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Aug, 2013Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this, lying on the floor in my parents house, trying to take a macro shot of a spider who had crawled into the room. I was playing a game of chance with this guy, and I don't know what I would have done if he'd made a dart for my face!!Time
It was daylight anyways. I can't remember exactly what time of day it was, but it was bright out. You usually don't see these guys until late at night, so I guess it was a bit of luck that he was on the prowl.Lighting
All natural lighting. I use macro extension tubes, which requires a lot of light or a very steady hand. This was a brightly-lit front room, so I tried to lower the shutter speed as much as I could without sacrificing light.Equipment
Shot on a handheld Canon 550D with some cheap ol' macro extension tubes and a good ol' nifty fifty lens. The macro tubes are cheap but can sometimes give you some great shots. I'm a big fan of creating something different because of limitations. These tubes teamed with a prime lens mean that you have to manually move yourself to the exact focal distance to get the shot. I was initially trying to get a decent shot of his face when I noticed that this focal distance was far more interesting - it's far more menacing to only get a sneak of the monster that lurks in the bokeh!Inspiration
This was taken all the way back in 2013, when I was shooting a Project 365. The purpose was to throw myself in the deep end and learn as much as I could about the operation of the camera and up my Photoshop and Lightroom skills, while pushing myself to a daily creative deadline. It was exhausting, but worked so well and I'm thrilled I did a full year. I had been playing a lot of the indie video game "Limbo", where you play a child stuck in Limbo, running through the shadows being chased by a giant spider. The spider in Limbo is terrifying and sometimes you only see a leg, or a silhouette, which makes him seem even scarier. When I was messing with the focal distances while trying to get this macro shot of the spider, it immediately brought the spider in this game to mind, so I tried to capture him in the same sort of menacing, shadow/silhouette/noir look.Editing
The original shot is in colour and I desaturated and messed with the tones in Lightroom, but besides that, very minimal post work. Mostly just changing to black and white to create that "noir" look.In my camera bag
I always have my Canon 550D, my 50mm 1.8 (nifty fifty) and my wide-angle Tokina 11-16 F2.8 lenses. I'd tend to carry around one of my GoPros too and these days my Mavic Pro, but that'd be more for video work than photography. Sadly, my phone tends to get most of my pictures these days. I'm a big believer in using what you have to create something, and if that creates limitations, then use those limitations to create something unique. But at the same time, it's nice to have your DSLR, GoPro and drone on your back to give you lots of options to get really creative!Feedback
When you see something you want to take a shot of, stop for a second and think to yourself: "Is this in any way unique, or is it just another shot that will get lost in the mass of shots just like it?" If it is, then try and find a unique and new way to take the shot. I could have taken a normal macro shot of this dude's face up close, but instead I managed to get this cool, menacing shot of a scary monster.
