where can i find interesting insects to photograph for a photography exam question?

[snapshot]

where can i take photos of interesting insects? i was thinking London Zoo, but ive tried looking in my garden and parks and cant find anything interesting or get a good picture. I need to buy a macro lens but until i do i dont know how or where to find beetles, butterflies and other insects?

please help its for an exam!!

[wolf63]

London Zoo have some good photographs on their website.

This is a link - http://www.zslprints.com/ - hopefully you will be able to find what you are looking for.

[Eve]

Most zoos have pretty good insect sections.

How about a butterfly farm or something amazon related? Maybe somewhere which keeps bees as they'd make for some lovely macro shots and if hived may well be quite still and you could get some lovely macro texture shots including separate ones of the wings, legs with pollen etc...

Ants are another possibility as some great colour contrast and perspective if they are carrying things.

Trouble is a lot of them are in quite dark areas so make sure you have a play with your ISO settings as the higher the better but watch out they don't go too grainy with it.

If you've got a macro so much the better.

Are you London based? If you let us know we might be able to suggest somewhere.

If you phone some smaller places which are more hands on, they may be able to arrange a better close up shot, depending on the insect! Either that or they could guide you as to when they may be more active eg feeding time.

[snapshot]

thanks for all the help i didnt expect anyone to answer anytime soon so thankyou :)
i am london based, i will investigate london zoo but would like somewhere closer or more accessable because i still have lessons during the week so can only go anywhere at weekends.....
anyone know any other zooz or even museums with collections, my only other option is to buy some insects but to be honest im not that keen on them lol i dont mind photographing them but i dont want to keep them as pets!!

[Chaffinch]

This may sound daft, but find someone with a compost heap or bin, fork it over and you'll see loads of insects, a muck heap is even better. No I'm not strange just got horses, and do loads of veg growing!!!!