CalevPhoto

The Mighty Mite

I remember as a (slightly abnormal) kid collecting firecracker packs having a pack called ‘Mighty Mite’.  At the time, it never really occurred to me what a ‘mite’ was – I just collected the pack.

It isn’t difficult to find mites whenever taking macro shots.  They are everywhere and you really just have to turn over a leaf that is decaying on the ground to find one.  Photographing one, though.  Well that’s a different story.

Complicating getting a good photo of one of these little buggers are two things.

1) They are extremely small.  The shot above was taken at 5x – and even then I cropped it.

2) They move rather quickly and do not sit still

About a week ago, though, after not finding much anything else to photograph that day, I decided to take my chances.

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The Mystery of the Six Legged Spider

This weekend I took a brief opportunity to look at what I could find outside.  The weather has been cold here and we recently got over a snowstorm, so I wasn’t too optimistic.  In addition, it started raining soon after I got out so I didn’t have much time to take any pictures.

I did manage to find this tiny spider though on my kids’ slide.

This spider was incredibly tiny – requiring 5x magnification from my MP-E 65 to get this shot.  After downloading the shot, I looked through some of my books to attempt to get an ID – but after some investigation I can 100% say I have no idea what type of spider this is.

When my wife looked at the picture, she picked out an obvious mystery.  It only has six legs.

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A successful weekend

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.

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Harvestman portrait

Today while looking through some of my recent pictures I came across this portrait I took of a harvestman.

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?