Jumping spiders munching on midges: part 2

Female zebra jumping spider (Salticus scenicus) on the plastic frame of a window screen feeding on a freshly captured midge. The white background and use of a ring flash produced a nice white-box effect.

In Part 1 of this series I posted some photos I took of jumping spiders feeding on midges they were capturing on my kitchen screen door. Those pictures (see: Jumping spiders munching on midges) were all low in contrast due to the dark colours of the spiders and the black background. However, the textural contrast between the spiders and the window screen helped make the photos more interesting.

But as I was shooting them, I started to think that these spiders would look really cool on a white background, or even better, shot in a white box. So it occurred to me to try putting a piece of white paper on the glass behind the screen. The pictures turned out really nice (see below): I like the higher contrast between the subject and the background; and the light reflected from the paper has brought out a bit more colour in the legs of the spider. In retrospect, however, I should have stopped down the lens to get the midge and the spider in focus. The resolution wouldn’t have been quite so good, but overall the images would have been better. But that just gives me a good excuse to re-shoot these pictures in the near future. As if I needed an excuse…

Jumping spider (Platycryptus californicus) on window screen with a freshly captured midge. The white background was created by placing a sheet of white paper on the glass behind the screen. The photo was taken with an aperture of F11. I should have shot at F22: the resolution wouldn’t have been as good, but the midge would have been in better focus.

While I was shooting these photos I noticed that one midge had landed on the white plastic frame of the screen door. I took the opportunity to photograph the critter and the picture turned out well with the insect nicely set off from the light background. In Part 1 I included a photo of a midge corpse that had been discarded by a spider. I guess these two photos together provide “before” and “after” views of a midge!

Non-biting midge (chironomid) resting on a white plastic window frame just before being pounced on and eaten by a zebra jumping spider.

Within minutes of taking the above photo, a zebra jumping spider (Salticus scenicus) appeared and rapidly stalked and pounced on the midge. The spider proceeded to munch the insect while remaining on the white plastic frame. That’s when I took the final photos of this series, including the one at the top of the page and the two below. I was shooting with a ring flash, so the lighting is very flat. It’s not quite the same as shooting in a white box, but its close as you can see from the first photo on this page and the two below. These are definitely my favourites!

Female zebra jumping spider (Salticus scenicus) on the plastic frame of a window screen feeding on a freshly captured midge.

Unfortunately the midges have stopped landing on the screen at night, so the jumping spiders have moved on. I’m starting to wonder how long it would take the spiders to return if I started placing midges (or maybe some big fat aphids) on the screen. Maybe I’ll give it a try and eventually I’ll be able to post a Part 3 to this series…

Cheers,
EC
The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M5
Lens: Series 1: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: Series 1: manual exposure (F11-22 @ 1/200 sec)
Lighting: Olympus RF-11 ring flash (1/4-1/2 power)
ISO: 200

White box photographs of a Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla): part II

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) on moss

My last post (see White box photographs of a Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) part I) featured classic white box photographs of a Pacific tree frog. By classic, I mean they featured the animal against a featureless white background. Once I was satisfied with those pictures I decided to take another series with the same soft lighting but with a more natural background. So I went out to the garden and brought in a pot of soil in which I have been cultivating a miniature garden of moss. The pot is meant as a hanging basket so it is wide and low—perfect as a backdrop for macro photography. All I had to do was put the pot inside the white box and place the frog in the pot. The rest of the set-up stayed the same.

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) on moss

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) on moss

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) on moss

This second series was much easier to take as the frog appeared more relaxed and secure nestled amongst the moss. And as you can see, the photos turned-out really nice and have a very different “mood” from the photos in my previous post. The white background of the first series really emphasized the bright colours of the frog while these new pictures (which I was tempted to subtitle “Green on Green”) seem to give the frog more personality. I find these photos to be “cuter”. Or maybe it’s just me…

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) on moss

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) on moss

 In any case the combination of white box and pot of moss worked out really well. I’ll definitely use this combination more in the future.

Cheers,
EC

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M5
Lens: Zuiko 12-50mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 zoom
Settings: manual exposure (F11-16 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Vivitar 283 flash and VP-1 Vari-power adapter (1/16 power)
ISO: 200

White box photographs of a Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla): part I

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla)

There are a lot of reasons to love spring of course…but for a photographer of little critters a big reason is that suddenly there are lots of things to photograph!  During the winter it can be a real challenge to find subjects, but when the weather warms up all you have to do some days is walk outside and there is a good chance you’ll find something interesting…

Last weekend I went out to mow the lawn and happened upon this little Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla). I scooped it up to save it from the mower and of course to take the opportunity to take a few photos. I opted to take it into the house and photograph it in a white box. It would have been nice to have photographed it in its natural surroundings, but it wasn’t likely to pose for me after being picked-up—and understandably so. Besides, I thought that the soft lighting of the white box would make for some nice pictures while the box itself would help contain the critter during the shoot.

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla)

 I set-up the white box in the usual way (see How to: white box photography of Macleay’s spectre stick insects) and used my new Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds body.  For a lens I first chose my trusty Zuiko 35mm macro (using the MMF-3 Adapter to attach it to the body) but I found that not only was the auto focus very slow, I also found the viewfinder to be rather dark. I ended-up doing much of the shoot using the Zuiko 12-50mm kit lens instead. Hopefully the viewfinder issue with the 35mm macro won’t be a problem when I am shooting outdoors with brighter ambient light. 

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla)

An addition to my usual white box set-up was a cup of clean rainwater. Amphibians have smooth, soft skin which is permeable to water. Therefore water evaporates rapidly from their skin and a small frog like this one could dry up and die in a relatively short time. The cup of water was there so that I could give it a little swim periodically to keep it hydrated and healthy. I also washed my hands with lots of fresh water to ensure I didn’t have any soap or other potentially dangerous chemicals on my hands that could be absorbed through the frog’s skin.

Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla)

The thing about shooting tree frogs in a studio is that they bounce around a lot…but not like a rubber ball—more like a piece of wet toilet paper. They leap and then stick in place wherever they land. Photographing a tree frog typically goes something like the following:

• Put the frog in place for the photo.
• “Sproing—splat” as it immediately leaps away and lands on the wall.
• Put the frog in place for the photo.
• “Sproing—splat.” Frog is on the wall again.
• Put the frog in place for the photo.
• “Sproing—splat.” Frog is on your face.
• Put the frog in place for the photo.
• “Sproing—splat.” Frog is on the wall again.
• Put the frog in place for the photo.
• “Sproing—splat.” Frog is on the lens.
• Put the frog in the cup of water to rehydrate, and clean the lens.
• Start again and repeat.

In-studio (white box) photograph of a Pacific tree frog as it peers into the camera lens

Eventually if you are persistent and patient the frog will sit in place long enough to get a photo…maybe two…before it jumps again. And that is pretty much how this shoot went. As you can see I did get some nice photos of this little critter. As I expected, the white box did a nice job of lighting the critter, and its colours show up nice and bright against the pure white background.

Once I was satisfied that I had a good series of pictures I decided to try and take another series with a more natural background. Those photos will be the subject of my next post (White box photographs of a Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla): part II).

Stay tuned…
EC

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M5
Lens: Zuiko 12-50mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 zoom and Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F11-16 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Vivitar 283 flash and VP-1 Vari-power adapter (1/16 power)
ISO: 200

Baby (Brachypelma) got a brand new coat

These pictures are of a young Mexican red-kneed tarantula (Brachypelma smithi) that I bought quite some time ago. It was one of a number of critters that I talked about in this post: A scorpion, a white box and 15 minutes.

The spider is about three inches across. When I first got it its colours were drab and some of the urticating hairs on its abdomen were rubbed-off (urticating hairs are irritating bristles that can be kicked off by the tarantula as a defence). I didn’t want to photograph the little beast until it moulted and had a nice bright new and complete skin.

Young Mexican red-kneed tarantula and shed skin shortly after moulting

As I said, I bought this spider to photograph, but it is also an interesting critter. I chose this particular species for several reasons: they are easy to keep in captivity; they are very pretty, and they are docile. Some tarantulas can be very fast, aggressive and/or nervous. I do a lot of my photography on the kitchen table and didn’t want something that would take off and disappear under the fridge the moment I picked-up my camera! Besides, since buying this spider we added two young cats to the household—they would love a young tarantula to play with. Mind you, the cats may have solved the other problem: they keep chasing their toys under the fridge. There might not be room for a tarantula under there anymore.

But I digress…

I photographed the tarantula in the same white box that I have used to take so many of the photos I have posted here (see: How to: white box photography of Macleay’s spectre stick insects). The odd thing is that I wanted a docile spider, but this one is almost too calm! I put it in the white box and it just sat there. It was certainly easy to photograph, but I had to encourage it to change positions. In fact the only time I ever see this spider move quickly is when it is after prey (kind of like me, I rarely move too fast unless there is food involved). Maybe next time I photograph this tarantula I’ll offer it a cricket…

Cheers,
EC

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F14 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: on-camera flash (full power)
ISO: 100

More scorpion pictures: (Orthochirus scrobiculosus negebensis)

I haven’t posted for almost a week and I have been feeling quite guilty about it. I picked-up a nasty virus late last week and haven’t been feeling particularly inspired (or healthy) ever since. But this morning—once I stopped trying to cough-up a lung—I decided to grab my camera and take a few photos.

My subject today is an Israeli pillar tail scorpion (Orthochirus scrobiculosus negebensis). These are very odd little critters, and quite different from “typical” scorpions. They are small, tubby and have a disproportionately huge, fat tail (metosoma) that has a much textured surface. They wave their odd tails over their head in a really distinctive way as they walk around. They are about as cute as a scorpion can get.

I bought a group of these critters last summer. I naturally photographed them shortly thereafter, but I was disappointed in the initial photos and didn’t feel they were good enough to be posted here. I really liked the scorpion pictures that I uploaded in my last post (see A scorpion, a white box and 15 minutes) and so today I thought I’d give this species another shot, so to speak.

There are several challenges to taking really good pictures of these scorpions:

1. They are very small—this specimen is about 2.5cm (1/2 inch) long—and very active. But that describes about 90% of the critters I work with. Photographing tiny, busy critters just requires some extra patience and perseverance.
2. They have two-toned colouration with very dark bodies and very light legs. If the legs are properly exposed then the body looks too dark. But if the body is correctly exposed then the legs are washed out. I found that the best approach was to expose for the body and then darken the legs in Photoshop.
3. They live in a completely dry, sandy environment, so they tend to be covered in a scattering of fine dust. This is the real challenge—it is really difficult to get a nice, clear, sharp photo of a very small, dusty animal.

I was hoping that by now my Orthochirus would be well established and would maybe have cleaned some of the dust off their exoskeletons since my last attempt. Unfortunately, as you can see from these images, this wasn’t the case. This scorpion is still dusty and these photos really aren’t as good as I’d like.

It is so tempting to wash this little beast off in some warm water. But as I said above, they come from a very dry environment—they don’t even have a water dish in their enclosures. I’m afraid that immersion in water, even for a short time, would stress the animal badly or even worse, cause it harm. But I sure would like to get some nice photos of these fascinating animals and it’s hard to imagine that a quick dip would hurt. But I am hesitant…I might just have to be satisfied with these photos—at least until one of my Orthochirus moults and sheds the dust along with its old exoskeleton.

Cheers,
EC 

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F16 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Vivitar 283 flash and VP-1 Vari-power adapter (1/4 power)
ISO: 100

A scorpion, a white box and 15 minutes

A couple of posts ago (see Photographing down the food web: silkworms) I was lamenting the lack of critters available to me to photograph at this time of the year. I (half) jokingly suggested that I would need to turn to earthworms and “feeders” like crickets. Well I am happy to say that the problem has been resolved—for the time being at least—by an influx of new specimens to my household. Last week I took possession of 19 new “pets” including three new species of scorpions, two species of tarantulas, and one centipede. One might jump to the conclusion that I used the dearth of photographic subjects as an excuse to buy some interesting critters (and one would be right). Most of these critters are still really small—five of the tarantulas are only about ¼ of an inch across. But all of the spiderlings and scorplings will grow and will end-up in front of my camera at some point.

The other problem I have had lately is a lack of time to spend on photography. Between work, chasing kids and getting ready for Christmas, I just haven’t had much spare time. Plus I have been trying to work on construction of a macro stand for more (and better) photo stacking (see). Last night I finally managed to find a whole 15 minutes to do a shoot, so I quickly set-up my white box and took these pictures of one of my new critters: a lovely adult female desert hairy scorpion (Hadrurus arizonensis).

I knew the moment that I saw this scorpion that she would look great when photographed in a white box. Fifteen minutes isn’t a long time, but I have used the white box set-up enough over the past couple of months that I have all the kinks worked out. Plus, desert hairys are typically pretty calm, and this one is no exception; so it wasn’t difficult to keep her under control while taking pictures.

Speaking of the photos, they show pretty clearly why this species is called the desert “hairy.” Apparently the brown hairs that are so prominent on this species are used to detect vibration in the substrate.

This isn’t the first time I have featured this species on this blog. Way back in June (see A tail of two scorpions) I posted a scanned version of a photo I took of one of these scorpions more than 20 years ago. There is no comparison of course; these photos are so much better it’s almost embarrassing…not bad for 15 minutes!

You can expect to see more photos of this nice beast in the future. At the very least I need to take some more pictures with a natural background.

Cheers,
EC

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F16 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Vivitar 283 flash and VP-1 Vari-power adapter (1/8 power)
ISO: 100

Photographing down the food web: silkworms (Bombyx mori)

Back in 1998 a group of scientists published a paper in Science that discussed how humans were “fishing down the food web” by first catching all of the big predatory fish on top of the food web, then smaller and smaller species until we end up targeting the small fish and invertebrates that were originally undesired (see Pauly D, Christensen V, Dalsgaard J, Froese R and Torres F (1998) Fishing down marine food webs Science, 279: 860-863).

I kind of feel like I’m in a similar situation—I’m in the process of photographing my way down the pet trade food web. The cold wet weather typical of Vancouver at this time of year has negated any opportunity to go out and take pictures in the field. So I have started to haunt pet shops looking for interesting small critters to photograph. But cool specimens of creepy-crawlies are pretty few and far between. I have had to resort to shooting feeder animals like the tobacco hornworms that were the subject of three separate blogs in recent weeks. Today’s blog is about silkworms—the caterpillars of the domestic silkmoth (Bombyx mori). I found these critters for sale in the same pet shop that I bought the tobacco hornworms in—and yes, they sell them as live pet food.

White box photograph of a silkworm (Bombyx mori)

Silkworms are at least exotic (to me at least), and are a pretty interesting species from both cultural and biological points of view. This is a species of insect that is completely dependent on humans for its survival. They do not occur naturally in the wild. The silkworm was domesticated from the wild silkmoth (Bombyx mandarina) which is found in parts of India, China, Korea, Japan and Russia. Silkworm culture for the production of silk has been around for more than 5,000 years. Somewhere along the line, if I understand correctly, captive breeding of the wild silkmoth gave rise to a new species. I find that fascinating.As you can see from the photos above, these are quite attractive critters with pleasant markings and skin that looks like it is about 2 sizes too large for their body. Like most caterpillars, they are just nonstop eating machines—and that is pretty much all they do.

I photographed several specimens using the same white box and technique that I have referred-to in a number of posts (see How to: white box photography of Macleay’s spectre stick insects). Despite their light colour, they show up nicely against the white background. I got a number of nice images of the caterpillars just roaming around the white box floor.

I also took a number of pictures of the silkworms crawling on branches stuck in a jar of sand placed inside the white box. I shot these photos with a grey background, which worked out nicely, as you can see from the photos below.

White box photograph of a silkworm (Bombyx mori) crawling on a branch

Close-upside view of the head of a silkworm (Bombyx mori)

So what’s my next blog going to be about? I honestly don’t know. In my last blog I joked (sort of) about photographing earthworms. The scary thing is that it is still only November—I still have months of cold weather to kill before I can get back out in the field again. Tobacco hornworms and silkworms are actually really interesting. But pretty soon I’ll be photographing crickets and mealworms. What happens when I run out of feeder critters to photograph?

At this rate by the New Year I’ll be posting pictures of dog kibble and jars of fish food..!

Cheers,
EC

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F16 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Vivitar 283 flash and VP-1 Vari-power adapter (1/8 power)
ISO: 100