Photo Series-Metamorphosis
This project may be easy to do if you are able to locate a suitable subject at the right time. Nut more than likely it will take lots of planning, careful study and patience since most metamorphosis processes take their time.
For example if you are able to locate a monarch caterpillar, then you have to keep tabs until it begins to pupate, then you have to keep tabs and judge when it will become a butterfly. At this point if you manage to take all the preceding steps i this life cycle your final image should be the monarch butterfly as it emerges form its pupae.
It may be worth it to get some live caterpillars and place them on a holding tank along with some feeding material until the process is complete. This is much easier than seeking wild specimens and relying on luck to capture all the right steps.
A fascinating way to employ your photographic skills and prowess is to use it in a photo project that can not only entertaining audiences by the beauty of your subjects but at the same time serve to educate or shed light on a process or processes which perhaps very few have witnessed first hand.
Granted your photographs are not first hand since the audience is looking at them after the fact but these very same images serve as a bridge to your first hand account. It is also a good way to help young ones in discovering the usefulness of photographing.
By using this project and applying it to for example a school science project not only does it make the project look better but others may understand the process better.
Does this seem like a good photo project for you or your children?
In case you are not clear of what the metamorphosis process is it is worth it to perhaps refresh some of what you should have learn back in high school. But don't worry, here is a bit more about it:
"Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some insects, amphibians, molluscs, crustaceans,Cnidarians, echinoderms and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is usually accompanied by a change of habitat or behavior.
Scientific usage of the term is exclusive, and is not applied to general aspects of cell growth, including rapid growth spurts. References to "metamorphosis" in mammals are imprecise and only colloquial, but historically idealist ideas of transformation and monadology, as in Goethe'sMetamorphosis of Plants, influenced the development of ideas of evolution."Wikipedia
Once you complete the project then submit your images to any of the many naturalist magazines, educational institutions and for general photographic publications.
Your images may also be suitable to be included in an e book and perhaps to use in motivational posters. There are many commercial application but you will have to be choosy with which ones are willing to use them.
Remember that this is nothing new and there are plenty of such image. Therefore your photographs have to be of high quality and shot in interesting perspectives. They must show the process clearly and must detail all of the elements that go into the metamorphosis process in order to be acceptable.
Good place lot locate suitable subjects may be any number of nature parks that specialize in insect and amphibian subjects. They usually feature them in their natural state and this presents suitable scenery to conduct your project as close to nature as you can without actually trekking into the woods in search of specimens.
This may be the more logical solution since many of the species who undergo a metamorphosis are found in lakes, ponds and other not so hospitable terrain.
Many scientific supply stores will sell you ready live subjects but you must check your local laws to see if the subjects can be release into the wild once you are finished with them.
For example the release of certain butterfly species are not releasable in many parts of the country and the same goes with many species of amphibians like frogs,salamanders and newts.
- HowStuffWorks "Caterpillar Metamorphosis: The Magic Within the Chrysalis"
Caterpillar metamorphosis is the act of the caterpillar being either a butterfly or a moth. Find out more about caterpillar metamorphosis.
© 2013 Luis E Gonzalez