Spider wasp with prey

[Jerry van Dijk]

Still going through some old images. This one is from the summer in 2012. These lugubrious ladies have been living under my window frame for a few years now. They hunt for spiders in my garden, which they then carry to their nests. They lay their eggs on the spider, which is a big food source for the larvae once they hatch. Apparently, the spiders are incapacitated by a quick sting from the wasp, but I've never actually see them do it.
The IQ suffers a bit from the underexposure at the time of capture in combination with high ISO levels. I had to bin most of the images I captured, but thought this one could stay.
Nikon D7000, 200mm Micro, handheld, ISO-800, f/9, 1/400 sec. ACR/CS6, exposure, s/h, sharpened, NR, considerable crop.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A very informative image, exposure looks fine but the quality is just not quite there. I agree though it is a keeper.:S3:

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jerry. A very cool behavioral image! And a difficult image to capture - usually these wasps are down on the ground moving too rapidly to photograph well. Nice job of getting most of both individuals within your DOF. With better IQ this would be over the top, but as you note, underexposure, high ISO, and the heavy crop had you at a disadvantage. :S3:

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks Jonathan and Steve. They do move around quickly (hence the high ISO), but I think this one was struggling with the size of the spider it caught. It took its time to try and make the best of it before entering the nest. The species I suspect this is usually bites of the legs of the spiders it catches to make them better transportable. Pretty nasty stuff if you realize that the spider is still alive at that time (as it is when the larvea hatch and start to eat it).
I saw them again this summer, so they seem to have taken permanent residence :S3:. I might get another chance next year to work on that IQ.

[Anita Bower]

I like this action shot. The photograph and your description are fascinating. I'm not a bug person, so all this is new to me. The position of the wasp is excellent for showing what is going on, as well as what the wasp looks like.
Have you ever used Topaz Detail? I ran the image through TD, then Topaz Denoise. A bit more detail was brought out. I wonder if it would work better on the full resolution image. I also cleaned up a bit of the dirt.

[MiroslavMaric]

Great behavioral image and well done PP job Anita!

Cheers,
Miro

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks everyone! Anita, your repost is excellent! I would surely think that with the original image the results would have been even better. Inwas actually looking through some reviews of similar software before I saw your post! There seems to be so much out there that I'm a bit lost.

[Anita Bower]

Thanks everyone! Anita, your repost is excellent! I would surely think that with the original image the results would have been even better. Inwas actually looking through some reviews of similar software before I saw your post! There seems to be so much out there that I'm a bit lost.
Glad you like the repost. It can be overwhelming to sort out software. Most allow a 15 or 30 day free trial period, which I find helpful to see if I'm going to like the product. Good luck.