from a nap outside on a spring day and find one creeping slowly across our eyeball, various proboscii dripping. And even (perhaps especially!) in that circumstance, we don’t appreciate how beautiful insects can be. This gallery has a number of macro-photographs of various insects, […]
Biggest, Fastest, Bloodiest: Earth's Most Extreme Insects
Find out who in the insect world is the biggest, longest, bloodiest, highest jumper, best actor and more in Wired's Entomological Hall of Fame.
What Gives With Insects Pretending to Be Sticks and Leaves?
A surprising number of insects look so much like leaves and sticks that it doesn't seem possible.
Engrossingly Gross Photos of Spiders and Insects Eating Each Other
These are some of the most detailed and disturbing bug-meal photos you might ever see. You can thank us later.
Nature Zen: Orchid Bees are SHINY
These flying jewels also have really smelly legs, and pollinate orchids.
I Really, Really Want the 3,600-Piece Lego U.S.S. Enterprise
This $400 set comes with minifigures of the complete Next Gen crew, including Picard, Riker, and Wesley Crusher’s portable tractor beam.
Chinese Beverage Chains Spread Across the US, Challenging Starbucks' Dominance
Luckin Coffee, Chagee, and other Chinese brands are targeting US consumers with Instagram-worthy drinks sold through sleek mobile apps.
Analog Photography: The Beginner’s Guide to Film Cameras
Which film camera should you get? Which films are the best? We demystify the world of analog photography to help you get started.
An Invasive Disease-Carrying Mosquito Has Spread to the Rocky Mountains
The Aedes aegypti mosquito that can carry dengue, yellow fever, and Zika was thought to be too reliant on a hot and wet climate to survive in the Mountain West. But now, a population is thriving in Western Colorado.
Climate Change Made Hurricane Melissa 4 Times More Likely, Study Suggests
Unusually warm ocean temperatures fueled one of the worst hurricanes on record. New research finds climate change increased the storm’s likelihood.
Resistant Bacteria Are Advancing Faster Than Antibiotics
One in six laboratory-confirmed bacteria in 2023 proved resistant to antibiotic treatment, according to the World Health Organization—all related to a variety of common diseases globally.
In Orbit You Have to Slow Down to Speed Up
Driving a spacecraft around a planet isn’t anything like driving on a planet. A physicist explains orbital navigation.