Well the previous message shows what can happen when the electricity goes out while posting to the blog. Anyway, inspired by Adam's pretty flower I decided to upload a macro shot of my own. Pentax K100D, Vivitar Series 1 105mm f/2.8 1:1 macro (shot at f/19... Damien liked this lens!) helped by a AF540FGZ flash. This little spider kept bounding up and down in front of my monitor the other day, like some sort of arachnid yo-yo. In the background is the O'Reilly book "sed&awk"; perhaps the spider was undecided whether to make the jump to linux?
7 comments:
Just to add, the preview picture looks terrible. The "full size" one isn't quite so bad, though I had to fiddle to get something that would upload half-decently. I guess the blog tends to re-encode one's jpegs at a lower quality!
Hi Colin,
I am sick and tired of bloody macro photos of bloody insects. Having said that, what I like about this one is that it's in its natural habitat - but not amongst greenery. I also like the fact that I can see sufficient of the O'Reilly book to recognise it :)
I don't do macro photography, but a lot of what I do is differential focus photography - an in-focus subject and a recognisably-blurred background. That's the kind of thing you've done here. And I like the idea, and the colours. What I think you need to do is to think more about how the background relates to the foreground. So the subject's the spider, and we're making it more interesting to have the pink book cover and the text behind. Fine. But that heavy black stripe across the middle of the shot distracts from all of that. You want your eye to alight first on the spider, and then to parse the background. What's actually happening is that your eye zig-zags between the spider, the black line and the text.
I'd almost be tempted to extend the grey down to meet the pink and see if that improves the shot. There'll be people who'll say that having the subject in the middle of the image isn't a good idea, but try this first.
Also, I don't think it looks as bad when it's small as you think it does, but you're right - viewing it larger definitely helps.
Cheers,
Gareth
Hi! Thanks for the comments. I was in fact trying to get shots where the "sed" (or awk) dominated the background more, but sadly it was difficult with a moving subject at such close range. This ended up being one of the better shots, nonetheless, and had the added benefit of clearly seeing the web he was spinning.
Interestingly the black line is a shadow where the sed book met with the glossy cover of another booklet, operating instructions for my friend's paint sprayer. That did not show up clearly owing to the reflection. It wasn't intended to be part of the picture, but the spider was hanging from it. All in all, a rather tricky shot.
A shame you don't care for macro shots, that lens is probably my favourite. I rather like seeing the hidden detail contained in common objects (including insects and flowers). Nature's hidden beauty, perhaps that's the science nerd in me coming out. :)
I'm glad you do like differential focusing, though; I'm fond of that as well. I probably overuse it, as you will likely see when I post more :)
--Colin
Hi Colin,
I'm just teasing a bit about the macros. Ivan and I see a lot of macro shots of insects at Camera Club which always seem to do well. While they're very technically accomplished, we both feel that they're not very creative, and roll our eyes when another one appears.
It would be great to see even more creative shots with your macro lens so take no notice of me and please keep 'em coming!
G
I'd like to see creative macro work, and I like the funky pink background to this shot. Makes a change from the usual green blurred backdrop of such shots!
Keep 'em coming.
Ivan
Colin,
Excellent that you joined us!!!
I like this shot too. It does look better if you look at a larger image of it, as here the spider looks like its out of focus. But I think you have something interesting here, raised by Gareth and Ivan. Taking a different approach to macro photos...incorporating the environment of the spider. Nice. Love the pink and white by the way...
Damian
Hi colin,
i do like this but i beg to differ from the other in I don't like the pink background as I think it makes the shot a little cluttered. i really like the way you captured 'a momnet' with the insect hanging there.
I look for ward to seeing more macro!
all the best
Adam
Post a Comment