Peeka-Boo...

Day 38

I do apologize to those who have arachnophobia. However, as much as I dislike these critters, they have been put here just as we have.

Tonight I was sort of stumped for ideas. I thought I would do a macro photo of the dog's nose, however, being the ever-so-agreeable model that she is, she cowered away and shivered under the table once I stuck my ring flash modifier on the camera. I must say, my "ring flash" knock off is pretty ugly, but it is NOT scary. Except to Orbis, the company that made the real one :) See, the "real" Orbis RingFlash costs $250 here in Oz. I think I got this one for $30AUD in Hong Kong. It's a Q-Flash ring flash. I pulled it apart, shoved some foil in it, cut the cardboard a bit, and put it back together. Now I have a Macro "Ring Flash" for $220 less than an Orbis. I might take a pic of it one day...

Anyways, so after Jilly decided she would cower under the table, I had to find something else to shoot. I had just finished glass one of cheap red wine, and I was sort of floating, yet somehow tripping over things.. if you know the feeling. You know those days when 1 glass of wine just slaps you like 3 shots of tequila? No? Trust me. It happens. :)

Anyway, so in my infinite wisdom and wine induced dutch courage, I walked barefoot into the garden to shoot flowers. Of course every blade of grass that touched my foot made me scream inside like a little kiddy, thinking a big bad hairy spidey was on my foot.. and then I saw them.. spideys.. curled up as snug as a bug in a rug, in their little leafy lairs. I always wondered how these creatures manage to fold and curl a leaf so neatly to make their homes... Anyway, I continued bare foot into spidey zone, knowing full well I was being stupid.. going barefoot. But you know the feeling, when you know what you are doing is stupid, and you know that it is highly likely you are going to get hurt/bitten/burnt/zapped/impaled or even worse, caught... yet you still do it? Oh, you grew out of that? Ok.. ooops. Anyway, here I am, barefoot in the garden, at 9pm at night, with a Mini-Mag-Lite in one hand, and the camera with a badly fitting fake/modified ring-flash in the other hand, trying to photograph spiders in the dark... to make it more fun, these guys have to be about 2cm (less than 1 inch) from the end of the lens to be in focus. And they move. Fast. And they have no patience for a yobbo with a torch and big fat camera chasing them around their web.

The resulting image was shot at iso100, f/7.1, 1/200s with an EF35mm f/2 with 31mm extension tube behind the lens. On camera was a YN 460II set at 1/8 power (I think) in the ringflash thingy. I used Live view, aided by the torch.

To show you just how much "life" we don't see... check the pic below, with a blow up of the middle of hte frame. Had me giggling, I can assure you :)