I appreciate the comments and agree with you (the centered/off-center thing was the first thing I thought of when I saw it). This was a manual focus lens and I'm not terribly experienced at handheld macros so I was kind of using the centerpoint AF assist "beep" but shooting wide open there is SUCH a narrow band of DOF that this was my main concern (that and getting the shot before the skitterish beast jumped away).
I do think that the centered-ness is somewhat offset by the overall "weight" of the composition being off-center. The leaves at the left and the nothingness to the right sort of helps with it not seeming static/symmetrical, doesn't it? Or maybe I'm just wishful thinking. : ) The other thing that I liked about it was the natural warm golden hour light. So many macros are (by necessity) taken with flash (mostly from overhead) and so look sort of textbook/similar to me. I plan on making an overhead flash rig, but I think the lesson from this shot is to perhaps warm it up a bit with gels. Of course, that can also be done in post-processing, but my philosophy is to spend less time in post if you know what you want and can get it in the camera. One other observation... with jumpy subjects the stopdown metering (mirror slap) can be enough to get them to take off so better to meter and lock exposure while farther away and then creep in taking shots as you get closer and closer. Other's techniques are invited/welcome as I'm just learning. Darren Addy Kearney, Nebraska -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
