Some new macro images

[morgoth]

Hi guys,

As some of you from the Libranet forums will know, I'm a photographer on the side, these days specialising in the world of insects known as macro photography. Here's a few of my latest images:

http://david.dia.net.au/potn/flies/F79C2118_cropped.jpg

http://david.dia.net.au/potn/flies/F79C2553.jpg

http://david.dia.net.au/potn/crab_spiders/F79C1471_cropped.jpg

http://david.dia.net.au/potn/spiders/F79C2009.jpg

http://david.dia.net.au/potn/ants/F79C2395_cropped.jpg

And my favourite - A female jumping spider! These are incredibly cute, highly intelligent and as bold as brass. They're non poisonous to humans as well (at least every species in Australia other than a single one in Queensland).

http://david.dia.net.au/potn/jumping_spiders/F79C2919_cropped.jpg

Hope you enjoy. I haven't marked these images as copyrighted (yet), If you want to save the images to your hard drive, go for it, just please don't redistribute on the net without asking myself first.

Cheers,

Dave

[fos]

As a science teacher and an advanced photographer, I'm impressed!!!!

Incredible photography. Thank goodness I have a dsl line and a very large high resolution monitor.

Do you mind if I capture them and share them with my classes next semester?

fos....

[morgoth]

fos - you most certainly can use them - free of royalty payments, etc etc. Enjoy. Note that on both fly images you can see the ocelli (primative eyes) as well as the compound eyes. Note the 8 eyes of the Crab Spider (the first spider image) and their arrangement for maximum vision. Crab Spiders are excellent hunters, with excellent camouflage. This one appears to be a female, judging by the palps and her overall size. I suspect that it is Diaea Variabilis, as per Koch, 1875's classification. The 2nd spider I'm not sure of the species, could be some sort of tree spider at a rough guess. You can see it in the image, but it was actually hiding under a rough cocoon of silk. The Ant shot is what I think is a Green ant (not to be confused with the green tree ant). This is 1:1 and heavily cropped, so image quality isn't the best. If I had a Cano mpe-65 lens (capable of 1x-5x) and a ring flash I'd be ok and would be able to get far more detail, especially of the eye. Oh well, I make do with what I have.

The last shot is my favourite, this was a particularly shy Jumping Spider - I suspect that it is a female Opisthoncus Necator, as per Keyserling, 1881's classification. I had to really try and persuade her to come out of her hiding place. Unlike other jumpers, she wouldn't come onto my finger :( In this image, she was basically telling me to bugger off.

I did manage to capture two other Jumping Spiders doing a mating dance a few months back, but the quality of the images were pretty average. They have a lovely mating dance that's just incredibly to see. I mainly shoot spiders and flies these days, as they're usually the easiest to find, and the easiest to shoot. I got my first fly blowing a bubble last weekend, and also my first jumping spider with a kill (same jumping spider actually). I also managed to get my first hoverfly today, although it's only of its back end (very very nervous). I'm yet to catch any flies or other insects/arachnids mating, but I'm sure that'll happen. I have managed to capture two ladybirds at it a few months ago ;)

I'm glad you enjoyed the images. What sort of photography do you do? And what sort of gear (how can you ever avoid geartalk lol).

Cheers,

Dave

[fos]

Thank you very much Dave.

My department chairman will most certainly like them. I will be sure you get proper credit and notation whenever I show them off. You shoud have a good future in photography.

fos....

[morgoth]

I'm still very much a beginner, especially with macro insect photography. Here's one from today, sadly, didn't get one from front on in this session, only one from above, which usually aren't very flattering on the insect. Did get one from front on late this afternoon, but haven't processed it yet.

http://www.dia.net.au/david/potn/spiders/F79C2984.jpg

Dave

[fos]

Very nice, you are talented.

I attended a digital microscope workshop a couple of years ago. I was enthralled watching a hydra capture and ingest a daphnia. After it was over, I found that I had forgotten to click the "save" button on the computer. A series of sequence shots or a video would have been nice to have.

I hope you find a career to utilize your talent.

fos....

[morgoth]

Thanks for the very kind words, not too sure about the very talented part. I've worked hard and practiced an awful lot to get to the level of macro photography that I've reached. Even then, my "keepers" are only around 25% or so (which is quite normal actually). I'm very lucky to have been given lots of encouragement and tips and advice on macro shooting by my fellow p.o.t.n macro forum members. I've taken nearly 3000 shots in 5 months with my 1D, and as they say, practice makes perfect. Photography is a side hobby for me, I do not believe that I am good enough to sell images and make a living from it, especially in a niche area such as Insect macrophotography. So, usual day job for me!

Cheers,

Dave

PS images won't load at the moment cos our Frontpage web server is being moved about by the network admin, should settle down in a few days and images should display again.

[xmixahlx]

sounds (looks!) like a real fun hobby :)

one question tho - what's the reason it isn't called MICRO photography? anyone?

...and do you have any red/orange dragonfly pics? <-- my favorite insect

(OK so two questions... ;) )


later,
mike

[deanlinkous]

it isnt called micro because that would be for MICROscopic stuff.... so macro seems the obvious choice. (i say smugly with my straight poker face showing)

:D Yea, I always thought it was a bad term as well

maybe photomacrography

[Lavene]

I guess since there is a term that is 'photomicroscopi', (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photomicroscopy) which is photographing through a microscope it would be confusing to have 'microphoto' too...??

Or maybe 'macro' is not as small as 'micro'? Might call for an interesting conversation:
- "Hey, look at this microscopic insect!"
- "That's not microscopic... it's merly macroscopic."

:lol:

Tina

[xmixahlx]

well...

micro = small
macro = big

i'd think that the word "macro" would be hard to attribute to a picture of an insect...

wikipedia-ing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_photography

appears that they use the term macro to mean 1:1 size ratio or larger - "image on film or electronic sensor is as large or larger than the subject"

...so my initial confusion as to how you would attribute "macro" to something small is exactly why they do that! lol!


learn something new every day i guess

[morgoth]

Wow!

OK - technically, Macro is anything from 1:1 (ie. life size) to 5:1 (ie 5 times life size). Anything above 5:1 is deemed to be microphotography. We have a few guys on our Macro forums using a very specialised Macro lens - the Canon MPE-65, that is capable of 5:1. I can modify my setup to hit around 4:1 if I really wanted to, but it's a pain in the ass. Very low lighting, making it difficult to focus, any body shake at all is heavily magnified, etc make it a very specialised way of getting shots. Sticking to 1:1 or 1.4:1 (depending on which macro combo I use) gives me reasonably good shots of most insects.

Sadly, I have no shots of dragonflies or damselflies - yet. Hoping to catch some of them over the next six months as we head into Spring/Summer. I still need to catch images of (these are personal goals):

Dragonfly
Damselfly
Dragonfly flying/hovering
Damsefly flying/hovering
Dragonflies mating
Damselfies mating
Flies mating
More true bugs
Hoverfly
Hoverfly whilst hovering
Bee whilst hovering/flying

Dave