The wife, Vickie and I recently had a front row seat for a real life drama. One evening, Vic called me down to the basement and said, "Bring your camera." I love it when she talks like that. She says the sweetest things.
We got to watch a spider take down a stink bug. This was cool. I must have spent 45 minutes sitting on the basement floor watching this. Took like a hundred shots.
We saw the whole thing from almost the beginning. The spider spent a good bit of time hovering in the web above the stink bug. Waiting it out...
It was pretty cool. Have you ever seen a huge spider like in the Hobbit? When they wrap up the victim? It was great, we could see the arms wrapping and twirling around. Just like in the movie. Shelob couldn't have done it better.
A close up. She is so cute!!
I think it was a she. It actually looked like she was laying eggs in the bug.
The right tools for the job were the secret to shooting this.
I use a Tamron 90mm macro lens. It gets up real close and captures a great image. That is actually the easy part. Even though I had a lamp trained on the spot, I still needed a consistent light source. I have a ring light for my macro lens. This is huge!!
I will eventually go over the techie details but for now just he highlights. This ring light is a rather cool flash for up close work. It is a flash that goes around the end of the lens and casts a very nice even light. It even meters the scene so that it delivers just the right amount of light. Only what is needed. An it was only like a $75 flash. Incredible.
Another view of our diva.
It is amazing, if you keep your eyes open, there is always something to shoot.
It is part of developing an eye for light. Keep shooting.
Don.