We found this little guy (or not so little, depending on your perspective) wandering along the pavement outside our favourite restaurant. While I wasn't personally sure that was a good thing, Keoula immediately picked him up and declared she and her brothers used to keep them as pets when they were children and that they loved eating sugar cane. Taking her word for the fact that they are pretty harmless, I thought it would make a fine specimen for a photo. We popped him in a box and took him home with us. On the way back we stopped at Keoula's dad's house and picked up a sugar cane stem from his back yard. When we got back we cut the stem up, put it in a shoe box and placed the beetle on it. He instantly grabbed on and started sucking the sugar right out of the stem. I guess he must have been hungry.
I had assumed he was some kind of stag beetle, but a quick search on Google revealed he was in fact a Rhinoceros beetle. Interestingly, they are also the strongest animal (in relation to there size) on the planet. If a human had the same strength as a Rhino beetle, they would be able to lift 65 tons!
For this picture, I placed the beetle on a sheet of shiny black card. I placed a large softbox overhead and then placed two Sunpak 383's to the front left and right with a sheet of folded typing paper in front of each to act as a diffuser. I also placed another SB-28 to the back right of the beetle with a grid to act as a rim light (although I don't think this did much in the end).
I converted the final picture to black and white in Lightroom as he does not have a lot of colour anyway.
I am not sure if it was the shock of being removed from his sugar cane or the lights, but he made a perfect model and didn't move for the whole shoot. As soon as he got back to the sugar cane, he clamped on and started sucking away so I don't think it was too traumatic for him.
I'm planning on releasing him in the sugar cane bush in Keoula's dad's back yard next time we go! :)
