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While shooting some shots this weekend, I found two flies ‘getting to know’ each other. The following shots tell a little story. Please note that these images may be inappropriate for some maggots.
If anyone knows the species for these flies, I would appreciate an ID.
This weekend one of my friends was nice enough to let me use his 40D to take pictures during several Halloween parties. Saturday and Sunday mornings, I decided to get a few macro pictures in, as the current estimates say I won’t have the 5D Mark II until the end of the month.
I took this shot of a very patient fly, though I was a bit heartbroken that it took off just after this and I might have been able to get the shot off. Still, I don’t think this one is so bad.
Several weeks ago I found this moth on the side of our shed.
Moths are especially difficult to identify, and I’m not exactly sure that I know what it is. None of my insect books had it, but that is the case for the majority of moths I come across.
Luckily, I came across this resource on the moths of the Pacific Northwest! After thumbing through it a bit, I believe I finally know what type of moth it is. And the drum roll…
Not too much too say today, so I thought I would post a few creepy crawly shots. I hope at least one of these grosses you out a bit, because otherwise I’m not doing my job. 
I took all of these about two months ago shortly before shooting a house for Nelya. She didn’t mind too much that I showed up quite dirty from my previous shoot.
OK, I have to admit that this book is not for everyone. Who should read this book? Hmmm… Well, if you’re not interested in carpenter ants, you can skip this review.
I happen to find carpenter ants quite interesting and one species of them – Camponotus Modoc, is very common around here. Therefore, when I saw Carpenter Ants Of The United States And Canada
Last weekend I had a chance in the morning to get out and take some photos. I found some interesting bugs, some of which I will blog about at later dates. After a bit of time I found an interesting moth on the side of my shed. Perhaps unfairly to the moth, I had an ill feeling about it from growing up in upstate New York where gypsy moths devastated quite a few trees.
Still, I used the opportunity to get a number of shots of it. It clearly was on its last legs as it was no longer able to fly – just crawl around. I debated a bit about what to do with it when I noticed a spider web with on orb weaver spider next to our house. Naturally, you can guess what my idea was.
Recently I have been thinking a bit about combining shots to achieve a greater depth of field. When I noticed that some of the shots I took today of a spider with its prey were similar but had different parts in focus, I decided to give it a try. The following is the end result.
![](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3200/2834732758_78ca9973cf_o.jpg" width="533" height="800" alt="spider_composite" /></a>)
Continue for more on how I did this.
This weekend we took quick runs through two of Seattle’s sights. First, we decided to spend some time at Discovery Park. This park is well known for a remote beach that contains lots of interesting marine life when the tides are down. To get there, you need to either walk a few miles, take a shuttle, or drive there. With small kids, walking was not an option and the shuttle wasn’t running that day. In order to drive there you need a permit, of which there are a limited number. The administrator was nice enough to give us a pass for an hour when we should have reserved one beforehand. We spent the hour looking for crabs under rocks.
![](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3017/2628292622_4d78fcd356_o.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="Purple shore crab" /></a>)
For a long time, I felt that buying a monitor calibrator was something that I should do, but it wasn’t crucial. When I made my recent decision to focus more on print photography than on stock, I decided that it was now necessary to get a monitor calibrator. I decided to go with the Spyder 3 Elite
When I first installed it I received an error – spyder3.cpp 297 65550 (0×10004). I am currently running Windows Vista 64 bit and I figured they probably didn’t test against that. However their web site states that it is compatible, so I downloaded the 3.0.4 version of the software (3.0.1 is in the box) and I still had some problems. Then I realized that the older version was still running, so I made sure that I was running the new version and the error went away. I then had problems getting the suction cup to stay but like the software says if you wet the suction cup slightly it sticks much better. Finally, the software had a hard time recognizing the device. To fix this, I just unplugged the USB cable and plugged it back in and then it recognized it.
After all that, the monitor calibrator did make a difference with my monitor. The before and after shots definitely showed and improvement. More important, I opened a shot that I created before I calibrated my monitor and I fixed it.
Today while looking through some of my recent pictures I came across this portrait I took of a harvestman.
![](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/2591352485_e661f55823_o.jpg" width="800" height="533" alt="Harvestman portrait" /></a>)
I spent not too much time improving this shot from the original. Mainly, I just strengthened the shadows, increased the contrast, removed some dust spots and used the burn tool around the right eye. I took a number of shots of this harvestman but I think I like this one the best. I like how the harvestman is positioned diagonally in the shot on the balance of light and shadows. I also like how its two front legs go towards the viewer – almost like it is grabbing you.
What do you think? How would you improve this shot?