Lantern Bug Scape at Agumbe
Photograph Description – I have found the sheer beauty and diversity that rainforests offer very fascinating. While we all have our wishlist of the ‘sought after species’ like snakes, other reptiles and amphibians, there is much more to the rainforest than just that. I wanted to make an image that can tell the story of this diversity and the world they live in.
The Lantern Bug shown here is so called because it was believed (mistakenly) that the insect glows like a lantern at night. Do you know why the insect has a “proboscis” on the head? It is actually a hollow part that acts as a decoy to escape from predators. When a predator tries to catch the Lantern Bug at the “proboscis”, the insect breaks it and flies away to safety.
Technical Details – Focal Length 18mm | f/9 | 1/60sec | ISO 500 – I made this image with a wide angle lens (18-55 mm lens, shot at 18 mm) and at a narrow aperture (f/9) as I wanted to show the habitat to give the image a very strong ‘rainforest feel’ to it.
Manish Vaidya, amateur photographer from Delhi, made this photograph on our Rainforest Rendezvous tour of Agumbe in June 2014. Manish loves being in the lap of nature. Photography according to him is a medium that can help one share stories about the creations of nature. He hope these stories will encourage those around him get closer to nature and be more sensitive towards the world we live in.
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