I found a fly in our apartment this morning (which is weird considering it’s almost January), so I caught him in a mason jar and threw him in the freezer while I set up my camera gear. After about 15 minutes, I took him out of the freezer and dumped him onto a sheet of white paper on the computer desk and placed my flashes on each side of him. I moved him into position with a pen, took a couple test exposures, and after a couple minutes he started to thaw. They’re still pretty slow after they’ve come to, so I was able to get several shots of him standing before he decided to start walking around the desk.

I threw up the most symmetrical one (which more or less matched the style of the ladybug I also shot with this technique — sans freezing) on my Flickr, but I’ve included a couple more for the blog, just because I think bugs look neat up close.

From left to right: Fly passed out, fly coming to and starting to stand, fly conscious but probably confused as hell, FLY AWAKENS BOTH PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY.

When I was done, being the enlightened guy I am, I picked him up and set him free out on my windowsill, where, considering this is Portland in late December, he probably promptly died. An old man dies, a young woman lives. Fair trade.