on Return to Macro

And so I came back to the genre that interests me the most.

On a gloomy sunday, I went about seeking jumping spiders. My usual shooting areas were either wet from the rain the previous night or flattened by my neighbors to make parking areas. It was a bummer but then again, the intrepid soul in me went seeking new grounds to shoot. And by doing so, I found new critters too. For this shoot, I used a stacked setup with my 90mm macro and a reversed 50mm. The reproduction ratio of my setup is about 2:1.Shot with one on-cam flash with an omnibounce diffuser.

I got about 10 keepers and here are the 3 best photos from that session.

Hover Fly (Baccha Clavata)

Weaver Ant (Oecophylla Smaragdina)

Jumping Spider (Salticidae)

I spent around two hours shooting near our house. I discovered some new sites that clearly have potential as my macro field. I'm happy that I found the time to go back to shooting macro photography. There is that certain satisfaction in shooting what you love best. And time flies when you are enjoying what you do.

on A Jumper's Story

It's been my mantra that one photo will make my day. But I have always been asked how long it takes me to get that one photo. I don't really know how long it takes me. There are times I get it in the first few clicks or on the last out takes.

For macro photography, I usually spend an hour or more shooting. There are times I shoot over five hundred frames to get around ten keepers; and ten keepers is already a very good haul. Sometimes I shoot until it gets dark, my batteries run out or my memory cards are full.

And there are times when I just sit in the shade observing as insects go about there daily lives. Sometimes I forget that I have to shoot these insects. And there are times that I focus on one subject for hours that I get to construct stories with my shots; that is when I'm lucky that they'd cooperate and I'd get my shots in focus.

Here is one of those times when I got to see a Jumping Spider decide when it would jump to another leaf. This three shot sequence was taken from about 50 consecutive shots (with more than half out of focus because the leaf was swaying with the wind) where the Jumping Spider measures its jump and decides when to go for it. It jumped a distance of probably a foot with a another foot of drop.

You think I should go for it?

It looks so high from here... but what the heck... I have a bungee cord.

I'm ALIVE!!!

Shooting macro stories like these make me appreciate this field a little more. Being there and observing how these little critters go about their business makes me think a lot about my life and how even briefest of moments can make an impact. I think I'll shoot more of this kind of photo stories in the coming months.

on Insect Portraits and Shooting Flowers

I've never been any good at shooting plants and flowers. Well, I'm really not good at anything that isn't moving.

The only time flowers interest me is when I see an insect land on it. And on a recent shoot while I was out looking for Lynx Spiders, I found this bee hovering on a white flower. I had to crouch down to get the bee to eye level and to my surprise it didn't even seem to mind me at all. It was just doing its own thing while I took a few shots before it flew to the next flower.

One thing to note is that lately I have been trying to make sure I at least get one front facing (portrait) shot of whatever insect. I credit is as the reason why I have been so interested in macro photography lately. I don't know why, but front facing shots make me happy. For me, it's just like taking a picture of a person; the only difference is that I can't ask an insect to look at the camera. Probably the challenge of taking that type of shot is what makes me want to take more.

on Shooting Macro Wide Open

The only limit to your creativity is your imagination....

I have come to accept that in the world of photography there is no sacred rule. Mastering rules and concepts is a must; but that's just the tip of the iceberg. After attaining the basic skill comes breaking rules. The real skill set comes when you find your own way of breaking rules to show off your creativity.

I'd like to highlight landscape photography (which is admittedly one of my waterloo) a field where the basic rules are rigidly applied. You shoot at f8 to f16 on wide angle lenses, apply the rule of thirds, properly expose the foreground and background and all the other stuff. But no one ever said that you cannot shoot at wide apertures or with telephoto lenses. It's how you use what you have that makes things interesting.

And no one ever said you can't shoot macro photography wide open...

I know that in macro photography, depth of field is important. You really want as much of your subject in focus and shooting wide open will give you very little depth of field. But that shallow DOF can be used in many ways to highlight certain parts of your subject; that is where creativity comes in.

Here is an ant looking fierce with only its jaws in focus.

And a cool black true bug coming out of the hazy background.

This little green fly looks nice with only its eyes in focus.

You don't need that much DOF when you shoot parallel to your plane of focus as seen in this photo of the green fly. I still had enough details to make the photo look nice even when shooting wide open

I have to admit that shooting macro wide open is very hard. But when you get it right, you will surely be proud of it. This is what I always say to those who ask me about ideal setups, settings or whatever: maximize your gear and creativity. The most important part of photography is the thought process.

on Black Saturday Hunchback Fly Sighting

I had nothing to do today because it is Black Saturday and decided to go look for macro subjects again. I was disappointed to see that the neighbor flattened my usual macro hunting grounds to have a parking lot. Technically the land doesn't belong to them but they decided to use it anyways. My macro search area shrunk by a couple of square meters.

Anyways, I found some aphids and beetles but I got drawn into shooting another hunchback fly. It is only the second time I found this sort of fly. It maybe slow moving but it is definitely hard to spot as it doesn't really move much. What I learned is to go look for unusual black spots in flowers as this fly feeds on nectar and is a pollinator. I got two photos before sunset.

Front Profile

Side Profile

Technical Notes: Shot with Tamron 90mm F2.5 Macro 1:2 plus 55mm extension tube.

on Damsels and Valentines

Since it is Valentine's Day... I'll be blogging about damsels. Well, its not girls but the gentle insect called a Damselfly.

I used to find these creatures in our front yard but they have been really scarce this past few years. These insects are predators and eat smaller insects they pluck out of leaves or in the surface of a pond. We used to pit them against each other to see who would yank off the head head of the other first. But even though they are predators, they are quite fragile. If you hold on to the wings too long, they be crumpled and would leave the damselfly grounded. I miss seeing all the different colors and sizes of these insects which really reminds me a lot about my childhood days playing near swamps.

 

Oh, and I have to mention that damselflies belong to the same family as dragonflies. Like their bigger cousins, they are born as in an aquatic environment and only become terrestrial when in adult form. That is why the are most often found near bodies of water. I wish next time I can find a damselfly couple mating.

Anyhow, I'll blog more next time about this. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

on the Year of the Dragon...fly.

Kiong Hee Huat Chai!!!

In this side of the world, we are celebrating the Chinese New Year. It is a holiday here and I am glad I found some time off from work and my (amazingly) busy photography sideline to write another blog. I do hope that this year bring me good fortunes in photography.

And as it is the Year of the Water Dragon, I have been hunting down water born dragons... errrr... Dragonflies.

I was lucky that I did not have to go far to find a dragonfly. It was about four and a half inches long and green. I got only two snaps of it but I am happy I got close to one. I wish I could shoot more dragonflies but they are such a rarity here in our village these days. Next time I'll go looking for a red or blue dragonfly.

Again Happy Chinese New Year to all!

on Spider Sunday

One reason why I love macro: I can find subjects wherever there are plants.

Last Sunday, after our annual reunion, I decided to go looking for new subjects to shoot. And I was lucky when I found four different arachnids in a hedge in front of our ancestral home. I didn't waste the opportunity to add to my growing collection of Jumping Spiders and Orb Weavers. And it was a good test for my new gear.

I found an orb weaver spinning its web at dusk and I waited until it finished as I could not track its movement as it made the web from the middle outwards. After it finished, the weaver left the web and rested on an orchid root and that's when I got this photo.

I call this Jumping spider a ghost as it has semi transparent legs which blend into the leaves. I was lucky to spot it moving from one leaf to another but it was hard to take a photo as it seemed to be aware of my presence and reacted every time I pointed the camera at it. I took the photo of it on the underside of a leaf.

This next Jumping Spider is quite small and was nicely camouflaged in the tree bark. It is about five millimeters and is quite hard to spot. What I like about this one is that it has blue legs and bronze hair.

For the last photo, I found this on an orchid. Among all the Jumping Spiders I have seen, this is quite unique because it is the only one I have observed to have some sort of a web where it lies and waits. It didn't move a leg when I was shooting as if it wanted to simply hide in plain sight.

I hope someone identifies these arachnids for me. I really wish to learn more about them and I am hoping I would find more of them the next time I visit.

On Spiders and Flies

Here I am again, stuck in the office. But I am glad I have new insect macro shots to blog about.

First is the common Striped Lynx Spider (Oxyopes salticus). It has thorns on its legs, eyes on top of its head (probably to see horizontally when they are in a vertical orientation) and a rather painful (but not poisonous) bite. I see a lot these Lynx spiders in our garden but this is the first time I took a photograph of it feeding. Curiously, it doesn't wrap its prey in silk and drag it away to some dark corner to consume; I found this one on an exposed leaf. And I can say this is a female because that the pedipalps are quite small.

Second is a Jumping Spider (Salticidae). This is one of the most common spiders. Scientists say that among spiders, they are the most intelligent. This one is orange, and is a bit smaller than the common ones. I found it under leaf. I can't tell you much aside from the fact that it was the most behaved Jumping Spider I have found so far as it did not move while I was shooting.

Lastly, I found this curious looking fly. It is a Hunchback Fly (Acroceridae Toxophora). And upon doing research, it is a parasite that lives inside spiders where it develops into the mature fly that you see. It flies really slowly, I think partly because of its unusual shape.