Millipede on white plate

[BillTyler]

I found this millipede walking across the floor in my garage, brought it inside, and photographed it.

Canon 5D2
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens
1/200 f/22, ISO 250
Lit with Canon 580EXii flash overhead in a Lumiquest softbox.

[Jonathan Ashton]

You are braver than me Bill from what I remember some of these critters are poisonous aren't they?:bugeyed:
I think you have caught a superb pose and the focus is excellent. This must have been a very tricky subject and you have done exceptionally well. My only criticism is that I find it slightly large in the frame.

[BillTyler]

Thanks. Generally, millipedes are nonvenomous. Centipedes can be venomous in varying degrees. The crop has to do with eliminating background elements. I suppose I could try adding canvas.

Bill

[Mitch Haimov]

Cool image, Bill. I like the pose. A little tight for me left and bottom (I'm okay with cutting some of the farther-back portion of the subject off in this composition, but not so crazy about cutting the in-focus foreground legs). Any other comps with an unobstructed eye or two?

[BillTyler]

I have one or two shots with the eye showing more fully, but the pose isn't similar. This photograph was made on a white plate. I'd put the millipede near the middle. It would coil up each time it was handled, then, a few seconds later, start walking as fast as it could go towards the edge of the plate. I had a few seconds each time to try a photograph. The crop was determined by the edge of the plate. The legs cut off by the edge of the crop would be cut off just a tiny bit longer if I included the edge of the plate, but the plate edge makes a distracting horizontal line. I'm attaching an uncropped version of the same image for comparison.

[Mitch Haimov]

Okay, the crop of the OP is clearly superior on three sides, but I do think you went a little too tight on the left. Still a cool image.