Amazing Insects Up Close, Really Close!

Virvoreanu Laurentiu’s Amazing Macro-Photography

Creature from the Black Lagoon? Incredible mask? Or have we just gone buggy?

Virvoreanu Laurentiu is a 29 year old photographer from Romania. He has been creating some amazing images from insects.

This macro-photography of some of nature’s tiniest creatures results in images that harken back to sci-fi horror movies because all sense of scale is gone.

The photo above, for example, looks like it could be a head as large as a human–wearing a helmet perhaps? What appears to be recognizable as eyes and nose is both familiar and alien all at once

At the same time, because the animals are cropped they begin to take on an abstract quality. We are able to look at their bodies as if they were sculptures or highly patterned surfaces. Which, of course in the broadest sense they are. We can imagine a painter painstakingly marking their canvas to create such fine lines.

And still others take on a more benign, or even humorous look as the scale is gone. The simple ant shown below appears to be almost cartoon like with a silly grin on its face.

To gather these incredible images the photographer uses a microscope lens 4x stack from 70 frames.

Whether we find them scary, amusing, or just bee-autiful, one thing is certain–these photographs bring the insect world to us up close and personal!

And in case you are wondering, the bee-arded fellow bee-low is…wait for it…yep, you guessed–a BEE!

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All photographs are courtesy of Viroreanu Laurentiu

This talented photographer doesn’t limit himself to macro-photography and insects. You can see more of his work on 500px