I'm Carl Nikon lol ... I started off with a magnifying glass taped to the end of the lens hood on a Minolta camera, had to manually move to & fro to get in focus & take one shot.
30 years later the setup/method is very different.
Nikon D700 & macro lens, several flash units. The camera is mounted on a DIY sliding table with a micrometre driving the very small movements ie 0.01 millimetre or less sometimes.
At such magnification the focal plane is so shallow, very little is in focus, I take one shot at a time & moving the camera forward using the micrometre, say starting at the end a forward protruding hair on the wasps head, then moving forward with the focal plane through the rest of the wasp, taking a shot each movement. Maybe one or two hundred (or more) shots will be taken then some clever software will stitch all the 'in focus' aspects from each shot to create one photo, tech helps.
Hope I've cobbled together something understandable.
The wee beasties were found already dead, ie windowsill, washed & cleaned, even a little blow dry lol.
I have a simple rule with photographers.......if they don't talk about "hundreds of shots" then they aren't really a photographer !
An acquaintance of mine has a Hasselblad and they are supremely proud of it - they think they are a photographer.........they are not !!
My camera is metaphorically made of lego and broken bottles..........but I do take a lot of photographs. I have had the same model of camera for circa 12 years now - knowing your kit & knowing the importance of lighting + "you can never take too few" = results that are often complimented.
