UKC

Hmmm... this one went into a category that doesn't allow voting. Feel free to leave comments, I'm interested what people think of the pic cos I like it!

In a google search for something completely different, I found out that this is a 'southern green stink bug'. Nice!

the colour's a bit washed out and it's out of focus.

My camera has a tendancy to over expose things in sunlight. I don't think it's much out of focus though, especially since it's such a close up. Cheers for the comments though ;)

Someone'll probably know more about it than me and give better advice, but I've learnt to shoot macro from slightly further away and crop it down afterwards - the camera doesn't struggle so much to focus then. Dunno if that's what happened here, it just looks like the ones I used to get when I tried to fill the whole viewfinder with the subject.
Nice idea for a photo though.

It's already cropped :(

Great fun! Hope its not art, because I don't get that at all, but as an 'Wow, man, look at that green bug on my gear' photo I love it :o)

nice pic, shame you didn't get a really sharp focus on the bug tho.
From an artistic point of view, getting that sunlight on the bug & cams rather than just the ground behind might add to the contrast between the colours & add depth of shadows.
Pics like this are never easy to get perfect tho because they are opportunist, not planned & staged ;0)

Simon - yep, fun not art.
haze - cheers!

" I don't think it's much out of focus though, especially since it's such a close up."
'Out of focus' is 'out of focus'
Having said that, I don't think the focus is bad, it's the actual SHARPNESS (a different parameter) that lets it down, and the colours are muted (easy fix, boost the RGB saturation by, ooh, 15%). Did you apply the Unsharp Mask or any other filter? It's a fun snapshot, no more, no less.

It's out of focus, or digitally zoomed too much, and so this ruins the photo. If the bug and cam were pin sharp and crystal clear, 'twould be a nice shot.

It's not digitally zoomed, I turned that off because it's useless. My eyes must be strange, I still think the cams are in focus, even if the bug isn't.

Unfortunately everything is ever so slightly out of focus and it's overexposed. Have you tried dialing back the brightness and applying a 'sharpen' filter in photoshop? It's not one that I usually use (because it's a fairly twitchy filter and can produce some weird results) but you never know.
Other people's advice about shooting macros from a bit further away and then cropping the bits you want are bang on the money btw.
However, despite the fact that it's out of focus and overexposed, I like it, it's got really good composition.

Cheers. I'm always a bit reluctant to digitally change/enhance photos (except for cropping/rotating etc). Plus as I put above it was taken from further away and already cropped. Cheers for the comment though, I'll experiment with some more close ups.

These bugs ooze really luminous green stuff when you squash em ;o) Nice pic.