This time around I thought I would venture outside again and have a go at taking photos of spiders. Now I hate spiders, especially if I go thorough a web and then notice there’s a big one sitting right there above me, like what happened last night. That bastard scared the shits out of me. Anyway, arachnophobia aside I ventured outside to shoot me some spiders.

I think the photos you see here are of the Golden Orb Spider, also called the Golden Silk Orb Weaver. This spider isn’t all that bad looking as it has a fair bit of color in it. Apparently although it’s poisonous it’s not that bad that it would kill you. Something else that’s interesting is the females will usually eat the males. Oh well, at least they won’t have to worry about alimony and supporting the kids.

Naturally I had to use my Manfrotto Tripod so as to make sure there wasn’t any camera shake to spoil the picture. One thing that I’ve found with the macro lens is that like the telephoto it picks up every little camera movement.

Here are some books that you may find useful.

• How to Photograph Insects and Spiders (How to Photograph Series)
• Photographing Nature: A photo workshop from Brooks Institute’s top nature photography instructor
• Closeup Shooting: A Guide to Closeup, Tabletop and Macro Photography
• Close-Up on Insects: A Photographer’s Guide

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I still used a flower as the subject, only this time it was a white rose but the rose also had a member of the insect world present. Yep, there was a bee working the flowers in it’s search for honey. This is when I discovered that photographing insects isn’t as easy as when photographing s a static flower because these little blighters are constantly moving around. What makes it even more difficult was that I discovered I was having troubles focusing on it because I couldn’t stop from swaying.

That was when I wished I had a Davis & Sanford Vista Trailblazer Monopod. Actually any monopod would have done but that one sure sounds nice. Still there’s always a solution to every problem so why not this one? The obvious solution was to use my Manfrotto Tripod. So I extended the legs to the right height but I did not open them so that it in essence became a monopod.

Now, usually I like to take a photo and then check the LCD image to make sure it was focused properly. I found this to be too damn time consuming so instead I just took a whole heap of photos changing the focus ever so slightly, yes I used manual focus as the bee was moving to much for the auto focus to latch onto it. In this manner I was able to take several shots which I was very happy with.

All of these photos were taken with an aperture of F2.8. You can see that each one focuses on a particular part of the bee/rose. This first one shows the frailty of the bees wings. It’s truly a wonder of nature that these delicate wings can carry the weight of this insect and it’s load.

This next one brought the flower into focus as well as the bee’s abdomen. Notice also the clarity of the honey or pollen it’s collecting on it’s leg.

This one gets a nice clear shot of the bee’s head.

And finally I get really good and close to the subject. I really like the way this photo turned out.

Another thing I learned about taking macro photos of bees is that you really need a lot of patience because these guys just don’t like sitting still for you. I’ve yet to take a photo of one in flight, but don’t worry I’ll be sure to show you guys when I do.

One other thing about macro photography is that it introduces you to a whole new world. Take this bee for example, I didn’t realize how fascinating a creature it really was until taking these macro shots. They’re really quite remarkable, but then so are all of God’s creatures.

Books you may find interesting.

• Close-Up and Macro Photography

• The Art of Photographing Nature

• Digital Nature Photography: The Art and the Science

• Understanding Close-up Photography: Creative Close Encounters with or without a Macro Lens

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Although you can do relatively good closeups I wasn’t entirely happy with them because I needed to get closer. After some research I decided the only way to do this was to invest in a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens.

You can only imagine my excitement when the lens came in, I was taking macro shots of almost everything. I did discover though that although the photos looked fine in the camera’s LCD display they weren’t as clear as I would have liked when viewed on the monitor.

Naturally I knew the lens wasn’t at fault, so it had to be something that I was doing that was the problem. As it turns out it all came down to I wasn’t holding the camera steady enough when taking the photos and I couldn’t get a fast enough shutter speed because of the low light level at the time to compensate for any camera movement. The answer of course was to use a tripod.

So, out comes the tripod and I managed a few more shots before I was called away. This is the best of those three.

One other think I noticed was the shallow depth of field which because of the depth of the flower I had to select which part I wanted to be in focus. As you can see you can even pick out the pollen that’s spread out over the petals.

Reckon I could still do better. Maybe what I need is to buy the Introduction to the Canon Rebel T2i / EOS 550D : Basic Controls Training DVD by Blue Crane Digital so that I can see how to get the best out of the camera.

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I reckon it took about 20 different takes before I found a bee who would pose long enough for me to take this particular shot.

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