Very cool shots. Those are beautiful, jewel-like arachnids. Who knew spiders could be so gorgeous?
Cheers, frank On 12 June, 2015 5:48:51 PM EDT, Igor PDML-StR <pdml...@komkon.org> wrote: > > >Thanks to all who commented, Alan, Toine, Dan, Eric, Mark, Brian! > >Eric, - to answer your question: I used Pentax D-FA 100/2.8 Macro Lens >(the older version, not WR). > >I tried a few different settings. >The area was in a shade of a tree and a shed, but depending on the >direction there was some bright areas in the background. >So, I tried without a flash. But then, I used the built-in flash (I was > >too lazy to go back to the house for the external one). >I was trying to close down the aperture, to increas the DOF. >These two shots were done with the flash, - hence some catch lights. >1/180 f/10 ISO 400 >1/160 f/4.5 ISO 1600 (I forgot to dial it down when I turned on the >flash). > >Some photos were taken with the hand-held camera, and then I brought a >tripod. Besides the breeze, one of the challenges was the awkard height > >of the spider: >I couldn't take the picture while standing straight, and it was too far > >in a full squat. So, I had to semi-squat, semi-bend, and shoot up from >below (to get the correct angle). >That is a position in which it was hard to stabilize yourself. The >tripod >helped somewhat. > > >I also tried to do stacking, - but I don't think it worked (because of >the >breeze). I might take a look at one series if/when I have time for >that. > >Igor > > >On Thu, 11 Jun 2015, Igor PDML-StR wrote: > >> >> Warning: not for people with arachnophobia. >> >> Today, I saw a very unusual spider. It is called "spiny orb weaver", >but it >> looks like a stormtrooper: >> http://42graphy.org/misc/2015-06-10-spider/ >> The second photo shows the unusually colorful butt (and you might be >able to >> see even the tiny thread coming from it to about 7:30) >> The formal classification name is Gasteracantha cancriformis >> http://goo.gl/5a3ui1 >> Apparently, these species are frequent in this part of the country. >> >> It was hard to photograph this creature because of the light breeze >that was >> sufficient to move the web in and out of focus but insufficient to >prevent me >> from sweating in the over-90F heat. >> >> All comments are welcome. >> >> Igor >> >> -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. -- 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.
