Smartphone Photography: Trying Macro Insect Shots

As of this morning, I didn’t have any meetings planned, but fate decided otherwise. Early in the morning, I went out into the yard, the sun hadn’t yet risen high and the reflections of its rays illuminated only the tops of the tall trees. On a young plant shoot a tiny insect had hidden — the Gasteruption wasp (Gasteruption jaculator). So, there’s the meeting.Honestly the goal of this shoot was to once again test the camera capabilitiesd of my new smartphone Galaxy S25 Plus , even though the whole event looks quite spontaneous. I usually try to shoot macro photos in PRO mode, that way I can set the focal distance in manual mode at value 0 and get as close to the subject as possible. In my opinion the result isn’t perfect, but on the level of “smartphone photography” it’ s definitely worthy of attention, especially considering there was a slight wind. This wasp is no more than 10 mm in size (“The tail” doesn’t count!).

In the photo there’s a female Gasteruption wasp. This insect can be found in Europe, in Middle East, and Western Asia. Females have a thin and long ovipositor — a delicate tube through which the insect lays its eggs during reproduction.The ovipositor often extends far beyond the body, and you can clearly see it in the photo. This wasp is a parasite. It lays its eggs in the larvae of solitary bees (not the bees that live in colonies like on apiaries), and when the wasp larva hatches, it feeds on the bee larva and the stored pollen. What a fantastic creature. Lol!

By the way, cloudy weather is a gift for any photographer, unless you’re shooting landscapes. Let me explain briefly why. Clouds act as a giant softbox, they eliminate harsh light transitions, sharp shadows, and overexposure. All colors appear more natural, and the light becomes soft and even. If you’re doing product photography, you’ll get perfect shadows — smooth and unobtrusive. Under the clouds the color temperature is always slightly cooler, and when shooting portraits you won’t get orange skin tones that you’d later have to correct. In photos taken in cloudy weather all colors appear uniform without sharp transitions from light to dark. Objects cast barely noticeable, soft shadows that blend beautifully with the overall color palette.

Thank you for your time and attention!