Insect Macros

From Photo of the day 2012

Found this guy on Wednesday night hiding in a wild rose flower. I got a few shallow photos that I wasn't happy with before he got spooked and hid behind the flower out of reach of my lens. I went back on Thursday and got these ones - some of the only flash photography I've done that I've been happy with. I used my macro mix and the in-camera flash as a fill flash as it was cloudy. The spider is quite small, perhaps a centimeter front to back, but this lens has done some cool things. I've never got light in a spider's eyes before... viewed full size its a bit creepy actually. I tweaked the shadows and highlights a bit to make him pop a bit more and to eliminate some hazy background plants on the right. Quite pleased here!

From Photo of the day 2012

Same spider, but it tells a bit more of a story. He didn't ever pounce on any of the several beetles in the flower, I think he was posing like this to try and intimidate me, but it certainly looks like he might in this photo. View the larger size ones by clicking the photo, you might be able to make out his eyes a bit better. Apparently crab spiders have a different eye orientation from jumping spiders (six clustered forward and two on the side) this guy has six in a row and two facing backwards over the top of his head - weird!

From Photo of the day 2012

I took this mostly to help me draw it at a later date but thought it would fit in here as well. Taken at the start of April when cleaning up my house. One of many ants in my house, this one dead.

From Photo of the day 2012

Inspired by the above ant photo, I took this one on the same day for similar reasons. A dead fly that had been in my truck for a while. For lighting sake I put it in the same place as the ant. I used a bit of fill flash from an external, hotshoe mounted flash. The hairs are kind of creepy when viewed full size - no wonder so many movies make horrifying monsters/aliens look similar to very large insects...

Odds and Ends

From Photo of the day 2012

A collection of random photos from the few I have taken over the past six months. I always say I will take lots of photos with my students when we start up Photography class in January and it never seems to last very long. Perhaps because I am surrounded by some great photos from them, perhaps because processing them takes time and I already spend lots of time in front of screen at work. Anyways. This first one I took in February when we got some cold weather and I got ice feathers on the inside of my single pane windows. Hard to find the right light to get these well, but made use of my macro stuff and this one came out pretty good. A little unseasonable, but not bad. Sharpened a bit in Picasa, nothing else.

From Photo of the day 2012

This one was found by one of my students at school, we had it as a mystery and I thought it cool enough to try grab a decent shot. Its made out of snow - we found out later it was from the bottom of one of my student's shoes. For those that are intensely curious, I think the letter that "Many good things begin with" was A. I straightened this and cropped in Picasa.

From Photo of the day 2012

Taken a week or so ago - much more seasonable. A snazzy red columbine out in the cow pasture. I was using my wide-angle zoom lens, and was pretty well lying on the ground to isolate it out against the sky. I used aperture of f 8 to make sure it was all in focus and sharp. I liked how the dandelion seeds had gotten stuck on various parts of the flower. Cropped in Picasa, nothing else.

Panoramas

From Photo of the day 2012

Finally purchased the ArcSoft Panorama Maker Pro software that I liked so much - thanks parents! I spent Saturday stitching these two lovlies from September when I got to walk the dog during beautiful sunrises. This first was taken in the field across the street, the second was taken along my usual walk looking back towards my house. Oh I am looking forward to similars in a couple months! (Click the photos to see larger images on my Picasa site...)

From Photo of the day 2012

Chickadees

From Photo of the day 2012

So I stayed home sick from work on Thursday - after feeding the pigeons and hauling wood I spied some nice light and pack of chickadees outside my front door and figured I need to take more opportunities. I snapped a bunch - most didn't come out because of distractions or the fact that chickadees just move very fast and don't come back to the same branch very quickly. I kept a few more than this, but these are the best quality, despite the light not being spectacular at that moment. This first one is cropped and I played with the highlights a bit. Used my 70-300 mm lens for all three.

From Photo of the day 2012

Again cropped, but otherwise straight. Cute little guys

From Photo of the day 2012

And this one - while having a huge distracting branch in the way - makes it in because of his expression, the nice light, the fact that its straight from the camera, and... on the full size version - you can see the shadow of the shop and me in his eye. A wild chickadee's eye! Crazy! Stupid branch. Oh well - you can't have everything go your way.

Winter macros

From Photo of the day 2012

Long time, no photo-ing. I have been taking some of school events but it has been rather dark when I've been home for the last couple months. Got inspired by some good shots from this lady in Russia and from some in various magazines to get going again. New Year's resolution? I don't know. Anyway, there is more light now, and I am teaching photography again at school this coming week. This one I found on the way back from my morning walk with the dog. It was warm and melty, and has since refrozen. These little bits of stubble were sticking up through the ice with frost on them and the light worked. I think this is with my macro combo, and just tweaked the highlights to make the snow properly white.

From Photo of the day 2012

Also taken on the return trip this morning with the macro combo. Not sure why this bit of dead plant caught my eye, but I managed to get an angle I found interesting - and the right aperture to get most of it in focus. It has a symmetry of sorts, I suppose. Only increased the highlights a bit here.

From Photo of the day 2012

And this is one I took in the beginning of last November and never got around to posting - some hoar frost on the barbed wire fence in the back field. I was struggling with the available light, so unfortunately the depth of field is a little shallower than I would have liked. I sharpened this one a touch, but that's it. I figured it was a neat enough shot to include as an extra here.