Good Morning!
Jun, 2014Views
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Lauraleecobb
October 25, 2015
omygoodness - it's adorable in a spidery kind of way. LOVE!! nicely done
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in a park area in Mocksville, NC. There was a small flower area between the road and parking lot. As I was shooting the flowers at sunrise, I found this little one interested in what I was doing.Time
I got there right after sunrise on a weekend. The park area was still under construction, so was empty.Lighting
This was a natural light photo taken in the early morning. As you can see from the shadows, the light was coming in from an angle and behind. In this case, it just happened that the spider was in a good position to catch the light perfectly. I did not have to fill in with a flash in this particular photo, but there are others that I used a flash to simulate sunlight or to fill in shadows.Equipment
My main equipment is a Canon 70D. I think this photo used a 50 mm 1.8 lens with extension tubes attached. Most of my macro work uses extension tubes on my 55-250 lens. In this case, I switched to the 50 mm as an experiment to see how it worked with the tubes. I would say this was a pretty successful experiment! Generally, when shooting macro I use a tripod or most often a monopod because it is easier to transport and gives just that little extra stability. It is also very easy to reset and move to correspond with the movement of the little creatures I photo.Inspiration
This was a serendipitous meet between me and this little spider. I was playing with my extension tubes on flowers at sunrise and happened to notice the spider seemed interested in what I was doing. As I changed my focus to the spider, it was obviously curious about me as well. I think the curiosity of the spider is captured in this photo. Maybe I should change the name to Curiosity!Editing
Since I shoot exclusively in RAW, I import all my photos into Lightroom to set white balance and do any exposure tweaking. I also do cropping, highlight, black, and shadow adjustments. Then I do a lens correction. Then I move the image to Photoshop where I do a selective sharpening and tweak anything I can see needs done like cloning out distracting elements.In my camera bag
My bag currently contains my 70D, three lenses (55-250, 50, 18-55), one YN 560 II flash, Opteka extension tubes, one handmade light modifier, one Cowboy flash diffuser, a couple of Hoya neutral density filters, a polarizing filter, and cleaning supplies.Feedback
What you need is patience, and an eye trained to pick up on the small creatures that share our world. I spend a lot of time just looking down and trying to see what is going on around me. One of the things I love about macro is that it gives us an insight into a world we often over look. I also spend a lot of time practicing with the extension tubes. Since they allow you to move closer to a subject with a lens, the depth of field is greatly reduced and the focal field is small. There is a learning curve with extension tubes, so give yourself time to become adjusted to how small your field of focus is. This is a good time to put your camera on burst mode and get plenty of shots as any movement will ruin a photo. I will also share two pieces of advice I have gotten from other photographers that I use constantly. 1. Look behind you. You never know what a different view of what you just passed might reveal. Every once in awhile, I turn around and look behind me. 2. No matter how emotionally attached you are to an image, if it is not sharp, delete it. I am brutal when it comes to deleting my own work. When I take macro shot and use burst mode, I can often come home with 50-60 shots. Many times 5-10 survive for editing.
