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View Full Version : Scorpion, The Empty Quarter



David Steele
01-21-2008, 10:41 AM
Of the various species of scorpions that occur in the UAE, the small yellow Buthacus yotvatensis nigroaculeatus is the most poisonous. This example - my first image posted on BPN - was photographed on a dune in The Empty Quarter, the largest sand desert in the world.

Camera: Canon 1Ds Mk II, 1/400 sec, f5.6, ISO 400 mm.
Lens: Canon Macro EF 100 mm 1:2.8.

Bernie Kasper
01-21-2008, 01:29 PM
This is really nice David, I love how you captured the tracks following the subject, did you try this as a horizontal ? I looked at it horizontally and imho it really strengthens the image :)

D. Robert Franz
01-21-2008, 05:21 PM
I like this image alot. The tracks are great.....

John Cooper
01-21-2008, 08:29 PM
The Scorpion's foot-prints and the drag of the tail really makes this image work for me. i think it works in both vertical and horizontal formats, but placing the insect diagonally in a horizontal format would also work very well!!

Robert Amoruso
01-22-2008, 08:54 AM
John has a good suggestion on the horizontal framing and placing the scorpion and tracks diagonally. Diagonals are strong composition elements. This is one cool looking image and if you have room in the original can do all kinds of compositions.

David Steele
01-22-2008, 10:22 AM
Thanks for your valuable comments. Despite the poor early morning light, this was a great opportunity for me and I shot this scorpion from several angles - including horizontally, diagonally and from a lower angle. But the scorpion was actually climbing the dune (which you can't see in this image) and I guess that's why I chose this one. Perhaps I'll submit a different image of it some time in the future. . . .

Mike Moats
01-22-2008, 06:56 PM
Hey David, love the image. The tracks really make this image stand out. Well done, I like the idea of a horizontal format with the diagonal comp.

Terry Eddington
01-22-2008, 08:18 PM
The positives have pretty much been hit so I'll simply add that I like it, I like the idea of going horizontal and, if it had been me I might have cocked the camera at an angle to make the dominant line a more diagonal.

Manos Papadomanolakis
01-25-2008, 02:51 AM
Great shot,I Iove the colors!!

Bob Reimer
01-25-2008, 02:57 PM
Nice environmental image, David! The tracks are great!!

I'm wondering if this is the same thing. I'm a member of the Al Ain Chapter of the Emirates Natural History Group. One of our members, a hydrologist, brought this back from Umm Zamul late last year. Since the entomologist in our group had recently been given an up-to-date key for scorpions, we were going to try to key it out before we sent the pictures off to a scorpion expert but we haven't had time yet. I certainly wouldn't describe this specimen as small :) but it does look a lot like yours.

If you're in the Al Ain area, get in touch ... I avoid Dubai if I can ;)

David Steele
01-26-2008, 09:12 AM
Bob, although your specimen is concertinaed, it looks as though it's the same species . . . even though it's bigger than any I've seen. Difficult to tell from a dead specimen though. They are very common in the area where we camp and this calls for some caution. We found eight in different places in our camp site the morning I photographed this one, some of them quite small. A favourite place of theirs is under the ground sheets of tents. Have also seen them at night and guess they are nocturnal. Strangely, for such a common species, I haven't been able to find a common name. We must get together some time. I love Al Ain.