# Some new pet photo's



## Harbinger (Dec 22, 2012)

Well my drawing still sucks horribly but at least i have my photography :3







3 species of the same genus of fruit beetle ^_^






Thistle mantis.






Devils flower mantis.

And some crap photo's of newish stuff that i just havent had chance to have a proper shoot with them yet. My freshwater tropical land crabs, my pacman frog, and my hercules beetle larvae :3


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## Tiamat (Dec 22, 2012)

You took these? I agree with you, I like these much better than your drawings at the moment. Great subject matter and some really interesting shots.


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## Taralack (Dec 22, 2012)

OH GOD THAT LAST ONE oAo


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## Harbinger (Dec 22, 2012)

Yeah i did thanks 
Im a bit of a wildlife and nature nut, grew up glued to the crocodile hunter and the like. Theres not much interesting species here in the UK so i've been keeping and breeding exotics for a few years now, im taking photo's all the time 

Looking at your location are you still in South Africa?
Got a fair few amazing mantids in africa, the devils flower mantis above originate from Tanzania


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## Tiamat (Dec 22, 2012)

I sincerely think you should consider pursuing a career in wildlife photography. You enjoy it and you clearly have a knack for it. 
My comments on your art may seem harsh, but I speak sincerely when people ask for crits and I like these photos. 

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your closeup work. 

We get large mantids here indeed. I've kept more than one as a pet, they like to eat chicken. One of the ones I kept laid eggs
which then hatched into dozens of perfectly miniature mantids.


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## Harbinger (Dec 22, 2012)

Thanks 
Would be one of my dream jobs, but im still not sure such a thing exists, i thought it only existed as a hobby. Took photography in school but all we did was photoshop pictures into artwork, then photograph in college was just DSLR camera's which i didnt have a clue to use, still dont. I dont think any photography is taken seriously unless its taken with a DSLR for some reason.

As for the art i know its terribad, i just dont do it anywhere near as much as i should in the hope of getting better. I was waiting to get a tablet which i might nearly be getting, i was getting sick of the shitty pencils and rubbers i have with naff sketchbooks which just put me off it more, my hands are usually sweaty -_-


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## dinosaurdammit (Dec 22, 2012)

WHERE TO GET THE LARVA!


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## Arshes Nei (Dec 22, 2012)

Harbinger said:


> As for the art i know its terribad, i just dont do it anywhere near as much as i should in the hope of getting better. I was waiting to get a tablet which i might nearly be getting, i was getting sick of the shitty pencils and rubbers i have with naff sketchbooks which just put me off it more, my hands are usually sweaty -_-



Tablet won't make you better. It will make things more confusing for you to be honest. You're not going to get better if you don't knuckle down a bit and draw from life. You like your exotics, then draw them! You own reference most people highly depend on Google for.


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## Harbinger (Dec 22, 2012)

I did tonnes of that in school, well, it was from my photo's and not a lot from my actual bugs on my hand, they wouldnt let me bring them in lol.

Isnt drawing something from IRL the same as drawing from another image or screenshot?
I thought it might have been so i never really tried since. I cant see how a tablet would make me better straight off, i already know how to use photoshop-ish, but im just getting fed up of physical problems when drawing, shitty pencils, shitty colours, shitty rubbers, shitty everything.

Anyway, here's some more pics 






My juvenile Australian huntsman spider :3






Another species from Tanzania, giant grass mantis.






Baby Cryptic mantis i bred, think these are from africa aswell. Africa and Malaysia have the best mantids


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## Tiamat (Dec 22, 2012)

Just showed my wife, she was impressed as well. We get huntsmen spiders here too. If one is across the road I can see it plainly looking out my window. 
Please keep them coming!

I think wildlife photography, like illustration is a competitive, cut throat business, which is mainly freelance. 
Do your photos get much exposure? (excuse the pun) do you enter competitions? 

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/photo/photography-career.html#cr


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## Arshes Nei (Dec 22, 2012)

Harbinger said:


> Isnt drawing something from IRL the same as drawing from another image or screenshot?
> I thought it might have been so i never really tried since. I cant see how a tablet would make me better straight off, i already know how to use photoshop-ish, but im just getting fed up of physical problems when drawing, shitty pencils, shitty colours, shitty rubbers, shitty everything.



Nooooooooooooooooooooooo it is not the same AT ALL.

Shitty colors and erasers are a user end problem. You don't have to use a school pencil with a rubber eraser. Get a kneadable eraser. Get something like these - http://www.dickblick.com/products/tombow-mono-professional-drawing-pencils/?clickTracking=true

Blaming the "Colors" means you haven't drawn enough. I know there are shitty materials out there, but I could work whatever with cheap 99 cent markers so it's an excuse not the real cause.


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## Mayonnaise (Dec 23, 2012)

That's some big larvae. 

. . .

Are they edible by any chance?


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## Harbinger (Dec 27, 2012)

From time to time i get messages on my flickr account asking for my photo's to be used in school books or websites. Only entered one competition back in school, was a local one, one 1st and 2nd place. Got the attention of this nature art gallery museum place, was real fancy, they wanted to have some of my photo's displayed at this event there, i wasnt there for it but after they never got back to me, just went up and collected my photo's back and it never led anywhere.

The amount of photographers i've seen on flickr enough with amazingly better photographs puts me off as it is. Anyway, some more of mine, these are malaysian katydids, they look stunning when adult, a giant leaf mimic with eye spots on the wings.






And a rare-ish species of  stick insect i've finally bred for the first time.






Oh and these are a favorite of me, very rare, tried 3 times to breed them and failed the first 2, didnt get a single hatcling. 3rd time around i now have over 110 young, they are one of my favorite insects, massive, spiny, and colourful monsters.


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## Harbinger (Jan 15, 2013)

Havent taken many recently at all. I usually photograph everything once its shed its skin and got bigger and better, but most of the things i have now are so slow growing nothings worth photographing again. Plus i like to just use the sunlight, there has been hardly any of that over here lately :/

Anyway, a quick one from this morning of my pacman frog getting bigger


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## Butters Shikkon (Jan 15, 2013)

You really are talented, Harbinger. These are so amazing. 

The Pacman frog has come a long way it seems. Also, didn't know larvae could get that big. >.< They are so alien looking.


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## Harbinger (Jan 19, 2013)

Thanks 
And yeah i was suprised how quick he plumped out, i think she maybe a she, i hope, the males song is stupidly loud 
And yeah those larvae can get a bit bigger. I had a look at them all the other day, all 6 of them couldnt really fit in my hands, couldnt get a photo in time, not only didnt i have a hand free but they started to bite, HARD.


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## Harbinger (Jan 19, 2013)

-EDIT-woops double post.


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## Butters Shikkon (Jan 19, 2013)

Harbinger said:


> Thanks
> And yeah i was suprised how quick he plumped out, i think she maybe a she, i hope, the males song is stupidly loud
> And yeah those larvae can get a bit bigger. I had a look at them all the other day, all 6 of them couldnt really fit in my hands, couldnt get a photo in time, not only didnt i have a hand free but they started to bite, HARD.



:C Oh god that scares me. 

When do they turn into regular beetles anyway? A few months?


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## Harbinger (Jan 19, 2013)

Smaller species take around i a year, other species a couple of years :/
Gotta have patience when keeping beetles, they are such low maintainance as larvae, keep them in a tank full of the right kinda soil, and just leave them, within a year i should hopefully have adults with my larvae


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## FireFeathers (Jan 24, 2013)

I have it on good standing that pac man frog likes my livestreams.

Also, why do i run into your terrifying spider pictures everywhere?  I'll have another nightmare  a couple weeks down the line with that spider, EGH.


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## Schwimmwagen (Jan 24, 2013)

Great photos!

You should try taking photos for a local magazine or newspaper or something.


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## Harbinger (Jan 27, 2013)

As long as im giving at least one person nightmares across the world my mission is accomplished 
And just for FireFeathers my huntsman spider moulted and got even bigger the other day as im sure your happy to hear 

[video=youtube;mxwcq8VDfCQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxwcq8VDfCQ[/video]

Bit of a short video, little bugger ran up my arm so i had to catch it. But got some good photo's 






Had another new successful breeding last night, Costa Rican katydid hatched 






The very rare and impressive stick insects i bred are getting a lot bigger, should be adult in a couple of moults.






And a group shot of all my hercules sub species beetle larvae whilst i was changing their substrate the other day. Even bigger since the last photo.


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## DragonFoxDemon (Jan 27, 2013)

These are spectacular. Wow you are amazing with a camera. Those beetles in the first picture have great color/markings for computer mice (mouses?).


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## Kio Snowfyre (Jan 27, 2013)

These are really good, OP. But I nearly jumped out of my seat when I saw the spiders, at least you make them stand out very well, at least ^^
Not a bad focus, either, if you don't mind if I ask, what camera are you using for these?


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## FireFeathers (Feb 11, 2013)

*whines and shudders violently*


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## Harbinger (Feb 11, 2013)

*Grows more powerful from inducing fear*

The camera's a Casio EX-FH20.


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## Tiamat (Feb 11, 2013)

Can the grubs really only move through the soil and such? They seem so helpless outside of it, despite their size.

Also, I'd love to see what the grubs face looks like...


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## Harbinger (Feb 11, 2013)

Pretty much, they only ever surface when they are adult beetles. Wll try and get a decent headshot next time i have them out, usually cra lighting when i do. There was a recent insect exhibition the other day, got tonnes of new species, cant wait to get some photo's of them, got some real stunners.


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## Kit H. Ruppell (Feb 11, 2013)

FireFeathers said:


> *whines and shudders violently*


Yeah...I'm not a big fan of 'creepy-crawlies' either. Ironically, I like dragonflies even though about a minute ago I discovered that they can bite through human skin. I am a wuss.


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## FireFeathers (Feb 11, 2013)

Kit H. Ruppell said:


> Yeah...I'm not a big fan of 'creepy-crawlies' either. Ironically, I like dragonflies even though about a minute ago I discovered that they can bite through human skin. I am a wuss.



I have a longstanding tradition where spiders tend to land on my face.  It's happened about 6 times in the past, and it never seems to get less panic-inducing.  They're always big spiders, too.  I almost put my nose to a wolf spider once- wasn't wearing glasses and I though it was a balled up sock.


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## Harbinger (Feb 12, 2013)

You will be happy to know then i should be getting some wolf spiders in summer :mrgreen:
They have been on my most wanted list for years, they are a wolf spider which is actually like a wolf. They are a hell of a lot fluffier than the normal ones with wolf like markings and colours.

Here's some new pics since the exhibition, not such great photo's, i like using the natural light and its been overcast for like a week now.

Bullseye moth catepillars






Malaysian katydids, had these before the show, a recent pic i've only just uploaded.






And a baby giant stick insect, its less than a third of the size it gets too, bigger than the adults of some other species and its only a baby.






In this last shot you can kinda see where i've been taking my photo's. In the summer i use many natural looking locations outside, but its too cold to take them out at the moment. So what i've been doing is getting them perched on something and then using a piece of bark or a big leaf in the background. Although it wasnt quite big enough for this monster


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## Harbinger (Feb 14, 2013)

Finally had some sunlight :mrgreen:

Took some better photo's of the latest additions 

Vietnamese rainbow millipede.






Some fancy ass rare species of stick insects 
















And now the bug keeping hobby equivilent of ultra rare shineys and one of my most wanted, the hooded mantis ^_^


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## Tiamat (Feb 14, 2013)

I love this thread so damn much. I've never seen a hooded mantis before, amazing!


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## Harbinger (Feb 14, 2013)

Thanks 
Their shield gets even more impressive as they mature. Here's my old one i had.






I had a pair before but i didnt manage to breed them, hoping i have better luck with these 6. Just got the magnifying glass out, cant believe my luck, when i got them they were too small to sex but have since grown. 3 males and 3 females


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## Harbinger (Feb 16, 2013)

Cant believe i forgot these, my pacman frog shed her skin the other day, her colours were especially bright afterwards


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## Harbinger (Feb 27, 2013)

Its been overcast pretty much since i took those last photo's, had the first actual ray of sunlight today, just long enough to get photo's of my new mantids. Been after these for years, bit unsusual body shape wise, they are bark mantids from Tanzania


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