First photo here

[wlou]

Breakfast!

[The Blue Boy]

A handsome critter and no mistake!

[Donald]

A handsome critter and no mistake!

Could someone get this man checked out!

Louise - good on you for getting your first image up onto CiC. I'm not a macro photographer and have an appreciation but little understanding of the particular challenges involved. You certainly seem to nailed the focus and exposure very well.

[wlou]

Thank you for your comments Donald. Some are afraid of bugs, I like them. This particular spider does not catch his pray with a net, rather lies in wait for it, on my blueberry bush. So as the sun rose, he had his breakfast! I do enjoy the morning...light.

[Geoff F]

Hello Louise.

If that spider was in the UK it would be called Misumena vatia, and a female too. I didn't realise you had them in Canada; although it may be another closely related species. The ones I see in my garden are mostly white or yellow, but they can change colour slightly to suit the background.

It is amazing how this species can catch prey bigger than itself.

For photographing them, I usually manually focus on the eyes; using a tripod of course. And a macro lens.

[wlou]

Hello Geoff,
I do not know the name of my spider, I will try to find out and get back to you. I also did not know it had eyes until I saw the picture on my computor screen. To give you an idea of the scale, a bluberry is usually just bigger than a green pea, so the flower bud is much smaller than that and she is sitting on what will be a petal.
Thank you for your interest.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Great shot!

[wlou]

Hey, I checked, looks like a crab spider also called Misumena vatia. And they adapt their colour to their surrendings. Cool!

[Geoff F]

The males are a bit smaller and a different colour.



This one, from my UK garden has a fly in it's mouth, and there is a discarded body from a previous meal lying nearby.

I just couldn't get a perfect camera angle on this one.

[wlou]

Hello,
good to see a fellow who likes the littles critters as much as I do, kind of rare nowaday.

[Rob Douglas]

Great work! Excellent use of the rule of thirds. The lighting is beautiful with a nice sharp focus on the spider and a soft background. Also congratulations on your first image here (and it showing up lol)

[wlou]

Hello Rob,
thank you for the generous comment.I do feel shy to show my pictures, I may be my worst critique. When I started taking pictures, not so long ago, I was cropping them to my taste, square, long rectangles etc. Then I had one everyone commented on so I went to have it printed and discovered it did not fit the paper, not filled the entired page, I was left with a while border on the left and right side only? That is when I learned that the pictures we see in magazines, on the net, etc. do not respect a ratio for printing on paper. I pay more attention now.

[Rob Douglas]

I use Elco Color Labs and submit my images threw there online system. Cool thing with that is if I do a custom crop I can get it printed that way but if I go with a standard ratio it will show a frame of the size I choose showing me what it will be cropped to. I can also adjust that frame to where I want it to control what gets cropped off.

[Rob Douglas]

Then I had one everyone commented on so I went to have it printed and discovered it did not fit the paper, not filled the entired page, I was left with a while border on the left and right side only?

In that case you can always trim the white off the edge of the image and then have it custom framed. It might cost a few extra bucks over an off the shelf frame but worth it IMO if that is the way you want it. Plus you will have a broader choice of frame types to suit your image perfectly that way.

[Ashley]

What an amazing photograph! I have to ask. How long did you search before finding this little critter?

[wlou]

Hello Ashley,
well it was a surprise as it happens often in macro photography(to me anyway). I have only one blueberry bush that I bought and planted myself. I was intent on taking the picture of my lovely crop, starting with the flowerbuds and progressing with fruits etc. Its only a few feets from my back door, no one sees me in early morning, approching carefully, jugging distances, hight(hum, lows actually, only a foot or so tall), trying to find the best angle on this wild beast, catching the best light, a hint of dew, and then when I had it in perfect focus(that usually takes some time)WOW, there is mouvement, omg, there it is, a spider and she has a fly. . I had great fun, I took many pictures as she played with her catch, placing it in the best position to eat it. Hey, not too discusting I hope.
Everyone always say that in macro one has to be very fast because the bugs mouve fast, well that one lives on her host and was not about to let go of her breakfast.

[Geoff F]

I had great fun, I took many pictures as she played with her catch, placing it in the best position to eat it.

OK, prepare for the gory stuff.

Spiders do not, eat their prey in the literal sense. After injecting it with venom they suck out the juices and discard the drained 'shell'.

That is why they keep moving the position of their prey to access the juicer parts.

Spiders are a good subject for anyone wishing to learn macro insect photography because, as Louise said, they tend to stay still for much of the time so, unless you scare them, there is plenty of 'thinking time' to ensure you get everything correct.

Some flies, etc are a greater problem and that is where you need to be quick.

[Glenn NK]

Hello,
good to see a fellow who likes the little critters as much as I do, kind of rare nowaday.

Louise

Check your PM box.

Glenn