Monday, September 3, 2007

Macro: Ready to pounce !



Ready to pounce !

f/16, 1/60s, Nikon D80, Tamron 90mm 1:1 macro

Patience is really a virtue. Remember this post ? Honestly, that wasn't the best spider photo I have ... it was the best I had then, but seriously, perhaps I shouldn't have posted that photo. Not all the comments I got was flattering for that photo, but hey, you learn from constructive criticism.

After many more tries, a lot of frustration, and a few important lessons learnt, I finally caught a spider picture that I think is acceptable.

This spider had been a resident in one of the orchids my dad has kept immaculately. One of the lessons I've learnt is to be really patient with spiders. When I first position my camera gear around the plant, it'll always try to hide. At first, I always got frustrated and tried to hurry my shots - the resulting pictures show my frustration, and add to it.

Nowadays, I setup my gear, then stay still for around 5 minutes, after which, the spider usually returns to its original position. During that 5 minutes, I make all the necessary adjustments so that when spidey returns, I am ready to snap away !

While this photo is satisfying, I'm sure I can still improve ... I realise that the hind legs could be in better focus. In this case, it wasn't in focus because I didn't use a smaller aperture, and also because I wasn't on plane with the spider. I'm sure in time to come, I'll get a really good picture of the spider !

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love how I can see all the lines on its body & all its hair. ;)

Another nice pix, Moz. :)

Applegal said...

I didn't know spiders can be so hairy, eeeeek! XD

inevitable said...

Too bad I have no marco lens. My place is quite new and surrounded by secondary forest. I have been spotting centipede almost everyday... tried using my kitlens but failed miserably...

moz monster said...

jems:
Thanks Jems ! It took a lot of tries - and it still requires a heck of a lot of patience and luck !

applegal:
Yup, it's an angmoh spider !

inevitable:
Bro, a cheap way might be to use a macro filter ! It's a really cheap way to get macro capabilities with your kitlens, but the trade off is that quality is nowhere as good as a real macro lens.

As a rule, macro lenses are the sharpest lens !