the garden .spider (pt. i)

I have a thing for/with spiders.

Autumn is the time when these beauties appear to be most active. I had a dad-son day today, with mom being out of the house, and I promised I’d take him for a photoshoot. I’ve long since tried to teach him that “bugs” are good (with the exception of mosquitos and silverfish, they’re just a nuisance), and so whenever he sees a bug, he’s happy to point it out to me.

Macro photography

Today I slapped on the macro and the ring flash and I gave him our little compact camera and off we went. I shot along the way. He shot along the way, and he started to get frustrated, because he didn’t get good pictures, and I did.
It was unfair.

I made a point that it’s a matter of practice, which I have had for approximately 40 years now.
And he had for approximately one day. And not entirely unimportant, that I had a dedicated camera, and he had a compact snapshooter.
He then asked if he could try with mine. I hung it around his neck and told him to hold on tight, while I shot a few with the compact camera. I showed him what the main reason was, why he didn’t get good pictures. When pressing the shutter, he pressed the whole camera down, not just the shutter.

Practice makes perfect

He understood, and went on to practice with the compact, after admitting that my camera may be a bit too heavy for him still. It was lovely to see him try so hard to keep the camera level while pressing the shutter.
He did end up with a few nice pictures. Maybe he’ll get to like it as much as I do.

The image below is the result of a 5-image manual focus stack.

This may not be for everyone, but imagine this on large format as a canvas on your wall… How awesome would that be?

Contact me if you’re interested. From prints on canvas to kappa board to giclée or archival art paper. Nearly everything is possible. Check a selection of my arachnid and insect images here.