A male Spotted Orbweaver (Neoscona Crucifera) tends to his web at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas, USA.
The last macro challenge I entered a very close-up shot of an adult gator. This year (like last year) I went searching for baby gators to enter in the challenge...............
This challenge came up on my trip to Dallas and knew when I got back I would have a chance to go out and find baby gators 2-3 times, so I was confident I would get to enter a baby gator shot this time.
Well.................
I got sick while in Dallas and only had one chance to get out and look for baby gators. Unfortunately I didn't find any until the sky filled with clouds and the light was gone.
But I was lucky enough to come across a few spiders to photograph and was able to capture this shot. Another reason I was excited about this challenge is I just recently got the Olympus 300mm f4.0 IS Pro and the main reason I got it was for macro (or really close-up). So I was hoping for a good result for this challenge.
I am not completely happy with this shot. Had to shoot at a higher ISO than I wanted, which means I couldn't stop down for more DoF. The spider was moving along the web, so I needed some shutter speed to freeze the action. When he was still, the wind was blowing to much for me to try focus bracketing for more DoF (which is what I really wanted to do).
So...................
This is the entry...........hoping for at least a 6, but afraid it won't get that high.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 49 Avg (all users): 6.9592 Avg (commenters): 8.1250 Avg (participants): 6.8400 Avg (non-participants): 7.0833 Views since voting: 2014 Views during voting: 112 Votes: 49 Comments: 17 Favorites: 0
An excellent image that contributes well to the challenge
A great shot Ronnie, made even better with the quality of the light and the composition. You have done well to include the poor mosquito with the spider it completes the image. As for your self-criticism about DOF I can see your point but it is not a major issue because the rest of it so good. I like the way the light catches the web and the detail of the spider. I am not convinced that this is true macro but the voters here seem to have favoured close up images so well done with your blue.
We don't have orbies like this here. You hurdled your challenges well (especially wind, yuck) and pulled out nice details like the furry legs. I like the warm tones. Congrats!
Thanks for all the votes and comments. Guess I was wrong in how this would do in the challenge, probably because I really wanted to enter a photo of a baby gator........................For anyone curious this was all natural light with no use of reflectors. I also used my TC on this shot, so the effective focal length was 840mm.....................
Said the Spider to the Mosquito
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