Andy Murray's talk on
'Collembola and Other Critters' (
see Zoom Eyes blog) has resulted in many hours looking at his photos and following other leads for enthusiasts of macro photography. YouTube has several videos on techniques and although most of the technical details are for SLR cameras, there's plenty of tips for my point and shoot camera. I've started using flash more often - sometimes it works and I get much better pics, other times it burns out my subject. I need to get the camera so close to the tiny critter that it blocks the light out - but I'm having so much fun that these are small impediments even if I'm deleting 90% of the photos I take.
One of the videos I watched was
'An Introduction to Macro Photography' by
Thomas Shahan - not only were his photos spectacular but his philosophy and respect for the natural world struck a chord with me. What an inspiration! Compare one of his photos of an
Orchard Spider with this pic that I took yesterday...
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| I had fun trying to get this chappie in focus - if only he stayed still for a bit! |
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| The only close-up that wasn't completely blurred :) |
If I've remembered correctly, Thomas said in his video that he used a 'Pentax K200D with a 50mm lens reversed to the end of extension tubes and a single flash popped through a paper towel'. I went looking at camera gear and found some waterproof point and shoot cameras with LED ring lights, manual focus and 'digital microscope' functions but maybe by the time I retire there will be a reasonably-priced waterproof SLR available.
My camera doesn't focus well on white/light coloured objects - this afternoon I sloshed around my boundary track and found some white fungi on a manuka branch near one of my traps. On closer inspection I could see small orange patches and suspected they were critters of some kind. They definitely were something interesting but the photos aren't sharp despite trying a variety of angles.
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| Lots of rain overnight |
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| Looking down at my gumboots half-submerged in the 'moat' around my section |
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| White fungus growing on a manuka branch |
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| Would love to get a sharp photo of these critters |
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This is the best but still not clear enough to see exactly what they are -
I'll have to go back tomorrow! |
It was worth checking the traps - 2 females, one a large ship rat and the other a kiore, both caught with Nutella bait. I'm hoping for some dry weather tomorrow so I can clean and rebait the traps.
I've got such a buzz from looking at Thomas and Andy's photos and realising that I'll never run out of things to photograph; even if you are living in a small townhouse there's always critters somewhere. Grab your camera and start a blog!!
