昆蟲攝影：慢下來才能看到的世界

For veteran wildlife cameraman Kevin Flay the insect world is the “most incredible thing” and his use of slow motion photography to capture its intricacies makes every shot a revelation.

在經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的野生動物攝影師凱文·弗萊眼中，昆蟲的世界是“最令人驚嘆的”，他用慢鏡頭捕捉其中的紛繁復(fù)雜，每個鏡頭都出人意料。

Normally the human eye would watch a film at 25 frames per second， but specially adapted cameras now allow us to film at 500 frames a second—the perfect speed to capture a frog jumping， for example.

通常人們所看的電影速度是每秒25幀。現(xiàn)在，我們可以利用特制相機(jī)以每秒500幀的速度進(jìn)行拍攝，非常適合捕捉青蛙跳躍等瞬間。

Now that might sound fast， but filming the rapid movement of insects requires a whole new level of fast. Flay wanted to capture one particular bug that threw itself from one plant to another. Even at 500 frames a second he could not capture this insect， moving faster than a bullet from a gun， so he acquired a camera that shot 10，000 frames a second. This allowed him to see that this tiny bug locked its leg joints to give it the leverage to make its enormous leaps. Theres no way he could have captured this without digital slow-motion， and wed never have known how the insect moved.

這個速度聽起來可能很快，但拍攝昆蟲的快速移動對速度的要求完全是另一個級別。弗萊想要拍攝一只蟲子從一株植物跳到另一株上，但即使在每秒500幀的速度下，他仍然無法捕捉到這個過程，蟲子跳得比射出槍膛的子彈還快。所以他購置了一部每秒速度高達(dá)1萬幀的相機(jī)，能看到小蟲子收緊了腿關(guān)節(jié)，以此為支點(diǎn)完成了如此遠(yuǎn)距離的跳躍。如果沒有數(shù)字慢鏡頭，他永遠(yuǎn)也拍不到這個畫面，我們也永遠(yuǎn)無法了解這種昆蟲是如何移動的。

The use of digital film has removed much of the element of chance from slow-motion photography， and saved a great deal of waste. Using film meant pressing a button and hoping and the sheer number of frames used meant the film would only last a couple of minutes before running out. At normal speed， the film would last nine minutes， but when Flay shot in his slow-motion camera hed use 30 seconds of film. If nothing happened in that 30 seconds then the film was destined for the bin. The level of lighting required also made shoots incredibly hot and uncomfortable—Flay recalls having to wear welding goggles to shoot fleas jumping.

數(shù)字?jǐn)z像的使用大大減少了慢鏡頭攝影所需的元素，大量減少了浪費(fèi)。使用膠片的話，按下拍攝鍵后只能祈禱成功，而且因?yàn)槊棵霂瑪?shù)很多，所以一卷膠片幾分鐘就會用完。正常速度下膠片能拍攝9分鐘，但是弗萊拍慢鏡頭時一卷膠片只能用30秒。如果30秒以后什么都沒有發(fā)生，那膠片就廢了。拍攝所需的燈光照明也讓人極為悶熱不適——弗萊回憶起他以前拍攝跳蚤跳躍時必須戴上焊接專用的護(hù)目鏡。

Sometimes what he sees is both incredible and gruesome. In North America， he filmed phorid flies hovering above a fire ant trail. Only when he played back his slow motion footage did he see what they were doing. The flies were piercing the soft tissue area on the backs of the heads of the ants and laying an egg. This would enable the larvae to hatch out and eat the ant from the inside. “Shooting at high speed gave us the whole story，” says Flay.

有時，弗萊鏡頭下的畫面既不可思議又陰森恐怖。在北美，他拍到一群蚤蠅在一隊(duì)火蟻上空盤旋。回放慢鏡頭畫面時他才看清蚤蠅在做什么：它們刺穿了火蟻頭部后面的軟組織，在那里產(chǎn)卵。這樣幼蟲就能孵化出來，并從火蟻體內(nèi)將它吃掉。弗萊說：“高速拍攝讓我們看到了完整的故事。”

Flay is genuinely awestruck at the beauty of the insect realm， and the alien otherworldliness revealed to him through his slow-motion footage. “Everything is a surprise，” he says. Dragonflies in particular are a source of huge fascination to Flay， their appearance and the way they fly. “They fly like fairies.” he says， “Theyre the most incredible thing and theyre all around us. Theres nothing more exotic in the world.”

弗萊驚嘆于昆蟲王國的美，同時也被慢鏡頭所呈現(xiàn)的另一個世界而深感震驚。他說：“一切都是驚喜。”蜻蜓尤其吸引弗萊，無論是外形還是飛行方式都別具魅力。他說：“蜻蜓飛起來像仙女一樣。它們最不可思議而且就在我們身邊，沒有比這更奇異的了。”