Thorben Danke
“Photography and nature or insects played a rather subordinate role for me until 2016. But when I decided to buy a camera with an interchangeable lens at the beginning of 2016 the whole thing changed quite fast. By adapting extension rings on a 50mm lens I ended up very quickly with the insects and shortly after in the studio. Since then I have dedicated myself completely to the native insects and make macro shots from 1:1 to 80:1.”
If you take a closer look, our Central European insects don’t have to hide at all from their large, colorful and shimmering relatives from the tropics. In this country it is just a little bit smaller.
I am particularly fascinated by dark or mystical portraits of insects. To meet them at eye level and to portray them like human beings opens the eyes of many for our nature. Also I myself felt this way and still do. As I have no biological background I discover something new almost every day and learn a lot about our insect world. When I noticed that I am able to inspire people from science with my pictures, it gave me a lot of confirmation in what I was doing and unleashed a tremendous dynamic.
I am constantly trying out new lighting, perspectives and reproduction scales. I would never have thought that so much technology, know-how and tactfulness are in this field of photography. It is and remains a constant challenge and that is why it is so incredibly fun.
Equipment used:
So, I forgot almost the most important thing, the equipment. Most of the pictures were taken with the Laowa 25mm UltraMacro 2.8. For me THE lens when it comes to portraits of medium-sized insects. The 20:1 pictures were taken with a Mitutoyo microscope lens, the Plan APO 20x. Since this lens is infinity corrected, it needs a so-called tube or converging lens which has to be placed between the lens and the sensor. I solve all this with a Nikon bellows Pb-6 and various adapter rings. The image of the “beautiful demoiselle” was taken with a finally corrected microscope lens, the Nikon M Plan 5, which is operated without a converging lens and is placed 200-210mm in front of the sensor. I solve the illumination up to 10:1 exclusively with LED lights, from 20:1 I use flashes, mostly with two to four Yongnuo 560III flashes which are triggered remote.
Photos are made to be seen!