We are fortunate to live in a Chinese village -- and to have more grass than concrete.      All of the shots in this gallery were taken in our garden in the summer of 2001 with a Canon G1 and the Hoya close-up filter set.       While any macro set-up is going to give you (burden you) with a shallow depth of field, sometimes that is to your advantage. Looking over this collection as I write this, I notice that caterpillars seem to be the photographic mainstay of this gallery.       On the bright side, I let all my subjects live, so they enjoy a better life than they would if I were a concerned gardener watching his plants being devoured. Sometimes, however, you have to torture them a bit, just for art's sake. Although in this case, we call it "inviting them in for tea." I particularly like the rubber plants that act as broad canvases in five of the pictures. Insects are too often shot against distracting backgrounds. In this case, the broad leaves become a visually calming part of the picture and serve to set off the subject.       Anything else I can tell you about macro shots can be found in the mantis notes.