Venusta Orchard Spider

I know not many people like to look at spiders and insects, but what amazes me are the beautiful colors. When we look at them with our eyes, all we see is a black tiny creepy crawler. As you can see by looking closely with a macro lens the colors are amazing.

I am especially proud of this shot. I've been trying to capture one of these spiders for over ten years. The Florida sun is too strong and these cunning little spiders (less than 1/4 inch) seem to always build their webs in the sunlight. I had to come to CT to find one that was not in the bright sun. I still want to capture one in Florida because I can't stand it if I can't do something, but I'm happy with this one for now.

Crab-like Spiny Orb Weaver

This Crab-like Spiny Orb Weaver is one of my favorite spiders to photograph. I like their smiley faces on their backs and their colors.

These spiders are fairly common in this part of Florida. I can see them on most any days in my backyard; which is where I spotted this one. They're pretty small, only about 3/8" in diameter, but their webs are distinct, so they're easy to spot. They can be found in woodland edges and shrubby gardens and their favorite food is small insects.

Settings used for making this image are as follows: ISO 400, partial metering off the spider in aperture priority mode; 1/250 at F10 for greater depth of field and +1 2/3 exposure compensation because he was backlit against the sky and I wanted to retain detail in his head. I used fill flash at -2 exposure compensation to keep the whites from blowing out and I used my Tamron F2.8 90mm macro lens. This was shot hand held; but I recommend using a tripod whenever shooting macro shots. In this case, this spider was quite a bit over my head, so a tripod wasn't practical.

Paper Wasp

This image was made at my regular Monday Night meetup. While photographing Monarch caterpillars, I noticed this Paper Wasp on this Butterfly Weed bush. He appears to be eating aphids or some kind of larvae.

This bush is covered with aphids, caterpillars, eggs and various sorts of minute creatures that can't be easily seen with the naked eye.

Even with the wind by the water, I managed to hand hold my 90mm macro lens in one hand while holding onto the stem of the bush to keep it still with the other hand. It was no easy feat, but I got the job done. I'm pretty proud of myself for that one. :)

Paper Wasps are much more tolerant of people and minor disturbances than are hornets and yellow jackets, which means they're less apt to sting according to the Audubon Field Guide to Insects and Spiders. All I know is I was pretty close to this guy, and he completely ignored me.

Settings used for this image ISO 400 to help get a fast shutter speed and to stop any movement, flash to get more light on the insect, and also to arrest movement, aperture priority, partial metering on the wasp, 1/250 at F9 for better depth of field--especially with a macro lens at 90mm.

Honey Bee on Shephards Needle

Lately it's been really busy at work and between that and running 3 photo clubs and trying to get a wedding business started, I haven't had much time to go out shooting. Actually, I haven't had much time for anything.

One good thing is that I can always find subject matter in my own back yard. I spotted this Honey Bee hanging on for dear life trying to sip this nectar. They seem to prefer the nectar of yellow flowers. At least that's how it seems to me. I usually can find bees around yellow or white flowers with yellow stamen. It just might be my imagination, but that's the way I see it; and I've photographed lots of them.

I have to keep my distance when I'm photographing bees and most insects because I'm deathly allergic to their stings. Due to the allergy, I have to shoot them with a fairly long lens so I don't get too close. Sometimes, the lens has enough magnification to keep the photo full frame, rather than having to crop in to get close.

This one was shot at about 1:00 in the afternoon. Tricky light, most of the time, but it was pretty cloudy and I got lucky that I didn't have more of an exposure latitude problem. The settings used for this photo was a shutter speed of 1/1000 to stop movement at F5.6 to sufficiently blur the background at 0 eV (exposure compensation). I used an ISO of 400 to guarantee that I'd have a fast enough shutter speed with partial metering at 250mm with my 55-250mm lens. As it stands, I didn't have to crop it. I was lucky enough to be able to get a close enough focus by shooting at an angle from up above him.