Ring flash for macro

Despite the fact that my wife is mortally terrified of caterpillars, I love photographing them. They are so bizarre and so intriguing because they build a cocoon (or chrysalis), turn into mush, and then become a moth or butterfly. It's truly astounding. I found this guy on my front lawn. It is the caterpillar of the Virginian tiger moth. To get this kind of even illumination outdoors, I used a ring flash because it provides light that envelopes small subjects perfectly. To prevent the background from going black, I placed a 13 x 19 inch print of out of focus foliage behind the insect. The light fall-off from the flash illuminated it. I used f/32 for complete depth of field and a 50mm macro lens handheld. Note that no matter how small the lens aperture is to show the caterpillar with sharp detail, the background stays nicely out of focus and therefore complementary.