I wasn't alone as I was driving home that night. My radio was tuned to RawTalk, a weekly talkie by "fro" photographer Jared Polin. As I listened to the Fro and his protege, Steven, talk about my favorite subject, I saw it.
My foot was on the throttle at 60 miles per hour when from out of the darkness it lurked out. First one leg, then another. From its head came a pair of antennae. I couldn't fix my eyes to the road with the prospect of a possible terror was coming out of the lair that is my car's hood. I sped under a street lamp when its body came in full view. It was large. It was green. It had six legs and a leaf like body. It was... a bush cricket!
This little fella had a joy ride at my expense. If I can charge it for the 4.2 miles of gasoline I spent driving home, I'd charge it 13¢ (US)! It held tight to my car the whole time. It even turned face first into the wind like a rebellious teenager. After the first three miles, the cricket decided to climb up the side pillar and onto my windshield. On my last leg home it made it to my car's roof!
I showed the little bugger to my brother and told him my story. He caught the guy without a hitch. A few minutes later, the bug's in a jar.
A subject like a bush cricket doesn't come around very often, especially in my neck of the woods. So I whipped out my camera and took a few shots.
Getting extreme close-ups, or macro photos, of the cricket can be difficult on my DSLR. I was able to get around this by using a 28mm lens. It was capable of getting as close as 8 inches from my subject. When I combined my lens with an extension tube, I was able to get as close as the cricket's eyes.
Using my cellphone for macro photography was a lot easier. All I had to do was open the camera app, set the focus and take a picture. I'm quite amazed how close I can get to it with my cellphone compared to my camera.
Photo taken with my cell phone.
Unfortunately I couldn't keep the cricket. Honestly, I don't know how to care for one even if I tried. The next day my brother set the cricket loose so that it may live and frolic with its fellow bugs.