New year Springtails

My first macro shots of 2012!

went into the garden to find a few globular springtails, tiny little bugs approx 1-2 mm in size.
all were shot at the mpe-65 maximum magnification of x5 .using 5d2   full frame camera does have its disadvantages, losing quite a bit of magnification compared to crop sensor body's!

The first springtails i found were a globular species Dicyrtomina minuta , i had not noticed this species in the garden before.   they are Soooo  Cute :)  probably just under 1mm in length!

shot at f7  , i had inadvertently left camera in av mode, and shot at 1/60th shutterspeed full flash!   but came out superbly well!

Most of these shots are 2 frame focus stacks, where multiple frames each with a slightly different focal point are merged to increase depth of field!  which at this magnification is a lot less than 1mm!

I found these tiny springtails under a piece of fallen tree bark that was in  the garden,  another species of globular springtail, Dicyrtomina saundersi was also present, i think this is one of the commonest species!  they do vary in colour quite a lot, but always have nice pattering on the body.  

this one was a bit bigger at approx 1.5 mm :)

shot in manual mode, full flash, f6.3,  1/200th

A couple days later , after heavy rain , shot  another one , a paler individual!  i have been shooting them on the back steps, the stone is nice natural setting!

This is probably my best ever globular image!  ever!

and another shot of it  running along the edge of the step!  Lol

and then i found a casualty,  a problem with being so tiny, i trod on one!   OOPS !

Im Sorry!

another one shot on wet bark, very difficult to get good exposure, had to combine 2 exposures of the same frame altered in RAW to get this shot looking ok!

all images shot with canon 5d2 and mpe-65 at maximum magnification.