This Wednesday I discovered a Praying Mantis inside an office building on the window of all things! I gently coaxed him onto a container and he quietly sat there, grooming for a good 10-15 minutes. I decided he was coming home to set up shop in my garden....
He was a larger specimen at 4 inches in length, he had no problem taking the trip home in the car with me. He was very interested in hunting as soon as he saw flies and bees around the hummingbird feeders, but the hummingbirds were a bit too big - he watched them with interest...
Literally within 30 seconds of setting him on an outdoor umbrella plant, a hapless bee swung by to investigate the camera gear. With blinding reflexes, the bee was captured within the blink of an eye!
Unfortunately for the bee, the Mantis started dining on it - head first… an amazing display of hunting by this elegant predator. I had to move back some lest I only photograph the head, since it’s a relatively large insect for a long macro lens. I eventually got in tighter to photograph the feeding, but it’s not pretty!
Taken with the K10D, ISO 100 or 200, F/11 to F/13, EV 0, standard X-Sync or HSS (last shot).
No sharpening! No cropping unless otherwise stated. 
Link to
EXIF 
Crop of the above image to show some details:
A little closer and near the end (pardon the pun)...
Link to
EXIF
Still not sure about HSS mode - still experimenting using flash in shaded daylight areas.
I’ll save the less savory shots for another post… 
too much goop and internals being pulled/moved around...
I hope you enjoy these images!
Regards,
Marc
Originally posted by Jimbo 
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