June Beetle on May Tree

A European June Beetle of Summer Chafer ( Amphimallon solstitiale) on a May Tree (Crataegus monogyna). When I was a kid I must confess that I was a little bit afraid of these slightly sinister beetles which emerged at dusk in order to look for a mate. I knew them as Blind Bees because of their buzzing flight and their habit of repeatedly banging into windows. At the same time bats would leave their roost looking for prey. This added to my anxiety and made me scuttle in doors for safety.
As I was working in very low light conditions I needed to shoot with the aperture wide open and introduce an artificial light source. This gave a very shallow depth of field so in order to photo-stack I needed to take 30 images to achieve front to back sharpness. The challenge was taking that number of shots with speed and accuracy before the insect moved.