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A beautiful array of damselflies! 💙💚❤️Damselflies are often mistaken for dragonflies, but while their resting wing posit...
06/26/2026

A beautiful array of damselflies! 💙💚❤️

Damselflies are often mistaken for dragonflies, but while their resting wing position can be a clue, the easiest way to tell them apart is by looking at their faces.

These colourful insects are more than just beautiful. As both aquatic nymphs and flying adults, damselflies are important predators that help control mosquito and other small fly populations. They’re also excellent indicators of healthy freshwater ecosystems, so seeing them around ponds, wetlands, and streams is a great sign for biodiversity.

They’ve become one of my favourite insects to photograph. Every species has its own unique colours, personality, and behaviour, making them endlessly fascinating subjects in the world of macro photography.

Treehoppers are one of my favourite insects, but they are skittish little things. Your best bet is to go out when it get...
06/24/2026

Treehoppers are one of my favourite insects, but they are skittish little things. Your best bet is to go out when it gets dark or a little cooler. So as soon as I got to Mera, my buddy Alex Bentley from Waska Amazonía was quick to show me a tree where these guys liked to chill.

I went back that night and it was pouring rain virtually the whole time, but I still managed to get some incredible shots of these remarkable insects.

06/24/2026

Most people think macro photography is about having the right gear. It is not.

It is about developing a different relationship with the world at your feet. Arthropods have existed for hundreds of millions of years, engineering solutions to survival that we are still trying to understand. Getting close enough to document that properly is a discipline that takes years to develop, not weeks.

The technical side improves with practice. The harder skill is learning to move through a field or a forest floor without disturbing what you are trying to photograph. That patience is not something any camera teaches you.

These images represent years of being in the wrong position at the wrong moment, and learning from it every single time.

Insect Week exists because we needed a reminder.Not because insects are obscure or unimportant. Because somewhere along ...
06/22/2026

Insect Week exists because we needed a reminder.

Not because insects are obscure or unimportant. Because somewhere along the way, we got comfortable ignoring the things that hold everything together. Pollination. Decomposition. Nutrient cycling. Pest control. All of it runs on insects, and all of it is quietly under pressure.

I’ve spent years with a macro lens pressed close to bark, soil, and leaves, and the thing that never gets old is realising how much is happening in a square metre of ground. Complete lives. Complex behaviours. Species we’ve barely documented.

This week, slow down and look closer. Not as a gesture, but as a habit worth keeping. Thank you!

06/21/2026

Always wait for the shot!

I hope you enjoyed these beautiful photos of insects from the rain forests of the Americas!

Moth got buck teeth!I was so gassed to find this moth again in Ecuador at Sachatamia Lodge — I first shot it during the ...
06/16/2026

Moth got buck teeth!

I was so gassed to find this moth again in Ecuador at Sachatamia Lodge — I first shot it during the PBS Bugs That Rule the World documentary in Costa Rica. Not actually teeth though. Just the way its mouthparts are shaped. Built different.

The tropics never miss.

A mantis from the Ecuadorian Amazon Waska Amazonía Found this one on my first day in the Amazon, clinging to the roof of...
06/11/2026

A mantis from the Ecuadorian Amazon

Waska Amazonía

Found this one on my first day in the Amazon, clinging to the roof of a hut to shelter from the rain. It was blending in so effortlessly that you would walk right past it unless your eyes are trained to find insects.

That constant head swaying you see mantises do is not restlessness. It is how they judge depth and distance with eyes that cannot move. It also meant it never stayed steady long enough for a stack, so I worked with what it gave me.

Such a beautiful critter!

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