# Dark Valley (South Hungary)



## Fince

My second photoround shows some arthropoda which also native near by my home. These pictures taken at the Hungarian Dark Valley. 

Dark Valley is the part of Transdanubian Hills. Covered by deciduous forest (Oaks, Beech, Hornbeam..etc).

Few habitat pictures













Spiders:

Pirata sp.







Female Wolf spider with eggsac







Long legged Tethragnathidae







*Meta segmentata*







Beetles:

*European Rhinoceros Beetle* (Oryctes nasicornis) male







*Stag Beetle* (Lucanus cervus) male







and female







*Lesser stag beetle* (Dorcus parallelepipedus) female







*Rosalia longicorn*  (Rosalia alpina) 

Either rarest Cerambycidae of Hungary. Their preferred habitat, the European Beech.







*Morinus funereus  *







Others:

*Hoverfly* (Volucella zonaria) one of the largest hoverflies here, a mimic of Vespa crabro (Hornet)







Cicada’s shed skin







Finally some butterflies:

*European peacock caterpillar* (Inachis io) 







*Pale Clouded Yellow* (Colias hyale)







*Marbled White* (Melanargia galathea)







*Silver-washed Fritillary* (Argynnis paphia)


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## SuperRad

Absolutely beautiful!  :clap: 

Would you catch a few of those Morinus funereus and send 'em over to me? That rhino beetle was pretty rad too. I'll take one of those as well. 

Thanks in advance!


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## Fince

SuperRad said:


> Absolutely beautiful!  :clap:
> 
> Would you catch a few of those Morinus funereus and send 'em over to me? That rhino beetle was pretty rad too. I'll take one of those as well.
> 
> Thanks in advance!


Thank you!

The Morinus funereus protected species in Hungary.  The Dark Valley also protected area. So sorry, but i can send just pictures from this species.


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## UrbanJungles

Excellent photos...you have a very good eye!
I love the stag beetle...thanks for posting!!!!
:clap:


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## SuperRad

Shucks! Now I'm just gonna have to plan a lil field trip...


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## Tunedbeat

As always, beautiful photos Fince. 
Those macro shots are excellent! 
:clap:


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## T Frank

The butterflies are beautiful and the beetles are really cool.


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## Leetplayer

Beautiful macros!


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## ahas

Beautiful pics!


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## froggyman

that Rosalia alpina is amazingly beautiful


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## Fince

Thank you all!



			
				UrbanJungles said:
			
		

> I love the stag beetle...


Me too! Fortunately, the L. cervus not so rare here (protected them strict law since 70's...which necessary). Good feeling to find any when they have swarming time (end of May and June). If you are lucky you can see more large beetles as they eat on the side of wounded old oaks.


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## GQ.

Wow Fince!  Those are excellent photographs.  I don't think I would have posted my own thread if I would have looked at your photos first.    Thank you for sharing.


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## UrbanJungles

Wonderful shot of the stags feeding...I have never been lucky enough to see even our American sp.  Thank you for sharing, great pics!!!!!

:clap:


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## syndicate

great pictures!


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## John Apple

Hey Danny, central kentucky usually has stags all over a Wall-mart in the eve under the lights in the early summer. Long pincers and females also.


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## UrbanJungles

John Apple said:


> Hey Danny, central kentucky usually has stags all over a Wall-mart in the eve under the lights in the early summer. Long pincers and females also.


Does that mean you'll bring the beer?
See you there!


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## Fince

UrbanJungles said:


> Does that mean you'll bring the beer?
> See you there!


Now you can choose two destinations at the airport if you want to see stag beetles .

What does the US species look like (i think more different stag spp. living in US or North America) and which species native there?



			
				GQ. said:
			
		

> Wow Fince! Those are excellent photographs. I don't think I would have posted my own thread if I would have looked at your photos first.  Thank you for sharing.


Thank you! Oh, i don't think that...i love to see the field trip pictures from another countries. Example your rattlers are very exotic things for me, because i can see them in books or scientific channels here, but cool things to see them and theirs habitat on personal photos:clap: . 

I saw many interesting pictures in this topic which inspire me to upload my pictures from the fauna which native around here. Yes i like the photography, and the possibble best quality pictures, but i think this is not photo contest, and most of users (want to) do simple photodocumentation here (me too). So the art isn't the previous aspect to me on this forum (everybody can find it on several special photographic forums if want to "sink" in the art or discussion from inconsequential things)...Otherwise your pictures are fine. I waiting for the others...thank you for sharing!


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## John Apple

very similiar to the ones posted in the pics, body about 1.5-2" and pincers almost the same length. waaayyy down there they call them the elephant stag, and Danny I'll be there this summer catching arrow shaped micranthena and some bess beetles


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## Fince

John Apple said:


> very similiar to the ones posted in the pics, body about 1.5-2" and pincers almost the same length. waaayyy down there they call them the elephant stag, and Danny I'll be there this summer catching arrow shaped micranthena and some bess beetles


Thank you for the infos! If possibble, i also waiting the pictures from them (and the fieldtrip) of course!:}


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## AlanMM

Can you give details about the equipment you use to take the pictures?
Macro lens? What type?

thanks


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## AlanMM

O, it's ok, i saw it in one of your threads... canon material with macro sigma.


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## bluefrogtat2

*great photos*

incredible photos,and i see stags here in illinois around my garage light as well,very similar to those.great bugs my kids love 'em
andy


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## Fince

In these days i taking photos again at Dark Valley. Now i brought a bounch from these pictures. Of course i will continue this work in the nexth moths.







The next generation coming...







Male *Philodromidae*







Probably she is the female of this species (i found her very close to the male).







One larger *Xysticus sp.*













Two ant sized spiders













Pregnant *Black lace-weaver *(Amaurobius sp.)







My older friend the *Buzzing spider* (Anyphaena accentuata)







*Sac spider* (Clubionidae) look out of the balcony 







*Harvestmen*







*Clouded Apollo* (Parnassius mnemosyne)


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## josh_r

froggyman said:


> that Rosalia alpina is amazingly beautiful


there is a species just like this in the US. it is called Rosalia funebris
http://cheryl.dewolfe.bc.ca/Photos\Miscellaneous/rosalia1.jpg

rosalia beteshi
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...141&prev=/images?q=Rosalia+bateshi&um=1&hl=en


here is our native elephant stag
http://bugguide.net/node/view/165387/bgimage

hey fince, here is something you might enjoy. dynastes granti in flight


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## Fince

josh_r said:


> hey fince, here is something you might enjoy. dynastes granti in flight


Hi,

Very hard to take photos from flying insects by simple camera. Grat work!

You can find how built (home made) a special camera which is usable for take a good quality pictures from flying insects on the below links:

http://www.pbase.com/fotoopa/equipment

http://www.pbase.com/fotoopa/laser_system

and the photographer's pictures here:

http://www.pbase.com/fotoopa


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## josh_r

awesome, thank you for the links! i am definitely going to check them out! yeah, it took me 100 or so shots to get those 2 good ones. it is VERY difficult to freehand a good flight shot. well, i gotta get to bed. i will definitely check those links tomorrow. thanks fince

-josh


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## Tunedbeat

Fince said:


> Hi,
> 
> Very hard to take photos from flying insects by simple camera. Grat work!
> 
> You can find how built (home made) a special camera which is usable for take a good quality pictures from flying insects on the below links:
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/fotoopa/equipment
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/fotoopa/laser_system
> 
> and the photographer's pictures here:
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/fotoopa


You won't catch me with that rig outside.  lol 
Unless I was getting paid for it, I'll take my chances with manual focusing and fast shutter speed.


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## Fince

*Tetragnatha sp.* male and female







The male:







and the female:







*Harvestmen* again







*Red-Headed Cardinal Beetle* (Pyrochroa serraticornis)


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## Fince

*Kingdom of Cerambycidae*







*Morinus funereus*













*Rosalia alpina*



















2 species together







Other beauty *Aromia moschata*


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## Hendrik C.

Hi Fince,

your pictures are amazing!

Can you tell me something about your equipment and workflow? What kind of body, lens and flash are you using?

EXIF Data of this picture (Link) would be interesting. Just as an example. 

You have a kind of "blur/dream"-filter over your pictures. How do you set it up?

Many questions that are looking for an answer.  

Best regards,
Hendrik


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## Fince

Hendrik C. said:
			
		

> Hi Fince,
> 
> your pictures are amazing!


Hi Hendrik,

Thank you very much! I am happy if you like my pics  



			
				Hendrik C. said:
			
		

> Can you tell me something about your equipment and workflow? What kind of body, lens and flash are you using?


I using Canon EOS 30D camera body.

Leneses what i using:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 
Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro
Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di 
MC Volna-9 Macro (M42)
Zeiss Flektogon 35mm f/2.4 (M42)
Meyer Optik Orestegor 200mm f/4 (M42)

The most used lens is the Sigma 105mm at the fieldwork.

Flashes:

I using Sigma EM-140 DG Ring Light Flash when i working by „go and shoot” method (example the spider pictureround above). You can see me in action with this equipment.







or the other method where i using normal camera flash - Canon 580EX Speedlight on the picture (example the Parnassius mnemosyne picture below).







Tripod: Manfrotto 055PROB with Manfrotto 804RC2 head and 4 way macro rail



			
				Hendrik C. said:
			
		

> EXIF Data of this picture (Link) would be interesting. Just as an example.



Camera Model Name
          Canon EOS 30D
Shooting Date/Time
          2008.05.31. 19:32:41
Tv(Shutter Speed)
          5Sec.
Av(Aperture Value)
          F20
Metering Modes
          Evaluative metering
Exposure Compensation
          0
ISO Speed
          100
Lens
          105mm
Focal Length
          105,0 mm
Image size
          3504 x 2336
Image Quality
          RAW
Flash
          Off
White Balance
          Auto
AF mode
          Manual (MF)
Picture Style
          Standard
Parameters
          Tone Curve :    Standard
          Sharpness level :    -
          Pattern Sharpness :    -
          Contrast :    0
          Sharpness :    3
          Color saturation :    0
          Color tone :    0
Color matrix
          -
Color Space
          sRGB
File Size
          6858 KB
Drive Mode
          Single-frame shooting
Owner's Name
          Fince




			
				Hendrik C. said:
			
		

> You have a kind of "blur/dream"-filter over your pictures. How do you set it up? Many questions that are looking for an answer.


Sometimes i using dark spotfilter. Furthermore noise reduction by Neat Image if necessary.

I hope i could to help you but if you have any question let me know.

Just 1 more picture from Dark Valley which is my either personal favourite:

*Cicada throw its underground past*


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## Hendrik C.

Hi Fince,

thank you very much for providing the information! Interesting thing that we have nearly the same equipment but totally different pictures styles!

I'm using a 30D + Sigma 105 + Sigma Ringflash as well for most of my pictures.  

Best regards,
Hendrik


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## Fince

Hendrik C. said:


> Hi Fince,
> 
> thank you very much for providing the information! Interesting thing that we have nearly the same equipment but totally different pictures styles!
> 
> I'm using a 30D + Sigma 105 + Sigma Ringflash as well for most of my pictures.
> 
> Best regards,
> Hendrik


Yes, indeed  

I checked back your posts and now i remember your photos. You have excellent pictures. I think sometimes you working with other temperatured lights (other lamps..etc) as me and these different lights cause the different picture styles. 

Elemental truth: "it's the photographer who makes an image, not a camera" (Ken Rockwell)


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## Tamas Jekkel

Hy all! Fince: Gratulation the photos! Beautifull!!


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