The Jump

[Vida van der Walt]

I eventually managed to get a jumping spider in the air during a jump. After hundreds of empty frames and a couple of oof shots this is the best result I could manage.:)
Canon 5D Mark11
MP E 65mm; MT 24EX
cropped, shrp, nr, levels, warmed the green in the bg and reduced the size of the flash highlights in the eyes.

[Vida van der Walt]

Sorry, forgot to mention the shot info.:o apert f16; ss 1/200; iso 400. Also wanted to ask if I should remove the leaf.:)

[Stu Bowie]

Vida, wishing you all the very best for 2010, and may you share many wonderful images from your macro world with us. This is simply incredible. Its hard enough capturing a fast flying bird in the frame, but to do the same with a mini creature, and with limited DOF, big congrats here.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Vida, congrats on this image.
I can understand how difficult it is to capture mid-air insects & especially a jumping spider !
Regarding the leaf, I prefer to keep it in the frame which provides a 'landing base'. Also that, without the leaf, this might look like a spider hanging on some thin web strand (i.e. not providing much of the jumping effect).

[Vida van der Walt]

Thank you Stu and Kaushik. Your comments are greatly appreciated. I know that it is not 100% perfect but must admit that I was very happy when I eventually got the shot.:)

[Peter Farrell]

This is amazing, and well worth your effort. Good sharpness and detail. Great BG. I like the in focus portion of the leaf in the LLC as the landing zone. I'm not sure about the dark oof rear leg. Did you try the image without it?
Peter

[Vida van der Walt]

Hi Peter. Thank you very much for the great feedback. It will look beter without that rear leg but I can't get myself to remove a part of the spider (perhaps I'm a bit of a purist or maybe just plain silly ;):)).

[Peter Farrell]

Hi Peter. Thank you very much for the great feedback. It will look beter without that rear leg but I can't get myself to remove a part of the spider (perhaps I'm a bit of a purist or maybe just plain silly ;):)).

I fully understand and agree with you. I also really don't like messing with mother nature.
( Imeant LRC, not LLC)
Peter

[Allen Sparks]

Amazing capture. I just don't understand how you could have caught this. great work. Love how the spider has its legs flattened out ready to land.

[Julie Kenward]

Vida, I'm just stunned. I can't believe you even attempted this! Of course, in a perfect world, you would have had the front legs in focus, too but dang, girl...awesome image! You must have the patience of a saint.

[Vida van der Walt]

Hi Allen and Jules. Your comments are highly appreciated.:) Jules, I know and I wish.:) Allen, here follows my experiment which I gladly share : I caught the little jumping spider, placed it on a twig with all the leaves removed except the top one. I placed another twig (also with a leaf on the top end) facing the first twig and used a big green leaf as a back drop. The jumping spider mostly jumped towards the facing leaf where upon landing, I held my hand in front of it for it to jump onto so that I could return it to the first leaf for another jump and chance to get the shot. It helps if you are not afraid of jumping spiders and find them very cute like I do. Sometimes the little spider thought jumping on my lens was a better idea but it mostly aimed for the second leaf. After all its hard work I returned the little cutie safely to my garden. I tried this shot a couple of times in the garden but there is just too many possible directions the spider can jump in and very often something that obscures and hinders a clear shot. This experiment with a caught subject improved my chances of getting the shot. It still needed a lot of patience but I just had to see if it was possible.:)

[Charles Wesley]

Vida,

Nice work on a difficult assignment. Stephen Dalton became famous with this sort of photography in the 70's.
Like the leaf as a reference source. You have wonderful color and contrast in your image.

Thanks for sharing...
____________________
Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL

[Ken Childs]

Vida, this is truly amazing!
We have lots of these cuties around here but I never ever considered trying to photograph one while it was jumping. They are so fast that it just seems impossible! I guess that capturing a jumping spider while it's jumping makes sense.

Now I have to try. I don't expect to be successful but I have to try. :)

[Christopher Miller]

Wow!!! I'm amazed that you were able to do this, Vida! Well done! :) Thanks for the detailed explanation of what you did.

[Vida van der Walt]

Thank you Charles, Ken and Christopher. Highly appreciated.:) Ken, I hope you get that shot. It is worth the effort.:)

[Don Lacy]

Wonderful image Vida that took a lot of skill.

[Vida van der Walt]

Hi Don. Thank you very much for the great feedback.:)

[Morkel Erasmus]

you do continue to stun with these shots...lovely action and thanks for sharing the method!

[Vida van der Walt]

Hi Morkel. Thank you for the great comment.:)