Lynx Spider-Black Wasp Prey

[ChasMcRae]

Picture post capture of wasp in bed of red Impatiens. Using Nikon equipment and probably last group of images with Kodachrome 25. The lens was the 180mm close up Nikon and a favorite I hated to give up when I switched to Canon.

Lynx spiders fairly common in flower beds although go unnoticed. This time of year should be reaching a respectable size and the green color is outstanding. This picture is cropped to eliminate dead space on bottom.

Chas. Mc Rae

[Mike Moats]

Hey Chas, very cool capture, and the details and colors are excellent. I would have commented that it would have been nice to have the extra space at the bottom so the subjects were leading into the frame but with the silk coming out of its hind end I think it adds a nice touch and needs to be included.

[Robert O'Toole]

Chas,

The colors are great, details and the pose with prey all great and captured on K25!

Agree with Mike on the space and the silk.

Which lens are you referring too? A Nikon 180? is it one of the medical lenses, I dont know of a Nikon 180mm macro, Canon made an FD180 and Nikon a 200 Micro.

Robert

[ChasMcRae]

Been around Canon too long--yes you are right -my Canon closeup is a 180mm and my Nikon was a 200mm-again a terrific lens and would recommend it to modern Nikon shooters. It was lightweight,simple and best of all had a retractable lens hood along with good optics. Lack of auto focus was a plus in this type of lens to me.

My first crop included more space but image falls off to solid black with a few very bright twigs in this and just too lazy to tackle that .
Thanks for comments and I continue to learn. It seems like I knew everything when I received my last degree, but I was wrong and life has been a learning experience.

[Lana Hays]

Charles
My first impression was....wow, what colors. That got my attention....then I started concentrating on the action. It's really cool to have the single thread of silk. I can figure out the composition on birds but I'm often at a loss with the macro work. I like this one as is but see Mike's point. Well done.

[ChasMcRae]

I didn't discuss the silk line but I should have. The flower was vertical and the silk is a "lifeline" attached to the top of flower allowing the spider to stay in control as it tackled its prey.

We have been taught to always have room in front of the subject so it "goes" into the picture. There are reasons to break this rule and one is to have a feature behind the subject balancing the picture. The best example of this I ever saw was a pic by Ms(can not remember her first name) Gerlach of a bright Ruddy Duck positioned way to the right in frame. It was balanced by a very strong wake in the left side of the pic.

[Julie Kenward]

It's an intense photo, Charles! Love the color and action that's going on. Would suggest you clean up the lighter spot on the bottom right corner - just needs a quick clone.

Well done!