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There are many small worlds that are not visible to the naked eye. One of those worlds is the world of insects that, if you look closely through the macro lens, may seem extremely alien to us. Award-winning photographer Mofeed Abu Shalwa from Saudi Arabia captures this alien world of insects and shows us the undiscovered beauty of these creatures.

Shalwa has traveled around the world and to more than seven forests, including Austrian forests, Amazon forests, and forests in Malaysia just to photograph these creatures. It was not a simple task as he had to study their presence and then search for them. Most of them are threatened with extinction. The photographer uses a focus-stacking technology to get sufficient depth of field and capture the stunning faces of these small creatures.

More info: Instagram | youpic.com

What’s really interesting is that his love for macro photography started with his phobia of insects. To overcome this, he started to photograph them, and later on, this became his passion. “I actually started photography since 2010, and before that date, I used to photograph travel trips with my family since childhood. I have tried all genres of photography... but I stopped at photographing macro due to a very funny story, which is my fear of insects in my childhood. This fear grew because my colleagues at school came with these insects, and they knew that I suffered from an insect phobia. They used to throw them at me for fun until the idea of ​​extreme fear developed throughout those years and the experiment was repeated many times,” explained the artist to Bored Panda.

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“When I acquired the photographic equipment later, I experimented with photographing people’s lives, photographing travel, photographing nature, etc... I knew that there was an axis for macro photography that focuses on accurately photographing insects. I have a great blog of my works on the global website youpic. The number of observations of my works has reached more than 10 million views. I’ve also received 147 international awards in the field of photography.”

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#10

Blue Longhorn Beetle

Blue Longhorn Beetle

mofeed.abu.shalwa Report

#11

Hoverfly

Hoverfly

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May Day
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love hoverflies, or flower flies. They are beautiful and funny. If you hold your hand still under them while they are hovering, sometimes they will land on it. I once tried to save one that had fallen into a plate of mashed potatoes at a camping site. I lifted it out and put it on a tree trunk, and then I tried to carefully remove some of the potato stuff from its back and wings. It then whimpered ruefully, sounding like a small puppy!

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#19

Robber Fly

Robber Fly

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Alan Mindy
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can see a few things in the facial area, one being a skull with long teeth on top and a painted eye!

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#30

Ladybug

Ladybug

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Zakary Johnson
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One day in my time i ops stepped on a ladybug and i did not know it was there on the stepp

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#42

Green Lacewing

Green Lacewing

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#44

Stag Beetle

Stag Beetle

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#48

Fly

Fly

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Roadkill The Brave
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All the other flies - beautiful, graceful looking even up close. Regular Fly - Looks like a nervous salesman.

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#49

Green Stag Beetle

Green Stag Beetle

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