I just use the Olympus C5050z in super macro mode, screen flipped out to
make a waist level type viewfinder, and let auto focus do its thing. The
pictures are all handheld, but I usually try to hold the camera in a way
that I can either stick out a finger of the left hand so it is braced
against the ground, or whatever, or so my elbow is against something. Shoot
lots, and discard 95%. I've tried several add-on close-up filters, reversed
lens, etc., usually with poorer results.
I shoot bees in full sunny days, because they are busy and don't bother me
when they're busy, even if you are constantly disturbing them causing them
to move on to the next flower. The trick is in full sun, to stand so your
body is shading them and hopefully any background. Grasshoppers and spiders
will often allow you to approach within a couple inches, which is about as
close as this camera focuses, when your main body and face are back further,
hence the C5050.
None of these pictures are resized (if I remember correctly), so when you
look at them in original size you get some idea of how heavily cropped they
are. Fine for the screen. But the bugs are really small, the grasshoppers
being the largest by quite a bit.
For a black widow spider, you need a wide angle lens and a corn broom.
Apply the broom first, firmly! Then take the picture.
Wayne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Crawford" <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 6:24 AM
Subject: [OM] Re: hanging on
> Those bug photos are cool. How do you get so close? The only bugs I have
> ever been able to photograph up close have been butterflies...they don't
> seem as skittish around people as spiders, bees, and grasshoppers. There's
> a
> Black Widow Spider who has taken up residence in my girlfriend's backyard
> storage shed. She wants it killed. I want to take a photo of it to sjow my
> son, he thinks spiders are cool. He's in Indiana on the other side of the
> country from me and he missed the black widow when he spent part of the
> summer with me...she moved in about a week after he went home :(
>
>
> --
> Chris Crawford
> Photography & Graphic Design
> Santa Fe, New Mexico
>
> http://www.chriscrawfordphoto.com
>
> http://blog.chriscrawfordphoto.com My latest work!
>
> http://www.plumpatrin.com Something the world NEEDS.
>
>
>
> On 9/3/07 7:32 PM, "Wayne Culberson" <waynecul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hanging on
>>
>> http://pastway.smugmug.com/gallery/3413302#191308523
>>
>>
>>
>> Shape
>>
>> http://pastway.smugmug.com/gallery/3413302#191322186
>>
>>
>> Wayne
>>
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